Employers, employees, headhunters, and recruiters all understand that the hiring process is somewhat like matching square pegs to square holes. The job market is teeming with potential candidates, all vying for an undeniably limited number of openings. Also, companies have varying needs in the same way candidates have varying strengths and skill sets.
As such, headhunters and recruiters are a vital part of the talent acquisition process. These roles do the job of making the match between companies and new hires. They are responsible for finding the best talent for just the right positions. Due to this, people often use the terms headhunter and recruiter interchangeably. However, while these terms relate to the same line of work, they do not mean the same things.
For starters, headhunters and recruiters do not fill the same types of positions. Furthermore, they have distinct approaches to talent acquisition. A good grasp of these differences can greatly streamline the hiring process, whether recruiting, headhunting or even applying. Read on to learn the scope of headhunting & recruiting and how these roles differ.
Table of Contents:
Headhunting: An Overview
Another (more formal) term for headhunting is executive search. It’s a rather apt description as it does sum up what headhunters do. They source for top-notch prospects to fill executive roles. Vice President (VP), Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO) etcetera; headhunters work to find candidates for positions like these.
Headhunting is a specialized service companies employ to find top talent for senior-level openings. A headhunter could be one person acting on behalf of a client. It could also be a firm doing the same thing.
How Does Headhunting Work?
As stated earlier, it is essentially an executive search, a “hunt” for the best candidate for an executive role. A great way to look at headhunters is as talent scouts. It is typical for a headhunter to have an extensive network and a firm understanding of a specific niche or industry. Being familiar with a space enables the headhunter to pinpoint the ideal hire for a client’s high-level role.
Headhunters do not contact individuals actively looking to fill these roles in the job market. Rather, they target passive candidates, people who already occupy similar positions and aren’t trying to switch jobs. After sufficient screening to ensure the candidate is a great fit for the role, the headhunter reaches out with an attractive offer.
Recruiting: An Overview
Recruiting is a talent acquisition process that involves sourcing, screening, and assessing potential candidates. The goal is to match an individual with a role that is just the right fit. Recruiters often handle this end-to-end, managing everything from searching for talent to negotiating wages and onboarding new hires.
Companies use recruiting to find the most qualified candidates for openings. However, that is not the only option for recruiters. They can work independently (with job seekers and companies) or find employment with agencies or as part of a workforce.
How Does Recruiting Work?
Recruiters get to cast a rather wide net into the job market. This is because they source for candidates across a wide range of positions, from entry-level to executive roles. However, they mostly fill entry and mid-level positions.
Additionally, recruiting is somewhat passive because it’s a process of attracting rather than targeting. Recruiters do not scout and try to make contact with specific individuals. Instead, they hold the door open for active job seekers to approach. Recruiters utilize online ads, job fairs, and professional networking services. This way, interested candidates apply and go through a thorough screening process.
Headhunting vs Recruiting: Similarities
You will find common ground between headhunting and recruiting, first in their objectives. Both of these processes aim to find qualified individuals to occupy job vacancies. Besides searching for talent, they both involve researching and screening potential hires and facilitating the employment process. The other major overlap between headhunting and recruiting lies in the requisites.
Headhunting and recruiting call for a foot firmly planted on either side of the job market. Talent acquisition requires a degree of familiarity with the employer’s psyche and the job seeker’s. As such, headhunters and recruiters must understand the opening and the skills necessary to occupy it. They must also understand the company’s culture and values to ensure the final candidate is a good match.
Top Differences Between Headhunting & Recruiting
Roles
This is one of the central differences between headhunters and recruiters. Headhunting, alternatively executive search, deals mainly with sourcing for executives. Recruiting, however, is tied to a greater range of roles, usually lower and mid-range.
Targets’ Availability
Headhunters usually target professionals who already have a job. These are often individuals who in their current employment, have showcased competence and expertise that paints them as ideal candidates. On behalf of their client, the headhunter makes an offer incentivizing the executive to come for an interview and possibly gain new employment.
For recruiters, the candidate pool is mostly composed of people actively looking for employment. They could be employed, underemployed, and seeking to change careers. Recruiters attract these prospects through job postings on various platforms.
The Approach
As stated above, recruiters utilize a range of tools to reach candidates. These include online job boards, company websites, social media platforms, and career fairs. It’s a broad, more public approach distinct from the highly targeted strategies headhunters employ. Indeed, headhunters make discreet, intentional contact with potential hires through personal connections, industry networks, or direct messaging based on need.
Headhunters are at the forefront of the talent hunt, leading conversations with prospects from the start. In contrast, recruiters often take the backseat during the job search, letting their tools and mediums do the work. When it’s time for screening and interviews, the recruiter takes the wheel.
However, both recruiters and headhunters can use our tool Signal Hire to extract contact details like email addresses, phone numbers, and social media handles to personally approach the prospects or candidates.
Range & Scope
Headhunting is a specialized and personalized service. Companies bring headhunters on board to fill specific and usually hard-to-fill executive or highly technical roles. Thus, the headhunter knows exactly what level of education and experience coupled with additional skills a candidate has to bring to the table.
Recruiting, on the other hand, deals with sourcing prospective hires for a broad range of openings across rank and industry. A company may have an in-house recruiter who works to fill different roles. Recruiters are mostly concerned with lower and mid-tier positions, reducing the necessary level of specialization. Thanks to this, recruiters often have extensive industry or even cross-industry knowledge and exposure.
Industry Focus
Being specialized means headhunters often have a more streamlined network than recruiters. Headhunters usually focus on one industry and hone their links in that sphere. For example, a headhunter who sources for top-tier marketers will be well-connected in the marketing field.
Meanwhile, recruiters tend to have connections across several industries, such as retail, marketing, technology, etc. The typical recruiter is not limited to a certain position and may have to find candidates for various roles. For this reason, recruiters usually have extensive professional networks.
Time & Cost
Generally, headhunting is more expensive and time-consuming than recruiting. The latter does not require as much in-depth research or careful strategizing before contact with candidates. Recruiters use automated tools to gather applicants from the job market they can then screen to find the right match.
However, because of the highly specialized or crucial nature of the opening headhunters have to fill calls for care. Headhunting goes hand in hand with thorough research and a firm understanding of the requirements. The process requires more time and effort and is more costly than recruiting.
Why Companies Use Recruiters & Headhunters
- Save Time
Having a professional do the job of matching openings to viable candidates saves time and effort. Companies can give the task of searching for talent to competent and efficient professionals. Recruiters can speedily fill multiple positions, while headhunters can drastically shorten the time it would take to find top talent.
- Expertise
Headhunters and recruiters have experience in identifying candidates who would be the right fit for certain openings. From past observations, they can pinpoint the skills and abilities that will be of real value in a particular role.
- Leverage Connections
Recruiters and headhunters have access to a network of people from which they can cherry-pick the most qualified for a role. With headhunters, companies enjoy a highly specialized pool of candidates. Meanwhile, recruiters bring an advantage in volume.
Conclusion
As has been shown, headhunting and recruiting are certainly not the same. Though they perform similar functions, each has certain contexts where it best shines. If you’re looking for a specific set of skills and experience level for a senior role, headhunting may be the answer. On the other hand, if you need a range of applicants to fill up entry and mid-level roles, recruiting may be the better path.
