Recruitment or Headhunting?

In the talent sourcing industry there are typically two models used to hire new people into job vacancies: recruitment (or recruiting, the act of) and headhunting services. Employment agencies and companies work with either one of the approaches, or even combining both. But what are really the differences in between them? Many of you probably have wondered this already...

.. and what about zenotalent? Where do we sit at? Let’s take a further look into this all.

The easiest way to explore the recruitment and headhunting concepts is to analyse and compare them through a bunch of topics related to the function they are meant for. Generally speaking, and to keep it simple:

Job positions

• Recruitment: search is mainly for candidates with broad skills, who can fit a variety of positions. Id est, there is an added corporate value.

• Headhunting: search is focused on very specific profiles, with highly specialized skill sets.

zenotalent fit: recruitment

Job openings

• Recruitment: recruiters work with multiple companies and large number of roles.

• Headhunting: executive, hard to fill. Head-hunters work with smaller number of roles at a time.

zenotalent fit: headhunting

Candidates

• Recruitment: based on active job seekers.

• Headhunting: target people who are not actively looking for a new job.

zenotalent fit: both

Candidate wages

• Recruitment: recruiter ask the candidate about salary expectations.

• Headhunting: there is a salary range given to the candidate to accept.

zenotalent fit: recruitment

Hiring process

• Recruitment: based on advertising an extensive data base of candidates.

• Headhunting: by order, searching on the entire market.

zenotalent fit: recruitment

Hiring time

• Recruitment: focused on “quantity”; “short” hiring processes therefore.

• Headhunting: long time spent in each position search.

zenotalent fit: headhunting

Who to please?

• Recruitment: recruiters want to please the employer mainly, though with some look at candidates as well.

• Headhunting: employers, 100%.

zenotalent fit: none. Employers are our customers, that is clear. But our philosophy is to satisfy candidates, and let them satisfy the employers. We just make the process happen.

Payment to employment agency

• Recruitment: different types of contract models: contingency, retainer, flat fees, …

• Headhunting: contingency; the head-hunter gets paid only when the candidate is placed in the new role.

zenotalent fit: headhunting

Looking just to the numbers, zenotalent has three recruitment “votes” and three headhunting ones. The two remaining categories are just null since our brand is not really matching one or the other service type.

So now what, how do you want us to be called? “Head recruiters”? “Recruit-hunting”? Well, we leave that up to you. We just prefer to see ourselves as “talent sourcers” or “talent managers”, those who just leverage skilled people and promote them into better jobs, better lives.

In the end names are just only that, names. The concept and the process behind, and how well you execute that, is what matters.

Ignacio Vilas Eguileta

zenotalent Owner & Founder