HEADHUNTERS

56 insider OCTOBER 2013

They’re the masters of seduction: the

teasing email, a flirtatious phone call,

and a tentative chat over an after-work

coffee. They’re the employment headhunters,

but are they trying to seduce for you, or your

staff?

Traditional recruitment agencies take a

client’s requirements, look at the candidates

they have registered, place a few adverts and

submit the best people they have available.

But headhunters tap into what is known as

the passive candidate market, which targets

people who are not necessarily looking for a

move. Through professional networks and

various other means their mission is to scope

the market and find that needle in the

haystack.

Headhunters search for the best in class

who are generally successfully working in a

similar role. “We have to pick up the phone

and say ‘the grass is greener over here’, and

their question will be ‘Why?’ The psychology

is different because we’re talking to people

who weren’t contemplating a move,” says

Phil Laycock, head of executive recruitment

at Advanced Resource Managers.

TROPHYSCALPSWhen the best talent is hard to find, it’s time to call in the headhunters. TTiimm EEvveerrsshheedd reports

EXECUTIVE SEARCH THE COSTS

Typically the assignment is handled on an exclusive basis with payment made in three

stages – a retainer fee, on engagement before work has begun; a shortlist fee, on presen-

tation of the candidate shortlist; and finally the placement fee, invoiced on the day the

candidate starts work. Fees can range from 25 to 35 per cent of starting salary, plus the

value of any car allowance. But given market conditions, fees have come under pressure.

“At the senior levels the right person can add a huge amount of bottom line value to

your business,” says James Lock, director of executive search at Communicate

Recruitment Services. “For example, a fantastic internal auditor can save you an awful lot

on your external auditors if they have your finances and accounting in order. So you could

end up paying a headhunter £30,000 instead of paying £500,000 to a big accountancy

firm. On the commercial side the fee may be closer to £50,000, but if they are out there

doing deals they could add millions to your bottom line.”

“We start by mapping the market, it would

usually be in a sector that we know so we’d

have some market knowledge. Once we’ve

got the defined role and person specification,

we look at the companies that are going to

have potentially suitable people in them and

identify which people are doing the roles at

the same sort of level.”

Mapping the market involves investigating

the client’s competitors, looking at the other

main players in their field, and finding out

who is doing a similar job at those compa-

nies. It will often lead a long list of potential

candidates that can have 50 to 150 names

on it. Then the work of whittling that list down

to a manageable size begins.

“We know who is where and we pick up

the phone and start networking,” says James

Lock, director of executive search at

Communicate Recruitment Services. “We see

if people are open to a conversation, and at

senior level most of the time they are. If they

are not they tend to know people who are.

Great candidates know other great candi-

dates.”

But while cracking the phones is still a vital

method for headhunters, email and social

media are also used in the process. Laycock

says: “What has changed the market the

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“We see if people are open

to a conversation, and at

senior level most of the

time they are. If they aren’t,

great candidates know

other great candidates.”

James Lock

insider OCTOBER 2013 57

most is LinkedIn. It has been abused in the

past but now it has become a lot more

regulated and they’ve got rid of a lot of the

malpractice.

“Now a lot of people are learning to use it

for business to business, not just for recruit-

ment. People are using it to contact people

they wouldn’t ordinarily be able to. It has

created a degree of transparency that didn’t

exist five years ago. You can use it to make

contact and to make referrals. It is possible to

make an approach by LinkedIn.”

Most clients want a shortlist of three to

nothing, particularly when the job market is

not at its most buoyant. For example, if

someone has been in a role for a while they

will have some job security, but as a new boy

they may have a ‘last in, first out’, mentality if

cut backs have to be made.

“If they are approached in the right way,

most people are open to a discussion but

where the headhunter really earns their

money is by turning it into a process that the

target engages with,” says Philip White,

director at Blusource Legal.

“The objections you come up against

include the length of time people have spent

in their role, people wanting to see projects

through, or people on the verge of promo-

tion,” adds Lock. “People like the familiar, and

if they are well valued at a company then the

risk of moving is pretty high. People have

commitments in life, including family, and to

leave that security can be quite daunting.

You need to be an ear for them, help them

talk through the issues and understand that

they are not the first person to move.”

The best people aren’t always looking

to move, but they appreciate the need to

keep their eyes on the market because the

best opportunities will not come around

very often, says Bjorn Jones, director at

Blusource Legal. “There are some common

themes as to why people look to move,

such as their inability to influence or

remuneration, but the list of possible reasons

is long. The move has to be right for them

and worth considering, so that’s where

we start.”

PEOPLE

WARNING SIGNS

Changes in attitude and work patterns can be signs that staff are considering moving on,

says Phil Laycock, head of executive recruitment at Advanced Resource Managers. They

may lose interest, become distracted or take days off when they haven’t done before.

“If someone is updating their LinkedIn profile or linking in with headhunters, that is a bit

more obvious,” he says. “We have had to speak to candidates and say don’t be so

obvious because you’re just flagging this up to all your connections.”

Of course there are measures you can take to boost staff retention. “Retaining staff is

about employee engagement. People need to feel they are part of something rather than

just someone with a pay cheque,” says Laycock.

The biggest fear for headhunters used to be the counter offer, because it takes the

situation out of their hands. However, counter offers are becoming rarer as companies

recognise that staff who have been tempted by one job will often leave within six months.

eight candidates. To achieve this, candidates

are benchmarked against criteria agreed with

the client, such as experience of working for

FTSE 250 company, or a formal qualification.

Headhunters would meet the candidates

that match the criteria and interview them

face to face. That is a two-way process as

headhunters try to sell the opportunity, but

also ascertain who the best candidates are.

“The first approach is key; we have to

make sure that first off there in an appropriate

environment to have the conversation. Second,

you don’t want to make an approach that’s like

a direct sales pitch,” says Laycock. “Particularly

at a senior level, a CV tells you a lot about

somebody’s background but is doesn’t tell you

about their personality and intellect. You can

only get that from a face-to-face meeting.”

How effective are headhunters? People

tend to inertia and the safest option is to do

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