What is a headhunter?

The Headhunter , which in free translation would be something like “headhunter”, is a professional who plays an extremely strategic role within an organization. He is responsible for bringing the best talent in the market into the company , that is, we can say that he is a kind of “talent hunter”.

By having a more active role in prospecting professionals, the headhunter’s role ends up being more directed to specific vacancies and areas, which the company identifies urgently for highly qualified people to fill the position.

With this in mind, the difficulty of hiring these vacancies is very great, because the best professionals are often already employed and performing their functions in other companies. Thus, it is common for the headhunter to have specific behavioral skills to make these professionals want to change jobs.

Therefore, this specialist needs not only to apply the best contact techniques with candidates, but also to understand what the company’s needs are. That way, you’ll be able to find the candidate that best matches what is expected for a given vacancy.

What is the professional’s profile?

Headhunters need a combination of hard skills and soft skills , that is, technical and behavioral skills to perform their role with excellence, with special emphasis on soft skills.

1-Technical abilities

Professionals need to understand the segment in which they will look for candidates, otherwise, the assessment of technical skills required for the vacancy can be highly impaired, generating future losses for the company.

2-Behavioral skills

1. Networking

The specialist needs to be an influential person with a large network of contacts , as this network of influence not only helps in the relationship with the best professionals in the market, but also helps to persuade candidates to apply for a particular position.

2. Dynamism

It is important that the headhunter has the energy and excitement to talk about the organization and the role to be played so that he or she inspires the talent to accept the challenge and be part of the team.

3. Communication

The specialist needs to know how to communicate assertively and strategically, in addition to making clear the benefits of working in that company. At the same time, it needs to know how to identify the best way to communicate with each candidate, realizing the individualities of each one and customizing their communication based on that.

4. Negotiation

Negotiation and argumentation skills are indispensable for these professionals in their search for talent. For this, an arduous study about the company and the person being prospected for the vacancy available at the time is necessary.

In general, the headhunter has a profile closely related to that of a salesperson. The salesperson has many soft skills that aid in the sale and that are usually just as important as technical skills and knowledge about the product/service. The focus of both is on creating an affective bond with each other, as it will help in the ability to convince and influence.

How does a headhunter work?

It is an intermediary between the company and the candidate for the job vacancy. They work in partnership with organizations, identifying their needs, objectives and goals, as well as the most appropriate profiles of professionals to fulfill their functions.

After that, it searches for the best candidates on the market, carefully evaluating the  profile  of each one, choosing the most suitable for the job.

Among your responsibilities are:

• help the company define the ideal profile for the position;
• search for suitable candidates;
• evaluate professional references and experiences;
• personally interview candidates, checking  skills , abilities, expectations, salary requirements, etc;
• filter and choose the best candidates and present them to the company;
• organize and monitor feedback from the company and the candidate and choose who should go to the end of the selection process;
• mediate the final issues, such as salary, start date, among others.

How to hire a headhunter? 

1. Assess communication skills

As mentioned previously, this professional needs to be a person who can persuade the best talents to work in your company. Therefore, it is extremely important to understand how his approaches are made, as in addition to being an essential skill for such activity, the way he presents your company and the proposals made can also improve or harm the image of your organization .

2. Analyze market knowledge

For the headhunter to be able to assess whether a professional is suitable or not for his company, he needs to understand in depth about the performance of that market and the characteristics of the segment. In this way, it is possible to identify essential skills in performing the function and which professionals in the segment have such qualifications.

In addition to having an in-depth understanding of a particular segment, he also needs to know the hard skills necessary to perform that role so he doesn’t run the risk of making generic assessments and letting differences go unnoticed.

3. Check networking

Professionals need to be influential and have a large network of contacts so that they can get to know the best professionals in the market and influence them to work in the company.

4. Assess the average hiring time

To hire a headhunter you need to know their background. How were the previous hires? How long did it take to be done? Were these signings successful?

These and other questions are important when finding out if the professional is indicated to help with your hiring, because based on their previous experience, it is possible to project the possible results they could bring to your organization.

What is the difference between headhunter and job hunter?

Job Hunter in loose translation means “job hunter”, while headhunter, as said earlier, means “talent hunter”. From this, we can already identify the different approaches of each one.

The skills needed to perform both roles are very similar, especially with regard to soft skills . The main difference is in the focus of each one.

The job hunter’s focus is the candidate looking for a job opening, while the headhunter is looking to meet the company’s goals . In other words, each of these professionals helps to make the connection between the candidate and the company, each giving priority to one of the two parties and their objectives.

Generally, the job hunter is hired by people looking for a job replacement, career change , among other goals related to finding a vacancy that meets the specific needs of the person who hired him. He can also work as a mentor or coach and provide tips, training and courses for these professionals.

The headhunter is usually hired by companies and seeks to meet the company’s expectations, his role is to look for the best professional in the market to meet organizational demands. He needs to deepen his knowledge of the business and organizational needs so he can find the ideal candidate for the position.

In general, both occupations help to improve hiring, decrease turnover , improve organizational culture, bring candidates with greater cultural fit, etc. In other words, they help to place the right candidates in the right vacancies , so that the admission of a new employee is beneficial to the company and to the new employee.

What is the difference between a headhunter and a recruiter?

Among the positions cited throughout the article, recruiter is likely to be the most well-known role. After all, he is responsible for recruiting and selecting within a company and aims to bring the best candidates to the company. So what’s the difference between him and a headhunter?

The recruiter has structured and systematic processes for recruiting and selecting candidates. Generally, he is responsible for screening résumés , vacancies announcements, interviews, among other activities related to filling vacancies. That is, he plays a more passive role in talent hunting, seeking to understand and analyze applications to the company’s job postings.

What are the advantages of hiring a headhunter?

Enlisting the help of a headhunter can bring many benefits to the institution. Check out some of them.

1. Identification of the ideal profile

As this professional seeks to understand the company’s needs and objectives in a complex way, the next hires will become increasingly correct. This strengthens both the workforce and the business image building strategies.

2. Meeting of the most qualified professionals

The headhunter is able to carry out a more rigorous selection of  talents , bringing people really capable of performing the function. Doing this type of work frequently, the professional will have more contact with people who work in a certain niche. In this way, the chances of the process being successful become greater.

3. Use of proper tools

Through the use of appropriate resources, the talent selection specialist is able to reach professionals that would not be reached by common recruitment processes. For example, he can use a network of contacts to find people who can stand out and make a difference in the company.

In which moments can the headhunter collaborate?

Hiring this professional is not always the best solution. There are some cases where he can contribute more. See below.

1. Selection in a different place of the company

It is very common cases of opening branches in different places or moving the company. Then, the headhunter performs the selection to compose the staff before the activities start, maintaining the level of qualification that the organization already has.

2. Confidential Candidate Search

Companies often recruit and select confidentially in order to remain competitive. The headhunter is able to search for  candidates  omitting information that might identify the organization, and this data is only reported in the last stages of the process.

3. Filling an urgent vacancy

A selection process can take a long time. The headhunter is able to optimize this task, locating and selecting candidates more quickly, in addition to reducing the negative image that the company faces when an important vacancy is not filled.

4. Search for senior management positions

Persons to occupy senior positions in the company or who have specializations, in most cases, cannot be located on traditional recruiting sites.

In this case, the headhunter is important because it is easier to find professionals who have the necessary skills and who, even not available on the market, are open to accepting an interesting offer.

The headhunter is a very competent professional at what he does. However, it is very important to identify the right moment to have him as an ally and, thus, ensure effective hiring that will contribute to the company’s success.