As part of our research and analysis for the 2014 North American Staffing and Recruiting Trends Report, “A Numbers Game,” we surveyed 1,337 recruiting agency professionals to determine benchmarks for key metrics such as hit rate, fill rate, total number of placements and more. However, the most popular benchmark request from our customers and peers in the industry was undoubtedly for salary information. We compiled our expanded research to create “Money Talks: The 2014 Compensation Report.” In this analysis we examined total compensation (defined as annual salary plus bonus) across firm sizes, roles, industries, and other variables.
We asked respondents about their expectations for 2014, how their 2013 compensation compared to their 2012 compensation, and for the first time ever, what agency professionals actually made in 2013 so readers can determine where they stack up.
PREMIUM CONTENT: 2014 Internal Employee Compensation Estimator
There were three really interesting findings that, while not necessarily surprising, were certainly worth noting.
The bigger your firm size, the more optimistic you are about a salary increase. Expectations of a compensation increase are directly proportional to firm size. Zero respondents at large firms (75+ recruiters and salespeople) expect their salaries to be cut, but at small firms (one to 10 recruiters and salespeople) the mood is more cautious.
Salespeople made way more money than recruiters in 2013. Salespeople – regardless of industry – tend to be better paid than their non-commission based counterparts, but the disparity in 2013 income between recruiting agency sales personnel and recruiters was significant. Overall, salespeople and account managers made $92,000, versus recruiters, who made $74,000.
Running a retained exec search firm is where the money is. This is a somewhat misleading statement – technically, all of recruiting is where the money is. The average salaries in recruiting dwarf the national average. Nevertheless, CEOs for firms specializing in retained executive search pulled in a massive $230,000 in average compensation. Compare this to temp firms, where CEOs made an average of $159,000.
For more recruiting industry compensation facts and figures, download the report for free here.
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