Headhunting and recruiting are both talent acquisition processes, but they aren’t the same.
While headhunting is all about a proactive strategy to find top talent, recruiting focuses on reactive role-filling. Understanding the differences between headhunting and recruiting is essential to figure out which one will best benefit your business.
In a job market where time-to-hire is higher than ever at 44 days, figuring out which talent acquisition process is best for you can help you save costs and find a successful hire.
In this article, we’ll go over the differences and similarities between recruiting and headhunting to help you make the best decision about which talent acquisition process to use.
What is Headhunting?
Headhunting is a proactive strategy that targets passive candidates – a.k.a. those not actively seeking out new roles. Headhunting is a talent acquisition strategy targeted at high-level or specialized roles where a general candidate pool may not be effective.
Instead of sending out a typical job ad for a high-level role, such as Chief Financial Officer, companies or headhunting agencies will actively seek out candidates who fit the criteria through online research, networking, and referrals.
Headhunting is not effective for every role. In fact, headhunting for roles that don’t require it can be a waste of time and resources for hiring teams.
However, certain roles can be more efficiently and effectively filled by headhunting instead of recruiting, including:
- Executive or C-suite roles, such as CEO, CFO, or CHRO
- Industry-specific roles, such as investment banking, executive management, and tech
- Leadership positions, such as high-level management
Benefits and Challenges of Headhunting
Like any talent acquisition strategy, headhunting can come with its own advantages and drawbacks.
The top benefits of headhunting include:
- Getting access to top-tier talent
- Finding the best-fit candidates for specific needs such as niche and expertise
- Focusing on a small amount of potential talent, rather than a large pool of candidates, which allows hiring teams to look deeper into each candidate
The top challenges of headhunting include:
- Requiring more thorough time and resources to be effective
- Risking future candidate poaching
- Needing a longer time-to-hire than traditional recruitment
Headhunting Process
Although the headhunting process is straightforward, it takes significant resources including time, energy, and budget.
Here are the basic headhunting steps:
- Identify target talent, including their experience level, skill level, industry, and any other pertinent information
- Research candidate profiles and roles that align with your targeted information through avenues such as LinkedIn
- Connect with candidates through personalized outreach, and continue conversations to build a relationship with the candidate
- Conduct interviews, negotiate benefits and salary, and onboard the chosen candidate
Due to the resource-intensive nature of headhunting, many organizations turn to headhunter agencies to find the right talent without sacrificing day-to-day operations.
Headhunting firms carry expertise in the strategy, typically have pre-established leads, and can specialize in different industries and niches, making it easier for organizations to find a best-fit agency that will get the desired results. For example, organizations seeking a high-level candidate in financial services may use Michael Page or Korn Ferry, while those looking for specialized talent such as a Chief AI Officer may use tech-specific firms such as Keller.
While organizations can headhunt internally, agencies offer many benefits and specialized expertise that can make the process more effective and more efficient.
What is Recruiting?
Recruiting is what many typically think of when they think about hiring. It’s a broad, reactive talent acquisition strategy that targets and engages with active job seekers. Recruiting relies on acquisition methods such as job postings, job ads, and career fairs to attract and engage job seekers.
Unlike headhunting, recruiting is best suited for high-volume roles, including entry-level or mid-level roles such as:
- Internships or junior roles
- Individual Contributors
- Mid-level management
Although recruitment can require more work screening a larger pool of candidates, the recent AI boom has introduced automation and other time-saving tools to speed up the process. Workable’s AI in Hiring 2024 survey found that 44.2% of respondents reported significant acceleration in the hiring process due to AI.
Benefits and Challenges of Recruiting
Recruiting comes with significant advantages compared to headhunting for certain roles, including:
- Access to a wider candidate pool
- Faster hiring process, which also leads to lower resource use
- Cost-effective, especially for high-volume roles
- Less time-intensive than headhunting, with the ability to automate many processes like candidate tracking and interview scheduling
Recruiting also faces several challenges when compared to headhunting, such as:
- General candidate pool makes it ineffective to target specialized or high-level talent
- Can lead to increased chances of a bad-fit hire due to a less in-depth acquisition process
- Ability to attract top talent can be tough due to increased competition from other companies
Recruiting Process
The recruitment process can differ based on organizational needs, but typically includes four basic steps:
- Posting job descriptions or ads on job boards to attract talent
- Shortlisting CVs and screening candidates
- Conducting interviews and administering assessments
- Offering the position to the selected candidate and beginning the onboarding process
Key Similarities and Differences
Recruiting and headhunting are both functions of talent acquisition, and share some similarities as well:
- Legal risks: Both processes require legal and ethical considerations to stay compliant, including following guidelines around data privacy, non-competes, and fair hiring practices.
- End goal: Although they have two different ways of getting there, the end result for both processes is the same – organizations want to acquire talent to fill roles.
- Department: Both processes are overseen by the recruiting or HR department.
- Outsourcing: Both processes can be outsourced to an external agency. However, headhunting is more commonly outsourced than recruiting.
How to determine which to use
So, now you know the differences between headhunting and recruiting – but that doesn’t mean that you automatically know which one is best for your needs.
To decide which talent acquisition method you should use, it’s important to assess your organizational needs and the objective of hiring.
Here are some key questions to ask
- What are my budget and resource limits?
- What level role am I hiring for?
- How urgently do I need to fill the position?
- How specialized is the role?
These questions help you determine what your goals are to help you find the best way to get there. If you are willing to spend the time and resources on finding the absolute best-fit hire for a high-level role, you should choose headhunting. Less specialized roles with faster time-to-hire restrictions should choose recruiting.
FAQs
What are the main differences between headhunting and recruiting?
At its core, headhunting is more focused on locating best-fit candidates, while recruiting focuses on filling roles.
Are these processes typically outsourced?
Headhunting is typically outsourced due to the strategy, time, effort, and cost associated with internal headhunting. Recruiting can be outsourced but is commonly done internally.
How much does it cost to outsource these processes?
Cost will depend on the firm you are using and your unique needs, but headhunting fees are typically 20-25%, and recruitment fees are typically 15-25%.
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