Why a headhunter might not be for you

2014 The Year for Headhunting
January 8, 2014
The basics – why would someone leave their current role?
March 18, 2014

Why a headhunter might not be for you

The foundations of Eagle Headhunters were built on honesty and is the reason that the company exists today and will exist for many years to come. Every part of the recruitment process needs honesty – anything but and the end result will be negative.

This is why we sometimes have to turn business down and have even done so in the tough times. A scenario is that we meet with a client to discuss a specific role that they need for their business. The client naturally wants the best in their field and obviously that is what we strive to deliver. However through the course of the meeting it becomes apparent that there are issues that will negate the possibilities of us achieving this – these issues could be that the client does not have a strong reputation in the market, the salary is not competitive and they cannot be flexible, they are expecting someone to make a sideways move with no career progression or perhaps they are based in an isolated part of the country. Without any flexibility any one of these issues could mean that the search becomes nigh on impossible and if we were to take on the assignment the client would pay a retainer and expect results. Those results would be hard to attain and the client would become extremely frustrated especially having paid a retainer. We would also be working harder on this assignment than on any other and would also become dispirited which in turn leads to a breakdown of relationship with the client.

Being honest in the first instance and explaining to the client that headhunting would not be the solution would lead to one of two outcomes. The first would be the client thanking us for our time and trying to find another recruitment solution or, and what we try to achieve, the client discusses their options with us about what they could be flexible on – the candidate works from home, they keep the same base salary but offer bonuses, they put in a career progression programme etc.

To summarise Eagle Headhunters will always approach people at the top of their discipline so unless a client can attract them with salary, career progression, strong culture, strong market reputation then maybe headhunting is not the answer.