Headhunting: methods and stages of selecting specialists. Everything you need to know about headhunting specialists How we work

The personnel policy of any organization is the most important component of its correct functioning and the key to future success. Only a professional employee fulfills job responsibilities with maximum efficiency.

Today we will look at a popular method of searching for specialists - headhunting, its features, goals and objectives.

Headhunting is a popular area of ​​searching for highly specialized specialists and senior management professionals. The objects of consultants' attention are: chief accountants, managers industrial facilities, lawyers.

Key stages of headhunting.

Advantages:

1. The search for qualified employees is carried out in the specialized market. There is a possibility of luring a specialist from a competing organization. Using other methods leads to the loss of the potential opportunity to acquire an already employed specialist.
2. Complete confidentiality - direct search allows a senior manager to study consultants' proposals without damaging their reputation. Less flexible methods involve an open search, which will cause complications in the current place of work.
3. Circle of acquaintances - if the candidate is not ready to change place labor activity, he may have a list of people who would happily become employees of the organization in question.

Flaws:

1. Your candidate may be lured away by competitors, so guarantee payments to a professional are widely practiced.
2. The integrity of the consultant is questionable, since the interested party is capable of bribing the official.
3. A headhunter often demands confidential information for unknown purposes.

It is important to know! Russian headhunting originated in the 90s along with foreign assets. Today, more than 50 domestic companies provide recruitment services. The pace of development in this area is encouraging.

Differences between a recruiter and a headhunter

It would seem that the workers have the same profile, but their methods of direct personnel search are fundamentally different. So, here's a little comparison:

• strategy - recruiters take a passive position, place hundreds of advertisements, and wait for a suitable candidate. The search is initiated only among active applicants (currently unemployed). An experienced headhunter studies the market for passive employees, creates a network of contacts and useful acquaintances in a specific area. The recruiter’s search circle is 15-25%, his colleagues in the profession – 75-90%;
• Internet search - an HR specialist posts vacancies on a couple of job search sites, opens the reception of resumes on the company’s personal website, and spends hours looking through candidates. A professional artificially creates a larger search radius: paid resources, industry review sites, forums. A headhunter is fluent in the specifics of search engines;
• working with recommendations – the recruiter considers recommended candidates only as a last resort. A higher-level specialist creates a network of recommendations using a wide range of contacts.
• task – the HR employee strives to fill the vacancy as quickly as possible (from among active applicants). A fellow crafter looks at the entire job market to find the ideal candidate, even if they are not looking for a job.

Personnel headhunting methods.

Stages of searching for a candidate

To “acquire” each employee, a individual project, providing for the specifics of the position in question. Headhunting involves the following stages of implementation:

1. Assessing the needs of the company - a specialist gets acquainted with information about the structure, specifics and work process of the organization. He clarifies with management the position regarding: wages, bonuses, labor obligations, necessary qualities of the proposed employee. This includes an assessment of the financial situation, development strategy and market place of the organizational structure.
2. Information analysis - professionals collect information about competitive organizations, their security, wages, insurance and the nature of their work. Based on the data received, a long list of passive candidates is formed. After careful consideration of each, a “shortened” list of promising applicants is compiled.
3. Selection of the best candidates - a headhunter contacts each person on the short list and finds out their interest in the proposed position. The main thing is to establish contact with a specialist. The results of the conversations are included in the report.
4. Interview with a company representative - the customer selects worthy candidates from a pre-compiled list. A personal meeting is organized, the consultant acts as a mediator, helps the parties find mutual language.
5. Post-employment counseling – a headhunter for some time acts as a third party in the relationship between the employee and the organization, helping to solve emerging problems.

Important! A kind of supervision of a hired specialist lasts from six months to a year.

Features of selecting top managers

Headhunting can work wonders and masters of their craft can lure even a specialist from the management of a competing company into the organization. Among the characteristic features of the selection are:

• professionalism – the consultant must correspond to the level of the position held. As a rule, top managers know their worth and will not pester an offer from a dubious person;
• information flow - the headhunter is obliged to use a maximum of sources to identify hidden aspects of the object’s character, find weak sides or methods of influence;
• reliability of the customer - the owner company allocates an appropriate amount of funds and resources for conducting search work, material and privileged incentives to attract attention.

When selecting management specialists, it is important to develop the correct assessment technology. Candidates are considered:

1. Objectively, general opinion or first impression does not influence decision making.
2. Reliable - successes and failures, the amount of precipitation or sunny days do not play a role when evaluating a top manager.
3. Reliable – only verified data about professional qualities ah and the abilities of the applicant.
4. Comprehensively – not only the satisfaction of the organization’s requirements is considered, but also a worthy response to the requests of a potential senior manager.

Conclusion

Headhunting is an effective tool for selecting highly qualified specialists. The developed methodology involves an active search for applicants on the labor market, passive employees, provided with work.

The consultant’s high level of qualifications will certainly create a professional team in the organization in question.

Secrets and principles of personnel selection by headhunters - in this video:

Formula success of all times and peoples - “Personnel decides everything.” According to many experts, today the issue of selecting highly qualified personnel is more relevant than ever in our country. Russia's entry into the era of the global economy at the beginning of the 21st century created a shortage of highly qualified personnel. Business is growing at a tremendous pace, but specialists with good education and work experience do not appear so quickly. Therefore, the growth rate of the market for qualified and experienced personnel currently lags behind the pace of business development. And in-house training does not solve the problem, since most companies need specialists “here and now.” A real way out of this situation is provided by the use of such personnel selection technology as headhunting, which involves a targeted search and attraction of the most valuable and promising personnel. Khokhlova T., Mashketova A. Headhunting: an exclusive technology for selecting super personnel // Personnel Management. - 2011. No. 17. pp. 35-40..

Headhunting is, of course, not the newest, but still a little widespread and at the same time a very promising way of selecting especially valuable, “special” specialists. Today, this is perhaps the most effective technology that was formed in response to the need for exclusive candidates for positions of top managers and key specialists. Moreover, the candidates themselves are most often not in the search new job, and it will take a lot of effort to interest them in considering a personnel offer, not to mention inducing them to change jobs.

The relevance of this approach is confirmed by the results of a study conducted by the Russian Managers Association and the international consulting company Ernst & Wong, in which 350 company executives from all key industries and regions of Russia took part. An analysis of the results obtained indicates that today, for Russian senior managers, the priority task of personnel policy is to attract highly qualified top managers and highly specialized specialists. In Russia, there is a demand, firstly, for strong top-level specialists who have a rich synthesized potential - not only deep professional training, but also extensive practical management experience (programming and management, description and implementation of a project, etc.); secondly, companies especially need mid-level specialists with highly specialized knowledge and skills.

In modern practice of external candidate selection, the following technologies are mainly used: screening, recruiting and headhunting. Low-level vacancies are usually filled by screening, mid-level specialists are selected using recruiting, and senior managers and highly qualified specialists are selected using headhunting. T. Khokhlova, A. Mashketova. Headhunting: an exclusive technology for selecting super personnel // Personnel Management. - 2011. No. 17. pp. 35-40..

Screening is a “superficial selection”, it is carried out according to formal criteria: education, age, gender, approximate work experience. As a result, having received a mass of resumes, the selection is carried out by the customer himself, and the recruitment agency plays the role of a supplier of relatively suitable candidates.

Recruiting - “in-depth selection”, which takes into account the personal characteristics and business qualities of the applicant, is carried out by a recruiting agency based on a database of candidates and responses to advertisements in the media. The selection result depends on the experience of the recruiter and the content of the candidate database.

Headhunting is a “quality search” that takes into account the characteristics of the customer’s business, the working environment, the business and personal qualities of the candidate, organized directly - without advertising the vacancy in the media. Headhunting, in essence, is one of the stages of the executive search process - services, although recently in business practice there has been a tendency to synonymize these concepts.

Thus, headhunting is fundamentally different from recruiting and screening. Selecting specialists using ready-made databases among candidates who have declared their desire to find a new job, posted their resumes on relevant Internet portals, or responded to an open vacancy is most often not suitable for finding high-quality employees. Most of them are employed and have high salaries. In addition, as a rule, they do not read newspapers with vacancies and advertisements on the Internet, and searching for such candidates on the open labor market is difficult and unpromising. Therefore, it is often possible to find “super frames” only through a direct search.

For comparison: if screening and recruiting are “wholesale”, then headhunting is “retail” Belenko P. Headhunting: principles and technologies. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2012.S. - 36.. For example, when the issue of holding the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi was being considered, a large company needed a specialist for the position of manager monitoring the legality of deforestation. Special requirements were placed on him: he had to have not only professional requirements and work experience, but also to own two foreign languages. It is clear that only a direct search could ensure successful selection of the required specialist. It took 7 months to fill this vacancy. The required specialist was found in another region and agreed to move only after he was provided with a personal karate trainer along with a large social package, bonuses, options, etc.

According to a survey conducted by the consulting company Abercade, from total number Of all companies that use external methods of recruiting and selecting personnel, about 50% use formal selection, about 25% use in-depth selection, 10% of all companies use headhunting, and 15% use or have ever resorted to all of the above methods. According to other data, more than a quarter of Russian companies have at least once resorted to the services of headhunters.

The market for headhunting services is relatively young. The Russian sector of this market began to actively develop in the early 90s. Its rapid growth was facilitated by the emergence of major players - foreign companies providing personnel selection services. The pioneers of executive search in Russia were foreign network agencies such as Amrop Int. Russia, Antal Int., Arthur Hunt, Egon Zehnder Int., Korn/Ferry, Morgan Hunt, Nicholson Int., Ward Howell. Domestic companies providing headhunting services first appeared in 1993 and were mainly concentrated in Moscow. Today, headhunting is one of the most promising and effective, although not very common, ways of searching and recruiting personnel. In regions remote from the center, headhunting still has limited use.

The main consumers of headhunting services are two types of companies Voronin A.P. Business assessment. Enterprise value management. M.: Unity, 2011.P. - 168.:

1. Companies that have emerged from the stage of rapid growth and development and are experiencing a stage of stabilization. Their task is to optimize business processes and general management. To maintain market positions and further develop, they require more and more professional managers and highly qualified specialists.

2. Companies that are intensively developing or are in their infancy. Such companies need managers with serious experience who are able to develop a company development strategy, business processes, maintain team integrity, and work with investment projects, as well as narrow specialists who could become one of the main competitive advantages of the organization.

The headhunting service is quite expensive: in world practice, the fee for searching and “luring” a specialist is about 30% of the total annual income of a hired candidate. In Russia, on average, this share varies from 20 to 35%. In small cities, recruitment agencies charge no more than 10% of the annual salary for selection, while in Moscow, according to the results of the V recruitment market research, not a single agency agreed to position itself in the 10% price niche Kataeva L.D., Abramova D.K. Personnel Management. - Novosibirsk, 2010. P. - 88..

Recently, fixed fees rather than percentage fees have become increasingly popular, since the amount of expenses is known in advance and the possibility of conflict when recalculating fees and including overhead costs is eliminated. It is important that the recruitment agency bears a guarantee for the quality of the service provided, and if within six months the candidate leaves the job himself or is fired, the agency must provide a replacement without charging any payments.

Practice shows that some managers try to save money by luring candidates on their own, especially when they know what specific specialist they need. However, this approach is ineffective for several reasons, which together do not allow achieving the desired result. Therefore, according to surveys, 80% of managers using this recruitment technology, when asked “Are the costs of headhunting justified?” confidently answer: “Yes.”

The idea of ​​headhunting as solely luring away the desired candidate is incorrect. Headhunting is not limited to headhunting itself; it should be considered as a complex business process that includes a set of sequential, interconnected operations and procedures (Fig. 2).

The main stages of this process are: an in-depth analysis of the company’s activities and its market, analysis of personnel needs, determination of the search area for candidates, “recruitment” of a potential employee, organization and conduct of interviews with consultants and the employer, and, finally, the direct conclusion of a contract and guarantee support of the selected candidate at work.

It is the process approach to the implementation of headhunting procedures that ensures the effective achievement of the goal - the selection of a highly qualified specialist.

Fig.2 Headhunting process

A study of headhunting methodology shows that at the stage of market research for the required specialists, mainly two methods are used: networking and direct search.

Networking - "weaving networks" - is to reach the necessary specialist through the consultant's connections. In other words, it is important for the agent to know the key people in the market, who, in turn, can lead to the candidate along the chain.

The most popular is direct search, or “direct search,” in which the consultant, together with the customer, determines the circle of companies where the required specialist may be located. Then he outlines the range of positions in these companies that fit the existing vacancy, and makes a direct offer to specialists who meet the customer’s requirements. Khokhlova T., Mashketova A. Headhunting: exclusive technology for selecting super personnel // Personnel Management. - 2011. No. 17. pp. 35-40.. This work is accompanied by a careful selection of candidates according to their professional and personal qualities, as well as their motivation.

However, the skill of a headhunter lies not only in finding a candidate capable of solving the client’s business problems, but also in getting him interested and making an offer that the candidate cannot refuse.

It seems that this stage of the headhunter’s work is the most important. According to independent analysts, from 20% to 40% of company employees flatly refuse to even consider offers from other employers. It is clear that it is quite difficult to seduce a truly passionate employee with money and other material benefits, especially if his working conditions are quite comfortable. If a key specialist leaves only because he was offered a larger compensation package, the manager can only rejoice: the company got rid of an employee who could soon leave it, and his effectiveness in this case was questionable. For a true professional, after reaching a certain level, money ceases to play the first and decisive role. Only about 20% of job seekers are willing to change jobs solely for financial reasons. Most often, high-level specialists are interested in creative ideas, large-scale projects, opportunities for professional development, creative and career growth.

Headhunting - as a method of personnel selection

The company's personnel are the most important component during restructuring. The development of the company and its position in the market largely depends on how the intellectual potential of employees is used. Yu. V. Kuznetsov. Problems of management theory and practice. St. Petersburg 2010.S. - 254..

It is important to note that, along with headhunting, direct personnel search is used. These concepts are focused on the selection and assessment of personnel, but at the same time there are significant differences between them, which we will consider further.

In general, direct search is a targeted selection of candidates for key positions of middle and senior managers, that is, employees on whose activities the achievement of the company’s final results depends. Direct personnel search consists of identifying the needs of a potential candidate for a position, determining a list of applicants, establishing contacts, and conducting interviews.

The main difference between direct search and other methods of personnel selection is the absence of vacancy announcements in the media. In the event that other methods of personnel selection and assessment, including direct search, become ineffective, then the need arises to use headhunting. So, headhunting is a popular and in-demand activity. It is important to emphasize that headhunting is a fairly well-known type of business, especially abroad.

Headhunting companies have appeared in Russia that specialize in categories of workers and industries. Moreover, if in the first stages of the formation of this type of business the most popular service was personnel selection for permanent basis, then now in the practice of recruitment agencies it is possible to select temporary personnel.

When studying headhunting, it should be noted that this area of ​​personnel selection is in some way associated with legal issues, regarding compliance with contractual relations between a potential employee and the enterprise.

Headhunting technology

Headhunting technology is as follows: Melnik A. Personal headhunting // Journalist. No. 10. - 2012. - P. 88.

1. Analysis of client needs

As mentioned above, the headhunter will begin searching for prey if and only if he has accurately formulated the needs of his client. But the client, in turn, quite often accurately outlines the circle of companies whose employees would be of interest to him. Sometimes specific names are even heard. In this case, the headhunter’s task is to negotiate with maximum tact and effectiveness.

2. Competitive analysis

However, it often happens that the client defines only a range of qualities that, in his opinion, a potential candidate should have. This usually includes experience in the industry. To solve such a problem, the headhunter determines for himself which potential companies in the industry may employ specialists who could potentially interest his client. And he begins to develop them according to the scheme already known to you.

A headhunter, like any other recruiter, also has its own database. However, his team consists primarily of specialists who are not only interesting to the headhunter in themselves, but can give recommendations on the necessary issues. As practice shows, most specialists who come to the attention of a headhunter subsequently willingly make contact with him. This means that by contacting them, a consultant can almost always count on receiving a recommendation for a specialist or not-so-well-known information about the company. Simply put, even if a specialist does not currently plan to change his job, he will willingly recommend his professional acquaintances or name a company whose employees, for some reason, are now ready to consider offers. This creates a chain that will sooner or later lead the headhunter to the right person.

4. Analysis of public sources

And, finally, any experienced headhunter closely follows the business and industry press, attends thematic exhibitions and seminars, and actively works with information on the Internet. All this work is done primarily in order to know which of the specialists in this industry is an expert, and therefore best oriented in the market. In addition, public events provide a lot of reasons to make personal acquaintances, which, according to the headhunter, can always be used. So, if an agency representative puts your business card in his pocket after a short conversation at the exhibition stand, wait for the continuation.

Pavel Belenko notes Belenko P. Headhunting: principles and technologies. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2012.S. - 14.: “A person is not the property of the company; he cannot be retained if he wants to change his job. A company can avoid leaving a specialist by hiring people who are interested in this particular work, whose values ​​coincide with the values ​​of the leader, stimulate them financially and non-materially, and work with them every day. And then the moment of leaving can be delayed.” Thus, headhunting is aimed at working with specialists who have proven themselves in a specific field of activity and are at the stage of professional and economic growth. One way or another, headhunting makes it possible to increase the competitiveness of a company by providing it with highly professional specialists for whom professional, material, and psychological opportunities for realizing the accumulated potential at the moment in his enterprise are limited.

The great difficulty in the work of a headhunter lies in the ability to identify problematic issues in a potential candidate’s enterprise and give them the opportunity to materialize them in a company that is interested in this specialist. Modern management: principles and rules / Ed. V. I. Danilov - Danilyants. M. - Nizhny Novgorod, 2012. P. - 58.. The tasks facing the headhunter are further complicated by the fact that in modern conditions of a market economy, all information relating to the activities of the enterprise and its employees is confidential and closed. Of course, headhunting should also be as confidential as possible, as emphasized in the article “Seven Myths of Novosibirsk Headhunting.” Otherwise, great difficulties may arise for the customer company, headhunting company, or potential applicant for the position.

If during a direct search a consultant must process a large number of questionnaires, meet with candidates, and prepare them for interviews, then headhunters work with a specific order for a specialist occupying a specific position in a specified company.

An important issue when considering a new direction in the selection and assessment of personnel is remuneration. Today, in foreign practice, fees for headhunter services amount to 30-40% of the annual salary of the found professional. In Russia, this amount varies from 25 to 35%. It is important to note that in Russia it is quite difficult to quantify the size of the headhunting market. Firstly, due to the confidentiality of information about this type of business, and secondly, due to the poor development of the market for these services.

Here it is necessary to emphasize once again that headhunting is a search for top management, the need for which is limited by the management pyramid.

It should be noted that headhunting provides for guarantee obligations that are imposed on the agency. If within six months the candidate resigns or is fired, the agency must provide a replacement without charging any fees.

Thus, it should be said that in Russia there is now a powerful struggle for professionals. In a crisis, each company strives to maintain a stable financial position by carrying out certain transformations. The success of a company largely depends on the qualifications of employees, which are significantly related to investments in labor resources.

We can say that it is headhunting that allows you to maintain the labor market at the proper level. This situation forces the company’s management to use new methods of personnel selection and assessment that are adequate to modern operating conditions in a competitive market.

The target of the so-called “headhunters” is exclusively “golden” minds, in other words, highly qualified specialists, experts and gurus in their field. Today in the labor market there is a fierce struggle for super-professionals. How can a headhunter wisely set traps and lure a unique specialist into his network?

HeadHunting (from the English head - head and hunter - hunter) is a traditional method of direct and targeted search for key high-level specialists. Headhunting is the process of luring candidates of interest from one company to another. Such specialists are the company’s “golden” reserve. Thanks to their brilliant ideas, the company develops, achieves success and recognition, and earns incredible sums. And they are the main targets of headhunters. The percentage of highly qualified specialists on the market is small, and today geniuses are closely monitored.

It must be said that there are two types of search: in the first case, the headhunter knows the name and surname of the professional, in the second case, the client voices the requirements and wishes for the candidate, describes the “image” of the specialist. Using this selection method, the company gets its hands on the most successful professionals, top managers, representatives of rare specialties, who will begin to bring profit to the company from the first day of work.

The clients for the search for specialists are usually the largest and successfully developing corporations and market leaders. Let us note that headhunting is by no means a cheap pleasure. What principles does a targeted search for candidates include? How should a headhunter act in his work when going on a “hunt”, and what should he be guided by? What difficulties does he face when searching for “expensive” candidates? Leading labor market experts answer these and other questions. Experts shared the secrets of headhunting with Rabota.ru and conducted a master class on technologies for selecting unique specialists.

Please tell us about the basic principles of headhunting.

“In this business, quality, reputation, confidentiality, knowledge of candidates and understanding of the client’s business are important,” says Igor Shekhterman, managing partner, head of the Executive Search practice of RosExpert, a leading consulting company in the field of management capital.

“The basic principles of headhunting have not changed over the years. First of all, this is a standard privacy policy for both candidates and clients. Our company takes this issue very seriously. And, of course, respect for representatives of both sides,” notes Anastasia Filkina, senior consultant in the Construction and Development practice, Morgan Hunt.

What does this selection method include? Please tell us about the algorithm of actions, methods and stages of selection.

“There are two types of headhunting. The first and most difficult one is that the client tells the headhunter the name of the person he wants on his team. Second, the client presents to the headhunter his vision of the ideal candidate. The position description is often prepared by the “hunter” himself based on a conversation with the customer.

If the client named a specific person, then the headhunter must very carefully prepare for a conversation with the only potential candidate - thoroughly study his biography, think about how he is going to motivate him and “sell” the client’s position, collect information about the candidate on the labor market.

If we are talking about the second, most common type of headhunting (executive search), then the process here often begins with creating a description of the position. This is the result of joint work between the headhunter and the client. Throughout the entire process, close interaction between the consultant and the client is very important. The following is a list of companies. Perhaps the client has priorities among competitors, certain companies whose specialists he would like to see. Next comes identification - finding out the names of people in those positions that may potentially fall within the qualifications of the desired candidate. Once this process is completed, initial contact with potential specialists begins. The first conversation is very important - it determines whether the headhunter will be able to interest the potential candidate and whether their meeting will ultimately take place. This is followed by an interview process and the selection of usually three final candidates to meet with the client. The consultant finds out all the missing details of the resume, “breaks through” the specialist’s reputation in the market, and supplements the CV with his own comments. Before showing a candidate to a client, it is very important to find out his reputation - there are often cases when a client refuses to meet with a specialist because of his bad reputation. If this happens, the client may have questions about the competence of the headhunter he hired.

There is always a one-year guarantee for headhunter services: if a successful candidate leaves the client company within a year, the headhunter is obliged to find a replacement without additional remuneration,” says Polina Kutaeva, independent consultant, executive search & headhunting, specialization “Oil and Gas”.

“We begin the search process by determining the candidate’s profile, which includes an analysis of the business and corporate culture of the client company, defining the objectives of the position, requirements for the candidate and compensation package, and developing a search strategy. Next, we begin implementing the search strategy that we have outlined: we form an initial list of potential candidates, discuss it with the client, conduct interviews with candidates, analyze their experience, collect recommendations, and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses.

Based on the results of the interview, we present the strongest and most suitable for the given role to the client, advise and help the client make a decision, making comparative analysis all finalists. When selecting a finalist, we assist the client in discussing and drawing up a job offer, and conduct negotiations with the candidate.

After signing an offer to work with a finalist candidate, our work does not end - we provide consultations on the effective adaptation of a top manager to the company, interact with the candidate and the client, receiving feedback from them, and help build effective interaction and cooperation,” says Igor Shekhterman.

“Searching for senior executives is a special area of ​​headhunting. It requires almost thorough knowledge of the market and candidates. Morgan Hunt's specialization by industry and activity allows us to maintain a high level of professionalism for each team or working group. The search is carried out in several successive stages.

In our work, we use direct search - through our database of specialists and recommendations. Potential candidates are carefully assessed and selected in accordance with the job description. A comprehensive assessment of the compliance of the wishes of both parties - the employer and the specialist - is carried out. After all, this is a kind of compromise of interests, which ultimately leads either to an agreement or to a continuation of the search. By presenting the employer with a long list of promising candidates with whom work has already been carried out, the most promising ones are identified. Morgan Hunt assigns a manager to coordinate work on all issues. It accumulates all information as the project progresses. As a result, the client is provided with a short list of 3-5 people for a personal interview. An important principle in all work is to maintain constant feedback with both the employer and the candidate. And we strictly adhere to it,” notes Anastasia Filkina.

How should a “headhunter” behave? Is there a headhunter code of conduct?

“I would name several fundamental points that are important when working with any client, including in the field of executive search: always act in the interests of clients, without violating ethical standards for interaction with clients and candidates, maintaining the confidentiality and objectivity of information; fulfill our obligations to them, inform the client about all stages of work on the vacancy, providing high quality services. Also, the consultant must be “flexible,” but it is also important to be able to argue your point of view and explain your disagreement with the client’s position if such a situation arises,” says Igor Shekhterman.

“Morgan Hunt experts are individual. However, everyone is united by knowledge of the clients' business in the area in which they operate. Each expert is responsible for one, maximum two industries in which he is most knowledgeable. He knows the key players in the field, trends and strong candidates. Clients highly value such experts.

The main thing is humanity, customer focus, reasoned and at the same time delicate defense of your decision. The expert begins to cooperate with the client, armed with the necessary information: what is special about the client’s business, what difficulties the employing company faces. Accordingly, there is always an opportunity to try to convince the client of the rationality and success of the option,” shares his experience Anastasia Filkina.

“The first and basic rule of a headhunter is absolute confidentiality of information received from the client and candidate. It is on this rule that our business is entirely based. The second rule is client untouchability. The consultant should not offer employment to employees of the client company. There was an interesting case in my practice: I was working on a position and negotiating with several candidates from one company at once. A few days later, the head of this company called me and asked me not to “poach” people from his team. However, the only solution to this problem was to become a client of our executive search company, which he subsequently did.

By classical rules An executive search consultant should also never offer a job to a candidate he has already hired, unless the specialist has left the client company.
Another important rule- constant contact and feedback with both the client and the candidate. The consultant should always keep the people with whom he is working on the project informed about what is happening. Often this scheme works better in a “consultant-client” relationship, but classic executive search also involves working closely with candidates, since their level in this case is very high, and each specialist is considered a potential client. In my practice, there was a case when, having found a candidate, we spent a long time persuading him to accept an offer from a client, because we understood that this was a brilliant chance both for our ambitious candidate and an absolute hit in the top ten. As a result, he accepted the client’s offer, six months later received a significant promotion and still works in this company,” says Polina Kutaeva.

Should headhunters undergo special training in searching and selecting exclusive personnel?

“In order to gain the right to work in the field of executive search and competently evaluate high-level candidates, a headhunter must have the appropriate expertise and training,” notes Anastasia Filkina.

“The main training and deep immersion in technology occurs during the actual work in the company. Of course, specialization is also important. Our consultants begin as generalists and eventually develop industrial or functional specializations, which increases their value as experts. Each consultant must be a business partner for the client - know and understand the trends in the industrial sector and the client’s business, be not only a performer, but also offer new non-standard solutions,” believes Igor Shekhterman.

“It is imperative to explain to the person the principles of a headhunter’s work, the algorithm of actions and the rules for conducting interviews. The rest is a matter of the personality of the “bounty hunter.” A headhunter must be curious; without this quality (in the good sense of the word) a true “talent seeker” will not work. The consultant must constantly be on the lookout for non-standard methods of personnel selection. Undoubtedly, this must be an experienced person. In the West, headhunters are mainly people over 40 with extensive life and professional experience. Another important quality for a headhunter is the ability to extract the necessary information from various sources, analyze the situation in each specific industry and in the labor market as a whole. However, in my opinion, there is no need for any special education here, because, for example, such a bright journalist of our time as Vladimir Pozner is a biologist by training,” says Polina Kutaeva.

What can you say about the benefits of headhunting? Are there any disadvantages to this selection method? What difficulties do you face when exclusively searching for specialists?

“An absolute advantage for an employing company that is aware of the need to attract a top manager is professional assistance from a specialized agency for the search and selection of senior executives. The latter can offer candidates who have proven themselves in the market, but it is difficult to reach them quickly and efficiently on your own. In this regard, the authority and reputation of the headhunter in the market works. If we talk about the disadvantages, I would call them differently - difficulties. For example, difficulties in choosing when there are several candidates left on the short list, each of which is valuable for the employing company: it is difficult to make a choice in favor of one or the other. In such cases, more personal meetings with the candidate may be necessary,” says Anastasia Filkina.

“The undoubted advantage of headhunting is the author’s creative approach to the execution of each project. There are no standard solutions when searching for a candidate; sometimes they are found in the most unexpected places. Once, for example, I found a successful candidate while on vacation and met a married couple on the beach. It turned out that we worked in the same industry and, having asked for recommendations on one of the current projects, I received contacts of a smart specialist.

The disadvantages include the high cost of services of a professional headhunter and the length of time it takes to complete an order. A senior executive search project can last a year. It’s also that the work of a “headhunter” is connected on both sides with working with people. On each side, something unexpected can happen: the client can cancel the search or change the requirements for a successful candidate, in turn, the candidate at the last moment can refuse the position offered to him, and then the search must start all over again.

In the age of the Internet and the universal availability of information, thanks to networks such as LinkedIn, clients have access to candidates directly, making it increasingly difficult for headhunters to have a unique database of candidates. This does not replace the work of bounty hunters, but it makes it more difficult. The second difficulty is the so-called “access to the body.” The level of candidates in headhunting is sometimes so high that it can be quite difficult to break through the secretaries’ shield. However, for this, headhunters have their own arsenal of tricks, which I will not reveal,” says Polina Kutaeva.

“The advantage of contacting a company that provides executive search services is that headhunters know the candidate market very well, have serious analytical resources and can find the right candidate much faster, taking into account the business development strategy and the client’s current objectives. For mass recruitment this technology personnel search (direct search) is too expensive, requiring serious time and money costs.

As you know, the success formula of any company directly depends on the selection of personnel, who ultimately “decide everything.” Issues related to the selection of qualified personnel are relevant throughout the world. They also confront domestic companies and organizations. After all, Russia's entry into a market economy has created an acute shortage of highly qualified specialists. This is due to the fact that business growth is proceeding at a fairly rapid pace, and a large army of personnel with significant work experience and a good education, it simply cannot appear so quickly. In-house education does not solve the problem either. After all, many enterprises want to get the specialist they need “here and now”.

Headhunting will help you find a way out of this situation - this is a personnel selection technology that involves a targeted search, as well as the subsequent attraction of the most promising and valuable personnel.

Definition of the concept

Headhunting is a method that allows for the direct selection of highly qualified specialists who have certain skills. Moreover, positions of senior and middle management managers are considered as vacant. This expression is literally translated as “headhunting.”

For those familiar with this field, it is no secret that in previous years the word “headhunting” was nothing more than professional slang. Moreover, it was used only in a narrow circle of specialists. Journalists, who often use it in their materials published in the media, helped this concept become more widespread.

Headhunting is not a new method, but it is a little widespread method, which at the same time is very promising. It allows the company to select especially valuable, so-called individual specialists. Moreover, the candidates themselves, as a rule, are not at all looking for a new job. That is why headhunting specialists are required to make efforts to interest a highly qualified employee to consider their personnel offer and change their current job.

Relevance of the method

How popular is this approach? To determine its relevance in our country, special studies were carried out. 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 heading companies in all key areas National economy countries.

What did the analysis of the data obtained show? The results of the study indicated that today the Russian senior manager considers attracting highly qualified personnel to the position of top managers as his priority task. Companies also need highly specialized specialists. At the same time, numerous examples of headhunting indicate that in our country such personnel selection is carried out by searching for top-level specialists who have a wealth of synthesized potential combined with deep professional training and long-term practical management experience. In addition, many domestic companies also need to recruit mid-level specialists with highly specialized skills and knowledge.

History of appearance

Headhunting technologies first began to be used in the early twenties of the last century in the United States. It was during this period that company directors began to look for employees with the help of agencies specially hired for this purpose. In the forties, an employment service appeared. These were the agencies that, for the first time in history, began to advertise vacancies for such workers who could not be in military service. Of course, such jobs were intended for men, but for the most part the applicants were women.

In the mid-forties of the last century, the very concept of “headhunting” arose in the United States. It applied to agencies that, after the end of World War II, sought highly qualified executives and specialists for companies.

Headhunting technologies 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 annual salary of the professional they have selected. Moreover, the need for such organizations that help solve personnel problems is constantly growing. For example, in the USA there are more than 3,500 of them, and in Canada - over 1,350.

Headhunting in Russia developed only in the early 90s. In our country, it began to be actively used with the arrival of such foreign companies as Nicholson, Egon Zender, Morgan Hunt and others. Somewhat later, Russian agencies arose, of which today there are already more than fifty. Moreover, most of them are concentrated in Moscow.

Today, headhunting is a method of recruiting personnel, which is one of the most effective and promising, although not very common. Indeed, in regions remote from the capital, it still has very limited use.

Scope of application

Modern practice of external candidate selection 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 fill low-level vacancies. Recruiting is needed to select mid-level personnel. Headhunting is a method that allows you to select highly qualified specialists, as well as managers.

Screening is nothing more than “superficial selection”. It is carried out according to a number of formal characteristics, including age and education, work experience and gender. After receiving a large number of resumes, the selection is made by the customer himself. In this case, the recruitment agency only plays the role of a supplier of suitable applicants.
Recruiting refers to a deeper selection. When applying it, many business qualities of the candidate and his personal characteristics are taken into account. This selection is carried out by the recruiting agency itself, using its own database of applicants, formed on the basis of responses to advertisements in the media. The final result of the work will directly depend on the experience of the recruiter himself, as well as on the quality of the applicants.

Headhunting methods are “qualitative search”. When using them, the specifics of the customer’s business are taken into account, and their working environment is also taken into account. Headhunting considers the personal and business qualities of a candidate, acting directly, and not through posting job advertisements in the media. This is how it differs from screening and recruiting. After all, to select a manager, you don’t need those candidates who submitted their resumes to the appropriate Internet portals, or those who responded to an open vacancy. Most of those considered by headhunting are employed. They get high salaries and don't 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 monitor deforestation in preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Such a candidate was required not only to have work experience and possess professional knowledge. This specialist also had to speak two foreign languages. It took the agency seven months to fill such a vacancy. The required specialist was found in another region, and his consent to move was supported by the provision of a personal karate trainer, large bonuses, social packages, etc.

Determining the company's needs

Is headhunting really necessary? In our country, its relevance is confirmed by the existing shortage of qualified specialists and the absence on the Internet of a large number of resumes of top and middle managers. It is not easy for any company to find not only a worthy enterprise manager, but also production managers, experienced technologists and chief accountants, technical and financial directors, as well as managers involved in the field of high technology.

In general, headhunting is a carefully designed project, created individually for each client. Moreover, its implementation consists of several very important stages. At the first stage, the needs of the enterprise are determined. This preliminary stage, during which negotiations take place between company representatives and recruitment agency specialists. The result of such a meeting is to identify the client’s needs and the necessary professional qualities of the future employee. Based on the data obtained, the hand hunter determines the profile of the company’s activities and the conditions that exist in this market segment. In addition, there is a need to identify the company’s competitors and possible candidates for the position. But even after identifying all the key items of the order, the hand hunter does not stop working with the client. After all, with the most precise formulation of the task, the success of finding 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 amount of his salary, as well as bonuses and bonuses, benefits, range of work responsibilities, professional and personal qualities. The reasons why this vacancy appeared, the place that the employee will occupy in the structure of the organization, as well as the prospects for his promotion are also clarified.

What else does headhunting consider? The principles and technologies of this method involve determining the detailed parameters of the client organization, the goals of its activities, financial situation, development strategies, internal subordination structure, management principles and internal corporate ethics. Knowing such nuances is very important for a headhunter. Indeed, in the absence of such information, a potential specialist will not show due confidence in a consultant from a recruitment agency. This will dramatically reduce the latter’s chances of getting the person interested and completing their job.

Information analysis

This is the next stage of the recruitment agency's work. 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 market analysis. In this case, it is important for the consultant to use the data obtained at the first stage of his work, that is, when determining all the conditions of the order. It is worth keeping in mind that the process that involves researching a market segment is quite lengthy. At the same time, all actions of the headhunter should be aimed at conducting an analysis of the company’s competing enterprises, namely:

• studying their financial condition;
• establishing the qualification level of the required specialists;
• identification of wages and working conditions;
• compiling a list of potential candidates.

Each of the above actions will require the recruitment agency representative to use a large amount of resources. This could be experience, personal connections, etc.

In the process of conducting research, a specialist identifies a list of companies and the geographical limitations of the segment. Based on the analysis of the data obtained, a suitable candidate is identified. However, at first the list of suitable persons can be quite long. It must contain information about those potential candidates whose qualifications fully meet the requirements of the order. Next, a careful selection is carried out. As a result, the list is significantly reduced. The final version is subject to mandatory approval by the client.

Selection of candidates

After agreeing on the list of possible candidates, the agency specialist will have to work with each of them. To do this, the headhunter contacts these people and finds out how interested they are in collaborating 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 hand hunter uses several techniques, among which the most common is direct contact. In addition, a recruitment agency specialist can use his personal connections, 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 you need such a detailed handhunter report? Using it, the customer’s specialists select the specialists who are most interested in them. After this, an interview is organized with each candidate.

The recruitment agency consultant acts as an intermediary in this case. It helps both parties prepare for the conversation and find a common language. Based on the results of the negotiations, the client determines the best specialist with whom an employment contract is concluded.

Further consultation

And even after signing an employment agreement, the recruitment agency does not stop contacts with the customer organization. In this case, a consultant is needed to resolve problems and conflicts that inevitably arise at the initial stage of work. The duration of such support ranges from 6 months to 1 year.

Pros and cons of the method

The main advantages of headhunting are that recruitment agencies select personnel in the specialized market, among employees of competing companies. When using other methods, you may miss a large number of highly qualified specialists who are already employed.

The advantage of headhunting is the 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 an existing employee with similar professional experience.

But there are also negative aspects to handhunting. The fact is that the candidate selected as a result of a lengthy search can be lured away by competing firms. To avoid this unpleasant moment, companies sometimes pay an employee to guarantee his long-term work. In addition, a not very good specialist can simply bribe a recruitment agency consultant in order to get a better position for himself. But in general, the benefits of this method far outweigh its negative aspects.

Special literature

How to conduct headhunting correctly? Books on this topic introduce everyone to the competent organization of the process of searching for senior personnel. Special literature is of great help in cases where it is necessary to find rare and key specialists both in their professionalism and in their field of work.

The book “Headhunting in 15 Minutes” is very popular among interested readers. Its author, Vladimir Yakub, touches on such a wide range of issues that reading this work will be of interest to many specialists, including customer contact managers, professional negotiators and those involved in industrial marketing. However, the book will be more interesting for those who work in such a highly intellectual, complex and at the same time performing socially significant tasks field of headhunting.