What is Headhunting in Recruitment?

The Recruitment Industry has evolved with the changing times. It’s not just about portals and emailing candidates about opportunities. Now it involves so much more such as researching companies, business markets, competitors and people within a time frame.
To add to the already exhaustive list of techniques in Recruitment we now have Headhunting. Here potential candidates are headhunted and interact with Headhunters directly. As a Recruiter you might not be familiar with this concept so if you’re wondering what is Headhunting in Recruitment then you’re in the right place therefore read on to find out more…

What is Headhunting?

It’s a form of employment recruiting service that is provided by either a corporation or an individual. These are usually individuals called Headhunters who are hired by firms to Source Talent, locate individuals that meet the specific job requirements for instance an executive with 15 years of experience in to a certain field. This particular term may be referred to as an Executive Recruiter.
It’s a specialised area of Recruitment for Sourcing high profile candidates without the dependency on job boards or job seekers. It involves Headhunting candidates through various means such as direct contact, personal meetings, seminars, industrial exhibitions, conferences etc. It’s more of a modern concept and is categorised together with Modern Recruitment Techniques. This particular method requires a certain amount of creativity as most Recruiting strategies do.

When is it used?

The Headhunting technique is generally used to scout top Management Executives that are highly skilled and resourceful; having contributions that make a difference to the organisations overall success. So if you’re looking to Source candidates for Management levels then Headhunting is the preferred method to fill these positions faster. Like most things have a process so also is it with Headhunting.

Headhunting as a Process

The headhunting process comprises of 4 main processes i.e. Talent Mapping where we identify where the desired human capital resides, what the Talent knows and whom have they joined. Name Generation involves the tools or techniques used to Source the desired Talent such as LinkedIn, Google, Job Portals etc. How to get your foot in to the door and get past the Gate Keepers? And identify what aspects motivate the Candidates to join your distinguished company.
Now that you have a clear idea about Headhunting and the process involved I’m sure you want to be a success. A successful Headhunter is one who not only has a clear understanding of all these aspects but also has the necessary skills at his disposal. And if their effort leads to a hire that yields results then they are successful in the task of Headhunting. These are masters of the art of Hiring that is Headhunting.