Here is a story I hear repeated several times a year.  “Leftover Candidates Are ‘found money’ and I failed to see the value until I started doing splits.” 

One of our member recruiters recently completed a retained search for a General Manager position that was fairly intense and rather lengthy. In the end, the ideal candidate accepted, resigned his old job, and when his boss asked, "Would you consider staying if I threw a great deal of money at you?" the candidate declined the counter-offer.  In this case it was both fortunate and planned because the recruiter had already prepared his candidate on the realities of counter-offers.  A happy ending is rarely the outcome from just good fortune alone. 

But then came what I hear referred to as the icing on the cake, or in this case, “found money.”

The recruiter received a call from a split placement partner looking for a Director of Manufacturing Operations. That recruiter would be the first to admit, that when buried in work they can be slow to react to a call for help.  Even when intentions are good, it is not easy to be responsive when it comes to qualifying candidates for a split fee affiliate. But sometimes the call just comes at the right time and this was one of those situations.  The recruiter had some excellent pre-qualified candidates from the recently completed long and successful retained search. Candidates had been extensively interviewed by the recruiter and some by the client.  All candidates had been screened for a sincere interested in the next career opportunity. Candidates were current, fresh, and they did not have resumes on every job board.  Many were at the proper level for the new assignment.

The recruiter called back his split partner within 10 minutes and shortly thereafter forwarded 8 candidates using the same send-outs used for the client. The partner gave a rather surprised and speedy return call to introduce himself and just make sure it was not a dream.  He forwarded the candidates to his client and within days interviews were happening. 

Within two weeks, a pair of finalists was identified and an offer was extended.  The first offer made was accepted. The split placement partner looked like a super star in the eyes of his client.  For the recruiter with the candidates, it was “found money”!

How many times do recruiters complete a search and have excellent candidates loaded to a database only to languish without use for months or years? These are often candidates that do not want to be shared in a public database, but they want to be notified of outstanding opportunities. Do you have secondary opportunities for these candidates?  Can you get them out on a next interview within a few weeks?  Maybe you need to expand your business to include split fee affiliates who work a similar specialty? You have already done the work to qualify the candidates for a previously active search. Now a small investment in effort, you might be able to place these same candidates through a split.  That is "found money"!