Executive search – The multi-faceted profile of a headhunter

Being an executive search professional, a.k.a. a headhunter, involves developing an arsenal of skills to meet the new expectations of its stakeholders. From a sourcing agent through an ambassador and a community manager to a marketer, find out the multi-faceted profile of a headhunter in this post.

A headhunter is a sourcing agent 

To meet recruitment needs, a headhunter uses sourcing techniques to identify passive candidates, professionals who are not actively searching for jobs. The added value of this methodology lies in finding candidates who are not visible on the job market. Hence the importance for a headhunter to source  environments where you find the appropriate profiles. To achieve this, a headhunter can tap into her/his own network, which provides the latest information about the market. A headhunter can also use Boolean search to get deeper into search engines. The method of Boolean searches are used to extend, reduce, or refine a search to make it as accurate as possible. Finally, a headhunter needs to establish a relationship of trust from the very beginning. Creating a trustful and sharing environment will help her/him when meeting with the candidates, to save time and focus on their personality.

A headhunter is an ambassador

Nowadays, being a headhunter means that you need to be able to identify an actual need, explicitly expressed or not, by a client. In other words, a headhunter must quickly understand the issues, processes, risks but also opportunities. Above all, a headhunter needs to understand and adopt the corporate culture of her/his client to make sure company values can ​​match those of the candidates.

When it comes to candidates, a headhunter needs to understand their career and life paths to be able to identify what types of environments and cultures they can thrive in. It’s all the more important as talents prioritise the value of a mission over a job package or benefits.

This ability to understand, to feel and to adopt a corporate culture and its environment while spotting potential risks make up any headhunting mission. All in all, a headhunter needs some kind of natural listening skills.

A headhunter is a community manager

A headhunter can no longer do her/his job without providing her/his social community with relevant and valuable content. Being on LinkedIn is no longer enough. A headhunter needs to interact with her/his community to create a dialogue and grow it. This community management is an investment that can quickly bear fruit.

Indeed, a contact may potentially be a candidate and ultimately a client. Being a social media guru is part of a comprehensive approach where human interactions are the cornerstone of executive search. Social media will sow the seeds of a direct approach before meeting individuals.

A headhunter is a marketer

A headhunter knows her/his market, targets, competitors and environment. As such, she/he develops brand promises, such as an offer, a job, a career, new skills, new challenges …

Like a marketing mix, a headhunter develops a plan for each mission that involves an analysis and a launch phase. Thus, we could see:

a job position as a product;

• a company as a place to grow;

• a package as a price;

• social media and networks as a promotion; and

• candidates as a target.

All in all, a headhunter turns out to be an ambassador of both a company and a candidate, able to design a recruitment mission as a marketing strategy.