As you know, the success formula of any company directly depends on the selection of personnel who ultimately "decide everything." Questions regarding the selection of qualified personnel are relevant worldwide. They stand in front of domestic companies and organizations. After all, Russia's entry into the market economy has created an acute shortage of highly qualified specialists. This is due to the fact that business growth is quite fast, and a large army of personnel with significant experience and a good education simply cannot appear so quickly. The intra-company education does not solve the problem. Indeed, many enterprises want to get the specialist they need "here and now."
Headhunting will help to find a way out of this situation - this is a personnel selection technology that provides for targeted search, as well as the subsequent involvement of the most promising and valuable personnel.
Definition of a concept
Headhunting is a way to directly select highly qualified specialists who have certain skills. Moreover, the positions of top and middle managers are considered vacant. Literally, this expression is translated as "headhunting."
For those who are familiar with this area, it is no secret that in previous years the word "headhunting" is nothing more than professional slang. Moreover, it was used only in a narrow circle of specialists. To get a wider dissemination of this concept was helped by journalists, who often use it in their materials published in the media.
Headhunting is not a new, but less common method, which is very promising. It allows the company to choose for itself especially valuable, so-called piece specialists. Moreover, the candidates themselves, as a rule, are not at all in search of a new job. That is why headhunting specialists are required to make efforts in order to interest a highly qualified employee to consider their staffing proposal and change their existing place of work.
The relevance of the method
How relevant is this approach? To determine its relevance, special studies were conducted in our country. They were attended by representatives of the Russian Managers Association, as well as specialists from the international consulting company Ernst & Young. The survey involved about 350 executives who head companies in all key areas of the national economy.
What did the analysis of the data obtained show? The results of the study indicated that to date, the Russian top-level manager considers attracting highly qualified personnel to the position of top managers as their priority task. Narrow-profile specialists also need companies. At the same time, numerous examples of headhunting suggest that in our country a similar selection of personnel is carried out when searching for top-level specialists who have the richest synthesized potential in combination with in-depth professional training and long-term practical management experience. In addition, many domestic companies also need to select mid-level specialists with highly professional skills and knowledge.
Appearance story
Headhunting technologies were first used in the early twenties of the last century in the United States.It was during this period that the directors of the companies began to look for employees with the help of agencies specially hired for these purposes. In the forties, an employment service appeared. These were agencies that, for the first time in history, began to post job vacancies for those workers who could not be in the military. Of course, such jobs were intended for men, but for the most part women were still the job seekers.
In the mid-forties of the last century, the very concept of “headhunting” arose in the USA. It applied to agencies that, after the end of World War II, were looking for highly qualified managers and specialists for companies.
Headhunting technology became a very profitable type of business in the 70s of the 20th century. Today, such agencies receive fees for their services in the amount of 30-40% of the amount of the annual salary of a professional selected by them. Moreover, the need for such organizations that help solve personnel problems is constantly growing. For example, in the United States there are more than 3,500, and in Canada - more than 1,350.
Headhunting in Russia was developed only in the early 90's. In our country, it began to be actively used with the advent of such foreign companies as Nicholson, Egon Zender, Morgan Hunt and others. Somewhat later, Russian agencies emerged, of which there are now more than fifty. Moreover, most of them are concentrated in Moscow.
Today, headhunting is a recruitment method that is one of the most effective, promising, although not too widespread. Indeed, in regions remote from the capital, it still has very limited use.
Scope of application
Modern practice on the external selection of candidates uses several technologies. Their list includes not only headhunting, but also screening, as well as recruiting. What is the difference between these methods?
Screening is used to close lower vacancies. Recruiting is needed to select mid-level personnel. Headhunting is a method that allows you to select narrow specialists with the highest qualifications, as well as managers.
Screening is nothing more than “surface selection”. It is carried out according to a number of formal features, including age and education, work experience and gender. After receiving a large number of resumes, the selection is made by the customer himself. The recruitment agency only plays the role of a supplier of suitable job seekers.
Recruiting refers to a deeper selection. When applying it, many business qualities of the candidate and his personality are taken into account. Such recruitment is carried out by the recruiting agency itself, using its own database of applicants, formed on the basis of responses to ads in the media. The final result of the work will directly depend on the experience of the recruiter himself, as well as on the qualitative composition of the applicants.
Headhunting techniques are a “quality search." When applying them, the peculiarities of the business conducted by the customer are taken into account, as well as its working environment is taken into account. Headhunting examines the personal and business qualities of the candidate, acting in a direct way, and not through posting job vacancies in the media. This is what distinguishes it from screening and recruiting. Indeed, for the selection for the position of leader, those candidates who submitted their resume to the corresponding Internet portals, or those who responded to an open vacancy, are not needed at all. Most of those who are considering headhunting are employed. They get high salaries and do not read job advertisements. That is why in this case only the principle of direct search is applied.
An example of this is the selection of a specialist who should be monitoring the deforestation in preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Such a candidate was not only required to have work experience and possess professional knowledge. This specialist was also required to speak two foreign languages. It took the agency seven months to close this vacancy. The necessary specialist was found in another region, and his consent to the move was reinforced by the provision of a personal karate trainer, large bonuses, social packages, etc.
Identification of company needs
Is headhunting so necessary - headhunting? In our country, its relevance is confirmed by the existing shortage of qualified specialists and the lack of a large number of resumes for senior and middle managers on the Internet. It is not easy for any company to find not only a worthy head of the enterprise, but also production managers, experienced technologists and chief accountants, technical and financial directors, as well as high-tech managers.
In general, headhunting is a carefully designed project, created individually for each client. Moreover, its execution consists of several very important stages. The first of them defines the needs of the enterprise. This is a preliminary stage during which negotiations are held between representatives of the company and specialists of the recruitment agency. The result of such a meeting is to identify the needs of the client and the necessary professional qualities of the future employee. Based on the data obtained, the handhunter determines the profile of the company and the conditions that exist in this market segment. In addition, there is a need to determine the competitors of the enterprise and possible candidates for the position. But even after revealing all the key positions of the order, the handhunter does not stop working with the client. After all, with the most accurate statement of the problem, the success of the search for the right candidate is most likely.
What principles and technologies does headhunting use? This method at its initial stage involves detailing the conditions. At the same time, the representative of the recruitment agency determines such characteristics of the future employee as the size of his salary, as well as bonuses and bonuses, benefits, job responsibilities, professional and personal qualities. The reasons for this vacancy, the place that the employee will take in the structure of the organization, as well as the prospects for its increase, are also being clarified.
What else is headhunting considering? The principles and technologies of this method involve the determination of the detailed parameters of the client organization, the goals of its activities, financial situation, development strategies, internal structure of subordination, management principles and internal corporate ethics. Knowing these nuances is very important for the headhunter. Indeed, in the absence of such information, a potential specialist will not show due trust in a consultant from a recruitment agency. This will sharply reduce the chances of the latter to interest the person and to complete his work to the end.
Information analysis
This is the next phase of the recruitment agency. In contrast to screening and recruiting, the practice of using headhunting in modern conditions proves that a direct search for a candidate should be carried out with a thorough analysis of the market. In this case, it is important for the consultant to use the data that was obtained at the first stage of his work, that is, when determining all the conditions of the order. It should be borne in mind that the process that involves the study of a market segment is quite lengthy. Moreover, all actions of the headhunter should be aimed at analyzing the competing enterprises of the company, namely:
- the study of their financial condition;
- establishing the qualification level of the necessary specialists;
- identification of wages and working conditions;
- compilation of a list of potential candidates.
Each of the above actions will require the use of a large number of resources from a representative of a recruitment agency. It can be experience, personal connections, etc.
In the process of the study, the specialist identifies a list of companies and the geographic limitations of the segment. Based on the analysis of the data obtained, a suitable candidate is identified. In this case, at first, the list of suitable persons can be very long. It should contain information about those potential candidates whose qualifications fully comply with the requirements of the order. Next, a thorough selection is carried out. As a result, the list is significantly reduced. Its final version is subject to mandatory approval by the client.
Candidate Selection
After agreeing on a list of possible candidates, the agency specialist will work with each of them. To do this, the headhunter contacts these people and finds out how much they are interested in working with another company. The most difficult thing at this stage is to establish contact with the candidate. After all, most likely, he receives such offers more than once a month. In order to talk with a possible applicant, the handhunter uses several techniques, among which the most common is direct contact. In addition, a specialist recruiting agency can apply their personal connections, the existing database and even social networks. Based on the results of the conversation, a detailed report is prepared for each of the specialists on the list.
Interview with representatives of the customer company
Why do I need such a detailed report of a handhunter? Using it, customer’s specialists select the most interested specialists. After that, an interview is organized with each candidate.
The consultant of the recruitment agency acts in this case as an intermediary. It helps both parties prepare for the conversation and find a common language. Based on the results of negotiations, the client determines the best specialist with whom an employment contract is concluded.
Further counseling
And even after the signing of the labor agreement, the recruitment agency does not stop contacts with the customer organization. In this case, the consultant is needed to resolve problems and conflicts that inevitably arise at the initial stage of work. The term of such support is from 6 months to 1 year.
Pros and cons of the method
The main advantages of headhunting are that personnel agencies select personnel in the relevant market among employees of competing firms. When using other methods, you can skip a large number of highly qualified already employed specialists.
The advantage of headhunting is confidentiality of intentions. Indeed, in the case of a direct search, senior managers are given the opportunity to study the proposals of consultants without the risk of losing their current job. With other methods, there is an open search for a vacant position, which can lead to problems with management. If a person is not ready to accept the offer, he may well report on an existing employee with similar professional experience.
But there are also negative aspects in handhunting. The fact is that competing firms can lure a candidate selected as a result of a long search. To avoid this unpleasant moment, companies sometimes pay an employee to guarantee his long-term work. In addition, a not-so-good specialist can simply bribe a consultant to a recruitment agency to get a better place for himself. But in general, the usefulness of this method far exceeds its negative aspects.
Special literature
How to conduct a headhunting? Books on this topic acquaint everyone with the competent organization of the search process for senior personnel. Special literature is of great help in those cases where you need to find rare and key specialists both in their professionalism and in the field of work.
Very popular among interested readers is the book “Headhunting in 15 minutes”. Its author, Vladimir Yakub, raises such a wide range of issues that many experts will be interested in reading this work, including customer contact managers, professional negotiators, and those involved in industrial marketing. However, the book will become more interesting for someone who works in such a highly intellectual, difficult and at the same time performing socially important tasks of headhunting.