Recruitment is a process of screening and selecting qualified candidates for vacant job positions in an organization. There have been various trends in recruitment process these days. Outsourcing, e-recruitment, campus recruitment, and headhunting are some of them. Headhunting is a peculiar and different way of recruitment process compared to all other types. It was used only by large companies in the initial stage. However, today, many smaller organizations are also using this method to hire qualified individuals.

Headhunting

Headhunting is a recruitment process, which finds and attracts the best experienced person with the right skill set. It includes adoption of very efficient methods unlike the traditional ones such as job portal look up and so on. It involves hiring a talented person from other organizations mostly competitors.

The initial step of headhunting recruitment process is to identify a prospective employee from other companies. A casual talk followed by a formal discussion is made with the candidate for convincing him or her to join the company. The candidate is generally offered with 20% higher salary than the current one. If the candidate is not interested to join, they check for another person. The process is mostly used for middle management and top management positions.

Role of headhunters

Headhunting requires a lot of effort, commitment and patience. It also takes longer period of time to recruit a candidate. So, most companies hire headhunters who help in hiring talented persons. Headhunters generally are third party agents who are paid by the companies for hiring. Good results can be achieved through headhunters compared to the regular HR recruiters.

Headhunters possess strong market knowledge and high networking capabilities. They also have information on various experts of different companies. This is very beneficial for them to identify the required candidate matching the job position for a company. Headhunters do not look for candidates who are on job boards.

When a company hires headhunters for hiring a talented candidate for a specific position, the headhunters map the specific industry. Similar industrial projects and people involved in such processes from various companies are identified. So, it is very essential for the headhunters to know about the client’s organization and the prospective candidate’s organization.

Tips for headhunting:

Headhunting is a very difficult process. The following tips (both for headhunters and companies) may be helpful to get right candidates.

• An efficient headhunting agency should be selected by a company. It is better to choose the one which has more contacts with many companies from different industries.

• Headhunters should have good communication skills, patience, and interest in selecting a candidate.

• It is necessary to avoid phishing - an email fraud. So, avoid sending spam or pop-up messages to the headhunted candidates during the process of convincing.

• A lot research is to be made by headhunters on the organization of the client company and candidate’s organization.

• It is better to be in proper decision-making mode. A correct match for the candidate and client is the main aim. So, take a proper decision though it takes time.

Headhunting therefore helps in getting right candidates. Though expensive, it is being used by many companies in order to increase the success rate.