Headhunting – is it necessary?

In theory, a recruitment project can be carried out without a headhunting (direct search). Unfortunately, this approach is extremely risky and inefficient. If you conduct a public search without a headhunting approach, you will face the following 5 risks:

The time

Unmanageable duration of the selection project. If you do not actively seek candidates directly, but only use a public search, it is impossible to plan the timing of attracting candidates. It is possible that a suitable candidate will respond on the third day of the selection process. On the other hand it is equally realistic that he or she will not respond at all, or will respond six months later. This risk is too high.

The cost

Unmanageable cost of the selection project. This is essentially related to the unmanageable duration of the search project. If headhunting is not used, the public search may have to be repeated two, three or more times. This is an additional cost that increases the overall selection budget. At the same time, uses up the working hours of HR professionals that could be spent on internal HR management.

The quality

Selecting only from active job seekers. Active job seekers rarely make up the pool of most suitable candidates. This is why direct search, unlike a purely public search, identifies a target group of candidates and invites them to participate in the selection process.

Employer branding

Employer branding is at risk.Long public search projects are highly visible in the public eye and start to question a company’s status as a trusted employer.Repeating the same job adverts over and over again increases candidates’ mistrust, which can be completely avoided by using direct search (headhunting).

The final result

Disappointment of the hiring manager with the quality of candidates.This risk is compounded by the risk of not hiring the right candidate.A hiring manager who sees that not all the right candidates are being selected and that the search is taking a particularly long time may be tempted to accept a less than ideal candidate to fill the gap.Headhunting allows you to choose from the best candidates on the market and eliminates this risk.

Public search is by no means a bad method of recruitment, but the risks are there when only public search is used without exploiting the potential of headhunting.Public search, like reference search, is an excellent additional channel for headhunting.