Head Hunting and Executive Search Services

Good Head hunting services are often in short supply, let's talk about the work of a headhunter and what they can do for you.

There is considerable mystery and a lot of stories and myths surrounding the profession of a Headhunter.
Essentially, a Professional Headhunter is a highly skilled individual, who is employed by a company to find the right person for a particular position within an organisation. Note that I have not limited the headhunter to executive or senior level recruitment. One of the first myths is that headhunters are only used for executive levels, while this is mainly the case it is not always the case. Recruitment of the best people is important at any level and Executive Compass has been involved in headhunting positions such as PA, design engineer, college lecturer and many different types of engineering roles across a variety of industries, for instance operations and production managers. Another major functional target for organisations who use headhunters is obviously sales. A high performing sales person can be a highly sought after prize in most industries.
A headhunter is also a consultant, someone who will have significant business experience and commercial acumen. They should not just provide you a headhunting service but instead discuss with you the drivers and rationale behind the proposed appointment. Have you thought of all the options, is this something that your business really needs or are there other solutions available in the market place?
The narrative below describes contract headhunters in very general terms and . I believe that a good headhunter should be connected to a reputable search and selection provider; this will enable them to have a wider range of contacts, make them more accountable, provide them with support and advice, ensure best practice and give them access to more traditional search and selection techniques should the role require it.
Executive compass do not use freelance headhunters.
In some industries there is a shortage of top achieving people and a headhunter is retained to look for individuals within that industry. In these cases the headhunter is often asked to look for individuals from competitor organisations, this poaching of talent is what gives some headhunters a bad name but is also why some people think it is like espionage! Additionally, known headhunters are often feared by organisations that do not wish to lose people. Incidentally, know headhunters are also feared by candidates, who do not wish to be seen talking with them, and some meetings and conversations are like scenes from a spy novel but that’s for another blog altogether!
Shortage of talent is not the only reason for using a headhunter. Sometimes an organisation is looking for a change at the top but does not wish to send a signal to the competitors; sometimes they do not want to signal it to the incumbent post holder either. In some circumstances finding the right high achieving person can take time and the organisation does not wish to remain leaderless or have a gap in its organigram while the search is being undertaken.
At other times certain individuals have resigned or informed the company they are unhappy or wish to retire. Others have underperformed or caused real damage to the performance of an organisation and a headhunter is called in to discretely source a replacement.
Other reasons for headhunting include major expansions, strategic change of direction, overseas expansion, mergers and acquisitions or any instance where a company needs to bring in talent with new skills and competencies that do not already exist within the core capabilities of the firm.

Discretion and confidentiality is obviously one of the biggest advantages. When retaining the services of a headhunter you should be assured that only a very few people will know you are seeking to have a particular position filled.
Experience and knowledge and know how is another advantage. A good headhunter will be a good researcher, they will be able to fully understand the attributes you need and will be able to understand the culture and climate of your organisation and so be able to identify key individuals that will really make a difference to your firm. They will be skilled at approaching people, offering concise explanations, will be skilled negotiators with high emotional intelligence and empathy skills and will be able to differentiate between the merely good and the really great candidates.

It can take an awful amount of effort to secure the right candidate. Even if a headhunter seemingly offers a candidate within a week or so, it usually means that the headhunter has focused all of the intervening time on that one assignment and has been really lucky! Yes even headhunters need a little bit of luck sometimes.
Researching potential candidates in itself can take a huge amount of effort. Add to that the job of discovering a route to the candidate, the initial discussion, meetings/interviews, clarifications, travel and administration and it can add up to a substantial body of work. Often this work is repeated again and again to find just the right person for the role.

A good headhunter will have a good network of contacts. They will be able to tap into this network for all kinds of information. A headhunter can sometimes be connected to the right person via seven or eight levels of intermediaries and this is offers a huge advantage to those seeking the right person.
A good headhunter will also have a database of top level candidates, however this database is usually of little use for headhunting assignments. Most headhunters approach potential clients who are not “in the market” The very nature and diversity of headhunting assignments mean that it is very, very, unlikely that a candidate is known to them. In fact, I would go as far as to say that clients should be suspicious if they think they are being offered a candidate too quickly. It may mean that the headhunter is trying to provide someone unsuitable. However, it is possible to receive a good candidate very quickly so be sure to give any candidates provided suitable and due consideration.

Costs for a headhunter can vary considerably. Due to the high volume of work upfront headhunters operate on a retainer and will typically ask for a non returnable percentage. This percentage of the retainer can vary depending on the complexity of the assignment, but is typically around one third of the final fee.