Headhunting: on the hunt for the best talent

What is headhunting?

Dentro de la gestión del capital humano, las compañías pueden nutrir sus filas a través de Within human capital management, companies can nurture their ranks through Conventional selection processes or through the technique of headhunting.

Unlike the former, Headhunting is characterised by the fact that it is the company itself – either directly or through a specialised consultancy – that scans the market and searches for profiles that meet its needs., without the ‘candidates’ having known about a job offer or having shown prior interest.

This method of staff selection is not new and As early as the 1920s of the last century, these recruitment services began to appear., specifically among senior executives, becoming popular in the 1950s and 60s, with the economic resurgence after World War II.

Indeed, its translation into Spanish as “cazatalentos' is defined by the Royal Spanish Academy as the "A person dedicated to finding suitable individuals to be hired by companies needing them.”.

When is this technique used?

Initially, Headhunters focused on the selection of managers for large companies that, due to their profile requirements, were difficult to find.

However, Nowadays, headhunting has become widespread in the field of Human Resources and is used to fill very specific positions., from the CFO of a company to a cybersecurity analyst. In fact, according to Labour Market Guide 2017 prepared by Hays, 72% of organisations consider the lack of qualified personnel for specific job roles to be their main concern. at the moment, a problem that headhunters are trying to solve.

Therefore, the aim of this technique is not to replace traditional selection processes, but to complement them in order to avoid mistakes during hiring, allowing for good results in those job vacancies where it is more complicated to attract suitable candidates through an external talent survey.

How do headhunters work?

In order to find the right professionals for each position, headhunting carries out the following work process:

• Analysis of the required profile. The first step to finding the ideal employee is to know what the company needs for the role. For this reason, headhunting begins with a study of the competencies, skills, knowledge, and expectations of the vacancy.
• Determination of recruitment sources. How will profiles be searched for? The channels to be used need to be defined, whether through the internet and social media, through contacts or their own job boards, or by investigating competitor staff.
• Contact with the applicant. Those professionals who meet the demands of the position will be contacted by the headhunter, who will explain the offer and conditions and request further information to ensure their suitability for the profile.
• Interviews. To confirm who the ideal candidate is, the headhunting process will continue with a phase of personal interviews, in which both the technical competencies and the professional's skills and personality will be assessed, in order to evaluate their alignment with the company's objectives and culture.
• Report creation. It is not common for the headhunter themselves to have the final say in the hiring process; rather, the company will decide among several candidates. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare a profile dossier for each candidate, providing the company with the necessary information for decision-making.
• Company choice. With this documentation, the company's management will decide who will join the organisation.