Curious About Headhunting? Can Someone Explain How It Works in Detail?

Dear all,

Could someone please explain to me in detail about headhunting?

Thanks and Regards, Venkat Prasad

Hi,

Headhunting is nothing but a tendency of organizations to attract or take employees from other similar organizations, especially rivals or competitors. Generally, this is done by offering them a huge salary and a good position. Consultancies offer headhunting services and charge a percentage of the selected candidate's CTC.

Can someone provide more information on this? Perhaps someone from a job/HR consultancy?

Regards,
Chaitali

Headhunting is basically a tool used to cut the recruitment cost or to target the required person's wishes. EAFIL

Hi All,

Headhunting is all about: obtaining the required information or searching/tracing a resource whose whereabouts are unknown or about whom you have very little information (e.g., only the contact number or the company where they work). It's similar to a treasure hunt - very challenging, adventurous, and full of fun. However, if you get trapped, one should be very smart, confident, and proactive while headhunting.

Regards, Nisha

Dear Venkat,

Headhunting is similar to profiling the candidates. Each organization has its own competitors and rivals in that particular industry. If one organization is looking for a marketing manager in the FMCG sector, the organization will surely seek candidates from the same industry. Recruiters will start narrowing down their competitors and target the marketing managers of their rivals, approaching them to join their organization. This practice is commonly seen in IT organizations where the attrition rate is high, and talent acquisition poses a significant challenge for HR.

With regards,
K. Jayavel

Hi,

How are you?

Headhunting means finding the effective candidate (who has good knowledge and skills for an exact match to our vacancy) and recruiting that candidate by offering high pay and perks. It is called headhunting.

Have a good day.

Hi,

My name is Gsr.sumana, and I am pursuing my master's in HRM. I got a small doubt whether "head hunting" and "job poaching" are similar or if these two are different terms. Could anyone please help me solve this query?

Regards,
Sumana.Gsr

Hi Everyone,

Headhunting involves poaching candidates from competitors.
For example, if you are tasked with headhunting for the VP of Marketing position, how would you approach finding suitable candidates?

Could you provide some solutions for this situation?

Regards,
R. Vigneshkumar
HR Executive

Hi all,

Headhunting is nothing but finding the best candidate from your competitors using references or contacts. It is an excellent recruitment strategy where you can acquire the best resources at minimal cost. Nowadays, competitors do not allow headhunting because they do not want to lose well-trained employees, and it may also be against the law. Therefore, companies often engage third parties to conduct headhunting.

Thanks,
Prasad

For conducting headhunting, you have to first identify the competitors of your client. Obtain at least one reference or contact from the competitor. This can be accomplished by leveraging all your networks, conducting internet searches, etc. With this contact, you can connect with the right person.

Asking someone directly about a job switch opportunity is not unethical. There are ethical ways to conduct headhunting. Headhunting is an effective method for sourcing suitable candidates.

Regards, Prasanna Shembekar Executive Search Consultant Energy Avenues.

Hi all,

I am new to this site; I just want to share what I know about headhunting. There are two kinds of job seekers in the market: active job seekers and passive job seekers.

Active job seekers are people who are readily available for us, like fresh graduates, but passive job seekers tend to remain with the firm itself. Attracting such passive job seekers is very tough. The process of converting passive job seekers into active job seekers is called headhunting.

Hi,

I would like to share my knowledge on Head Hunting.

Only consultancy can perform headhunting for its clients. Headhunting is all about fulfilling your client's employee requirement by offering him a good employee from its competitor's firm. Headhunting is basically used to reach those people who do not post their resumes on job portals because of a few reasons. Maybe an employee is scared of being caught by his or her present employer, or maybe an employee cannot go through a long process of posting his or her resume on a job portal. There is also the possibility that the employee is satisfied with his or her present job.

To do headhunting, one requires a lot of presence of mind and good convincing power. To reach that particular employee or position for which your client has a requirement, the headhunter has to use many excuses, as this is the only way of not being caught by the competitor's firm. But nowadays, even firms are taking steps to avoid headhunters' activities, as it is a great loss to them when an employee leaves to join another firm.

In my personal opinion, I think Head Hunting is not ethical business practice. If you headhunt employees from another firm using excuses to poach that particular employee you are looking for, it may lead to retaliation where another firm headhunts your employees. This cycle could continue and only increase attrition in your firm.

Please comment on my view.

Hi,

You need to take utmost care while headhunting as companies are adopting "coopetition." IT companies have "No Poach" agreements between them.

Regards,
Bhupesh

You are correct, Shabz. Headhunting is not a business ethic. However, you are not sure that if you do not do it with others, others will also stop doing it with you.

Headhunting can be done in quite an ethical way. You develop some personal relations with a few key candidates in various companies. These people will help you by providing "active" candidates from their companies who are not registered on portals or perhaps the portals you are using.

This works out very smoothly and without breaking any ethical values at all.

Neela, you are also correct. A passive member can be converted to an active one if you have good listening ability. You should also be a good counselor. Isn't it?

Under this method, through close contacts with employees from other companies, they find the best person to fill a position in a company.

For example, if there is a marketing manager position vacant, you need a person who is proficient in that field. By leveraging contacts in another company, one can identify the most eligible person for that position and then approach them. This method is commonly used for high-level jobs.

Hey, nowadays, headhunting generally means finding the candidate whose details are not available with you. For example, if a company needs a Marketing Manager from one of their competitors and his details are not available, the placement agency starts calling people from the target company and tries to get the number of the concerned person from someone who is working in that particular company. It might seem to be a long process, but it pays off.

Cheers,
Amit

Hi, can anybody tell me the steps of headhunting, who has practical exposure to this?

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Headhunting doesn't only mean poaching candidates from competitors, but sometimes there are also imaginary positions where a consultant has to research, think, and very reasonably pull a person from another organization who would be a fit for the requirement.

Headhunting is a process of aiming your search so that the arrow hits the right person. This person may be from a competitor or completely from a different organization.

Thanks and cheers!

Headhunting is to tap and hire the highly experienced employees of rival firms operating in the same industry to bring expertise to the organization by persuading them through higher salary or designation.

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Thank you for the opportunity to review and correct the text provided. I have made the necessary spelling and grammar corrections to improve clarity and readability. Please let me know if you need further assistance.

Hi all, I want to share the process of headhunting. For example, if we want to recruit a person for testing, we just need to note down all the companies involved in testing. After that, we need to find the company's contact number. We should call the company and ask to speak with someone, for instance, Srinu or Laxmi, etc. We can then ask them to connect us with the particular person. They will do so. After that, you need to introduce yourself to that person and discuss the requirements and additional benefits. If the person is interested, we can proceed. Otherwise, we can ask for contact numbers of their colleagues and reach out to them. This is the general procedure.

Thank you.