Why engage head-hunters?
I was having lunch with my friend yesterday.
“Why do those established companies still need to use
headhunting services?”
“Don’t they already have HR who can do the job?”
“And there are so many job-searching platforms out there – why do they still pay such a high fee?”
Well, there are 5 main reasons a company needs head-hunters.
1. They only want the BEST OF THE BEST.
Top-notch candidates rarely hunt for jobs. There is a saying:
“the head-hunter is, in fact, helping those who do not plan to look for a new career” and a good head-hunter would have their talent pipeline to recommend their list of talents to the company and it’s more time saving and reliable.
2. It’s not appropriate for internal HR to approach talents from their competitors.
So, the career of head-hunter is born. Well, selling the career opportunity through a third party (head-hunter) is always better than direct-selling by an internal party. The concept is like why you need testimonials to sell your products. You need a third party to tell your customers how good your product is. Plus, it is the job of a head-hunter to snoop, poach and steal talents from the competitors of the clients.
3. Urgent hiring
Getting the right candidates is time consuming and requires effort, and it takes a long time to filter and interview a candidate before confirming them for on-boarding. Internal HR is often busy with their roles of handling payrolls, employee benefits, training and development, and so on. Hence, it is required for them to hire effectively when the company needs many roles to be filled urgently.
4. Value-added services
Good head-hunters would provide informative insights about the industry to clients, and provide guidance on how to help them to do better company branding. We provide salary benchmarks and market surveys to clientele to hire effectively.
5. Background check
Someone could be faking during an interview session. To minimise the risk of hiring the wrong person, a background check is a must for head-hunters before a written offer is issued.
I know you have a question again. Why don’t they hire in-house recruiters then?
Head-hunters are commission earners. It would be more rewarding to work with plenty of employers, than relying on only one employer to fill the positions. Because of this, it drives them to work even more aggressively than internal HR. Furthermore, not every company has consistent hiring needs. Outsourcing to head-hunters could be more cost effective, compared to hiring in-house recruiters.
In fact, head-hunters and recruitment agencies make enormous efforts to find the right candidate. It takes time to build a rapport with the candidates and help the employers to enhance their company branding. The placement fee is worthwhile if you get the right person onboard, as I always believe the success of a company depends on its people.
