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Headhunting: a selection of the best - Interim management The purpose of a headhunt is to identify and present to a company the most suitable candidates for a particular management position, from which the company will

Headhunting: a selection of the best

Headhunting is a special way of filling vacancies to attract managers and key experts. Finding the right leaders is a huge challenge for companies, and there is fierce competition for the really good ones. Statistics show that the headhunting market has doubled since 2015: the global HR services market is now worth €582 billion, of which headhunting is worth €27 billion. Why work with a headhunter? What are the ethical considerations and how can AI support the work of headhunters? These questions are answered in our blog post, and we also look at how an interim manager can help bounty hunting!

Staff shortages are a huge challenge for companies. Staggering figures from the Korn Ferry report suggest that by 2030, more than 85 million jobs could go unfilled around the world because there are not enough suitably qualified people to fill them. This adds up to a total of $8.5 trillion in unrealised annual income. The shortage of labour is partly demographic: in Japan and some European countries, for example, the declining birth rate and an ageing population are behind the problem. The latter is reflected in the fact that retiring managers and experts are currently not being replaced by enough younger people, leaving highly skilled positions vacant.

With a growing shortage of skilled and good managers, it's no wonder that finding the right person to fill a vacant management position is very difficult. The length of time it takes to find a new manager depends on the sector, luck and skills, but generally speaking, it takes between 3 and 6 months. And that's not even counting the fact that management contracts require several months' notice.

So you can see that finding a new manager can be a very lengthy process. Professional headhunters can support and speed up the process somewhat. Headhunting and recruitment are related terms, often confused. Let's clear up the terminology and find out the difference between the two.

Headhunting and recruitment - What are the differences and similarities?

The differences between headhunting and recruitment are often not obvious to those outside the HR field. Headhunting and recruitment are two key processes in the labour market. Both methods are aimed at finding the right candidate for a particular position, but there are many differences between them, as well as many similarities. Whichever method is used, it is important to build a conscious approach, a network of contacts, the right offer and to have someone with a lot of experience leading the process.

The biggest difference is that headhunters are mostly in the area of senior and middle management or key experts, while recruitment can be at any level of the company. Headhunting firms use a specialised toolkit of direct search tools. During the process, headhunters proactively seek out and convince potential candidates that they are worth a change. In most cases, the people who take on management and specialist roles are not job seekers, but have a job and are happy with it. It is the headhunter's job to visit them and make them aware of why it is worth pursuing a career with the company they are working for. Direct approaches can sometimes take months, and the remuneration is in most cases higher than for recruitment.

Recruitment is a more passive method, where candidates apply to job advertisements and companies select from the applicants. This is also a process, but its length and phases are more predictable. It should be noted that for some positions, recruitment is also a huge challenge! Think of manufacturing, of factories employing thousands, tens of thousands of people. In many cases, the domestic labour market is not able to cope with this huge demand for labour, so foreign labour has to be brought in through recruitment agencies.

The recruitment and headhunting process can be managed by the manager, but experience shows that it is much more effective and efficient if the search is carried out by experts. In the case of headhunting in particular, headhunters have an extensive network of contacts, experience, industry knowledge and expertise. 

Hiring headhunters has many advantages for companies. We have listed them all!

The benefits of headhunting

An expert approach

Headhunters have the industry knowledge and network to identify the right candidates immediately. This saves significant time and reduces the risk of errors in the recruitment process.

Access to restricted markets

Finding talent in certain industries or fields can be extremely difficult. Headhunters can operate effectively in such limited markets, helping companies to access specialist knowledge.

Finding high-quality candidates

Headhunters focus on finding high-quality candidates who are not necessarily active job seekers. This means that companies can source employees who will contribute to the successful development of the company.

100% confidence

Headhunters help companies maintain a confidential relationship with candidates. Discretion can be particularly important as these are typically senior positions, not to mention the fact that headhunter candidates are most often working somewhere, so it is necessary to create the right level of trust.

Increasing efficiency

Headhunting tends to find the right candidates more quickly than traditional recruitment processes. This saves companies time and resources.

Ethical aspects of headhunting

The headhunting process is highly effective, but there are ethical considerations to bear in mind before embarking on it. On the one hand, there is the question of trust! Companies who hire a headhunter or a headhunting company place a huge amount of trust in their expertise, which is unethical to abuse. In any company, the most important positions are those of management, middle management and experts, as these roles have the greatest impact on the life of the company and business decisions. If the wrong people fill these positions, it can put the very existence of the company at risk.

It is essential that the headhunter if he or she is also in an advisory role, is objective, not biased, has the needs of the company in mind and does not seek to impose his or her views and opinions at all costs.

Headhunters must maintain strict confidentiality between clients and candidates. Disclosure of this information to unauthorised persons is unacceptable. The treatment of candidates is a particularly sensitive area from an ethical point of view. As already described, the people targeted by headhunters almost always have a job and have signed a contract with a company to support its development. The headhunter, on the other hand, approaches the candidate with the very aim of persuading him to break that promise and break the deal. Some argue that this is a fine line between ethical and unethical. Apart from the ethical issue, there is another important aspect worth mentioning when it comes to modern bounty hunting, and that is artificial intelligence!

The use of artificial intelligence in bounty hunting

Artificial intelligence has come crashing down on the whole world. Although technology has been evolving for a long time, and in some cases has even become part of our everyday lives, it seems that we are now once again at a milestone where it is gaining a foothold in a wide range of professional and private lives. People are increasingly aware of innovations and the range of possibilities has expanded considerably.

According to LinkedIn's Global Recruiting Trend survey, the most useful tool for selecting, screening and managing candidates is the use of artificial intelligence. It can help save time, eliminate human bias, place the best candidates in the most appropriate positions and, last but not least, save money.

AI is also making inroads into headhunting, supporting the search for candidates, and enabling a much more accurate and efficient search. Thanks to automation, technology can take over parts of the process, but in reality, it can help enormously in making the process much more transparent from the candidate's point of view and communication smoother.

The collection and analysis of data not only make it easier to search but also to assess candidates: relying on data is a much more objective way of maintaining objectivity. However, it is essential that emotional intelligence, where technology is less proficient, cannot be excluded, so human intervention will certainly be needed in the future.

Inuit, for example, has already taken action: it is developing an algorithm-driven digital platform that can score and rank candidate profiles. It uses the most relevant characteristics of the ideal profile as a basis for selection. In one case study, the company was able to filter out 13,000 developer profiles and then focus on the top 1%. In addition, the average 62-day hiring time was reduced to 30 days.

Artificial intelligence is reaching ever-higher levels, but it hasn't always been this way. In 2014, for example, Amazon put AI on the battlefield: it wanted to create technology that would select the best candidates without bias. However, the machine learning algorithm made a mistake and considered 'male' CVs as neutral, which meant that women were not even given a chance. Today, by learning from such blunders, generative AI can reduce bias and filter out, for example, phrases that might discourage women from applying for the position.

So future headhunters must be prepared for AI to become part of their everyday lives.

Interim in the bounty hunt

The interim professional can play a huge role in the process of finding the right leader. Their expertise and experience can support professional headhunters at every point. For example, during the selection and interview process, the decades of management knowledge that an interim can bring to the table can be particularly important.

Another area in which an interim can provide support is in interim management replacement. The more senior the position, the longer the search and recruitment process, which can take months, six months or even more. During this period the interim manager can take over from the outgoing manager until a new permanent manager is in place. The interim manager comes to the company as an outsider, not an employee, not seeking to build a career in the company but to strengthen and lead the team for a limited period.

Let the best people take the lead until a permanent manager is found, and find out how the interim service works at Interim Ltd.

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