Head hunters: who they are, what they do and how they work
Recruiting tips |

Head hunters: who they are, what they do and how they work

We are talking about the head hunters who are in charge of searching for the best “heads”, i.e. talents, to propose to companies, organizations or institutions that need to fill some vacancies or find highly qualified people for new roles and new projects to be launched in its entirety.

A head hunter can work directly for a company or on behalf of a head hunting company that, in turn, works for a company. It can therefore be included in a staff or work with VAT as a freelancer. Let’s see who he is and what he does in more detail.

SUMMARY

Who is and what a head hunter does

This figure, of clear Anglo-Saxon matrix, began to establish itself in Italy since the ’90s, but has acquired an extra gear with the appearance of professional social networks.

As already mentioned, the activity of the head hunter does not concern the search for any type of profile, but that of highly specialized personnel. His intervention is required to find, contact and introduce to the company resources with years of experience, to cover executive and managerial roles or otherwise high level, which requires a great knowledge of the industry combined with high skills both transverse and technical.

The head hunter therefore deals with what we can define as executive search, i.e. the search for high-level professional figures who meet specific requirements.

The “head hunter” can be entrusted with some phases of the recruitment process (e.g. scouting) to intercept candidates in line with the profile sought, but also interested in changing job or company. Most of the time, however, a head hunter hunts for passive candidates, those who may be present on LinkedIn or other professional social networks, but are not actually looking for work.

The task of the head hunter, in this case, is to illustrate an offer as stimulating both from an economic point of view and from the point of view of personal growth, and to arouse the curiosity of the passive candidate so that he can evaluate the possibility of changing company and, why not, even life. It goes without saying that identifying the best candidates on the market, either actively or passively, is by no means easy, and this requires careful analysis and a rigid selection process.

head hunters who they are

For this, the head hunter must be absolutely clear about the characteristics sought by the company as well as the job title, the job description and the skills required. Only in this way, can he make the “matching” between what is the need of his client and the person he has contacted. All this allows the company to save time and to have a valid resource, already “prepared” and in possession of the specific skills required.

active-candidates

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What is the difference between head hunter and recruiter?

Head hunters and recruiters, although they both work in the HR world, are two very different figures.
The first major difference is that the recruiter often targets people who are looking for work and may be more or less specialized, while the headhunter is exclusively looking for any professional who has the experience and qualifications required.

The recruiter sometimes searches through passive candidates, but typically matches direct applications and engages in screening the resumes received with the support of specific ATS software such as Inrecruiting.
The head hunter does not do screening, but recruits from the entire “talent market” available without receiving applications, performing precisely the activity of search and selection in a proactive way.

If the head hunter moves in the field of talent search, recruiters who work for a company also deal with other processes and have much broader responsibilities. It’s not just a matter of talent acquisition, but also employee retention (i.e. retaining internal talent and implementing all possible strategies to do so), internal recruitment (selecting candidates thanks to the suggestions of those who already work in the company or to the actions that employees take). Recruiters must also deal with staff turnover because, if they don’t, they risk making any new search point pointless and not helping the company to grow and do business. These are all activities which, on a broad scale, affect employer branding.

The figure of the recruiter has evolved in such a way that, in addition to dealing with HR, he or she must be familiar with the world of marketing and know how to borrow from it certain aspects that serve to attract the candidate and facilitate the candidate experience, so much so that we talk more and more about recruiting marketing or marketing recruiting.
The head hunter, on the other hand, focuses on his main activity, that is, finding talent.

These two profiles are also different in terms of the people they target: headhunters target talent with whom they have a direct and immediate relationship, while recruiters target candidates who have most often applied and with whom they may not necessarily have contact. This happens when a CV does not respond to the specific needs of the position sought, although the ideal would be to let the candidate know that their application has been received and let them know why it has not been accepted.

head hunter strategies

Staying within the realm of differences, headhunters often work alone, as opposed to recruiters who also take part in HR teams for large companies spread across multiple locations. Teamwork allows recruiters to get a broader view of the state of the workforce, compare notes, learn useful information, and access detailed research and guides to make the right assessments.

In addition, headhunters work a lot for the “here and now”, that is, to “fill” the vacancies of the moment by looking for very specific profiles. This is why, when they approach a candidate, they start with a form in which skills are entered, determined in advance, and check that the candidate in question has them.

The recruiter goes much less vertical and, in a certain sense, deeper: he doesn’t limit himself to verifying the correspondence between a person’s skills and those required, but, if they don’t match, he can offer other jobs, other collaborations, contact the person later for other projects.
As you can see, therefore, two roles so crucial in the process of research and selection of personnel are very different, which is why you should never identify them or confuse them.

How the head hunter does research and selection: strategies and techniques

Having said that, it goes without saying that the search and selection carried out by a head hunter is different from that of a recruiter, just as the strategies and tools used are different. Also because, let’s remember, the objectives are different and the head hunter has to initiate the search for qualified resources with high-level skills.
Let’s see how.

Leverage existing contacts

head hunter what they do

A headhunter, for scouting, certainly starts with his network of contacts. If he is looking for high-level profiles and must give priority to quality rather than quantity, he can decide to “fish” in his network of acquaintances: people he already knows, whom he trusts and who, in turn, could indicate highly qualified professionals with whom they have had the opportunity to work. This can be a good starting point for headhunters.

Become an expert in your client’s industry

It may seem like a pipe dream, but for a headhunter, this is a necessary action, almost a must. Why? Because if you want to find senior profiles, you need to interact with them in the right way, speak “their language”, but also avoid wasting time with those who, on the other hand, claim to have the required skills when it is not so.
This is why a head hunter who, as we said, works in a more vertical way also strives to become an expert in the sector. This allows him to find the right people, at the right time, but also to intercept and contact passive candidates.

Builds a relationship with the candidate

Connected to the above, since the headhunter is often dealing with people who aren’t looking for another job, it’s important to build a professional relationship with candidates. And this is even before there is initial contact.

In fact, the relationship is built by conducting research in advance so that you understand what that person’s skills are and how well they are suited to the role. This helps the head hunter, but also the candidate, who will certainly be interested in what is being offered, given that their profile has been studied in depth.

Use social media to really reach the profiles you’re interested in

LinkedIn has become critical to head hunting, but this is true of social in general. A good headhunter contacts the candidate on the social on which the candidate is most active: LinkedIn, Facebook, X (Twitter) or other channels on which people choose to share their opinions. That’s why executive searchers must be able to attract candidates and interact with them on the platform where they are most comfortable.

Meet the candidate live

If you’re dealing with passive candidates who aren’t looking for new opportunities, it can make a difference to request a live meeting, perhaps reaching out to the person in the restaurant or bar near the office or when they finish their workday.

This modus operandi is certainly effective because it puts the candidate at ease, generates trust, and gives the head hunter a chance to empathize with him or her and understand up close if he or she might be interested and suitable for that position.

Improves employer branding

A head hunter who works well is of great support for a company’s employer branding – something that should not be underestimated. If the headhunter succeeds in doing what we have written above, in creating a relationship with the candidate, in finding common ground, in making him or her feel comfortable, all of this benefits branding because it helps to create the best possible image of a company as an ideal work environment.

And this also creates a sort of virtuous circle: the more a candidate has heard good things about a company, perhaps from other high-level colleagues, the more he or she will be willing to consider an opportunity that comes from it, even through the head hunter and even if he or she has not actively sought it out.
The head hunter therefore has the role of conveying the right perception of the job and the company which, as we know, has an essential value.

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