What is head hunting in business?

Head hunting is a term which has become increasingly used in recent times within the business world. The term is one which relates to the recruitment of people within businesses although not in the typical way. Head hunting often occurs when external recruitment agencies are used by businesses to source the perfect candidate for a job role, individuals are often contacted, rather than the traditional method when individuals apply for jobs. Head hunting often occurs for senior management and director level jobs when it is crucial that the right candidates are appointed as the jobs often hold high salaries and also hold high responsibility. Recruitment agencies that operate on this basis encourage individuals in such positions to register their CV and skills with their agency so that any potential jobs which meet their criteria, they can be head hunted for. Many businesses that have headhunted candidates often do so from their competitors, this means that operations that occur within a businesses competitors environment can be scrutinised and modified in order to create extra effectiveness. Many businesses within the corporate world are well aware of the potential for their executives to be head hunted and therefore are often reluctant to spend large amounts on training staff and then seeing them move on to competitors taking their expertise gained with them. One down point to head hunting individuals is that agencies which carry out this work often charge large amounts of money, money which in the current economic climate may not be financially viable. The typical agency fee is between 15% and 20% of the potential salary, often salaries for head hunted individuals exceed 100,000 and therefore the agency fee could potentially be 20,000. Although this can seem expensive, many firms are prepared to pay large amounts of money in order to hire the correct individuals. Firms using agencies to head hunt individuals also benefit from gaining an outside perspective rather than a typical internal recruitment process. Although yet again this can also have a downside for the business, if the agency fails to recognise what the firm actually wants and there is also the potential that an unsuitable individual is hired. As firms continue to reduce spending due to the recession it will be interesting to see whether firms no longer use agencies due to the fees charged or firms increase their use of agencies to head hunt individuals in order to get the right individuals.