Why is a Headhunter Agency Best Placed to Find My Ideal Candidate?

Recruitment, and the method you choose for it, should always work to your advantage. It’s an area you shouldn’t compromise on. Getting it right first time saves you time and resources in the long-run, and contributes to your bottom line more than many realise.

However, typically you’re staring down the barrel of tight budgets and tight timescales. You’re also faced with a range of recruitment options. How do you know whether to choose a recruitment specialist or a headhunter agency? When is a headhunter agency the best decision? When should you begin the process?

Recruitment Issues

Firstly, recruitment is not a uniform approach whether you’re looking for graduates for your training scheme, or a high-level executive. Attempting to fulfil different roles using the same techniques is problematic. They aren’t the same thing, and require distinctly different methods.

A recruitment agency, job boards, and job advertising, all have their place. For generic and middle-level roles they can get the right candidates in front of an interview panel quickly, and cost-effectively.

Where they don’t work is for executive and senior roles. These positions are more specific, and require a much more refined skill and experience set. Alongside this, typically the best candidates for the roles are not actively seeking to leave their current employment. They are likely dedicated to the position they are in – and this attribute is what makes them ideal for you. These candidates are a rare breed, unique to your industry, and need to be sought out. Only a headhunter agency can do this.

What a Headhunter Agency Does That Other Recruitment Doesn’t

All other forms of recruitment rely on matching alone. Both employer and employee are looking, and it’s a relatively straightforward process of pairing the available person with the available position. This process is all about best-fit. It works, it gets roles filled quickly, and appropriately.

Executive level recruitment, however, can’t simply be ‘best-fit’. It needs to go beyond this and provide the absolute ideal candidate no matter who is actively seeking a position at this point in time.

This requires headhunting: the process of actively identifying, and then engaging, a candidate that is ideal for the role – who didn’t even know they were looking for it. Headhunter agencies identify the micro-level detail of each unique executive role and then search for the candidates currently displaying those skills elsewhere.

This means adverts and databases of available candidates become redundant, and instead the successful placement comes down to the expert research and communication skills of the headhunter.

The Unique Qualities of the Executive Role

The executive role requires a different method of recruitment precisely because each role is unique. Whereas more junior positions can be filled with some degree of compromise, combined with a commitment to train raw material, and to mould to the company culture – this can’t happen at executive level. Executive level positions need those with proven skills and track-records in the industry, a reputation already established, and buy-in to the existing culture. This is a difficult mix to get right. You can’t hope to stumble upon the right candidate through traditional recruitment means.

This problem is further exacerbated by the unique nature of each and every executive role. An executive with the job title ‘Managing Director’ in one organisation will look distinctly different from the same job title in a different organisation. Headhunter agencies seek to identify and understand these unique needs, requirements, and qualities, and find the individuals who are already proving their skill within them.

How to Engage a Headhunter Agency

If you have an executive level role which needs filling, then a headhunter agency is the right choice. Choose wisely. Make sure you choose dedicated headhunters who specialise in executive level positions, and take a bespoke approach to each and every placement.

Eagle Headhunters are dedicated headhunters, leaving no stone unturned to carefully and creatively bring you the right candidate, not just the best fit. To register with us, click here.