What Is Headhunting, and How Is It Different From Recruiting?

Updated July 21, 2022

The hiring process in today’s business world uses several terms and processes interchangeably. For example, headhunting and recruiting produce the same result, but they use different tactics. Understanding the nuances of the hiring process can help you better navigate your job search. In this article, we define headhunting, describe how it differs from recruiting and explain how the headhunting and recruiting processes work.Related: How To Find a Headhunter

What is headhunting?

Headhunting, also known as an executive search, is the process of finding the best possible candidate for a position. In most cases, businesses use a headhunting strategy, rather than traditional recruitment, to identify and hire high-level employees or the “head” of a company, like a chief executive officer.Headhunters usually work for an agency hired to fill a company’s top-level, specialized or technical positions. Headhunters typically only approach professionals who are employed and not actively looking for another job, known as passive candidates, who would be ideal considerations for the job. Headhunters present job offers to these targeted candidates, usually leaders in their field or industry, to entice them to leave their current positions.Related: 13 Smart Questions To Ask a Headhunter

What is recruiting?

Recruiting is the process of finding the best possible candidate for a position by engaging with those who are open to switching jobs or actively seeking employment. These candidates might apply directly for the position, or the recruiter may speak with them at a job fair or meet them through a professional contact. Job seekers typically find the job opening through a job search rather than the recruiter finding, or headhunting, the candidate. Recruiters may work for an agency, but they can often work in human resources for the company with open positions. Related: How To Find a Headhunter To Find You a Job (With Tips and FAQs)

What's the difference between headhunting and recruiting?

Headhunting and recruiting seek to solve the same problem—employing the most highly qualified candidate in the open position. While the two approaches have the same goal, their methods are quite different.

Headhunting

Headhunting is often reserved for hard-to-fill, top-level positions. Headhunting differs from recruiting in these important ways:

Activity: Headhunters search for the best-targeted person to fill the position. They may seek referrals from other high-level employees in the company or find candidates through their extensive network.
Position: In most cases, businesses use a headhunting strategy to fill C-suite or equivalent positions. A company would rarely use headhunting to fill lower-level roles in their organization since it usually takes more time and effort.
Methodology: Headhunters use a “proactive” method since they are the ones approaching a non-job seeker. They use a variety of resources and methods to find suitable candidates, including professional connections and close studies of competitor's employee rosters to identify leads.
Cost: Headhunting is usually more costly than recruiting since headhunters have to take additional measures to identify passive candidates that recruiters do not.

Recruiting

Recruiting is the most common practice for identifying potential candidates and hiring new employees. Recruiting differs from headhunting in these ways:

Activity: Recruiters typically only work with candidates who are looking for a new position. Recruiters typically post open job positions online. In many cases, recruiters find potential candidates by attending career fairs or consulting with others in their professional network.
Position: Recruiting is the most common practice for finding potential employees. Most companies use a recruiting strategy to fill the majority of their open roles. Some companies only use recruiters, even to fill their executive-level positions.
Methodology: Recruiters use a “reactive” method since potential candidates typically come to them. They use several tools to find their candidates, but the most common is posting job descriptions on job boards, usually online, and gathering applications from interested potential employees for review.
Cost: Recruiting is almost always a less expensive endeavor than headhunting. Since recruiters are only seeking active applicants, they can do far less investigative work when looking for candidates and instead devote their efforts to reviewing the potential of those who have submitted their applications.

How does the headhunting process work?

Every company might manage the specifics of their headhunting procedure differently, but in most cases, the hiring process with a headhunter follows these steps:

Determine the need for a new employee

Usually, the CEO or other company leader will approach the hiring and headhunting team about the need for a new employee. Occasionally, the transition between the current employee and the new employee is confidential, particularly in the case of high-level executives in large corporations. Sometimes, the headhunters involved in the search process must use considerable discretion when looking for candidates.

Establish the necessary skills and experience

The headhunters work with other members of the hiring staff and executive team to identify the necessary education, training, experience and skills for the hire. They might create an official job description or a candidate profile to help guide their headhunting efforts.

Identify passive candidates

Depending on the role, the headhunting team may begin their candidate search by looking at passive candidates who could be convinced to leave their current position for the right offer. Usually, the team creates a list of potential candidates and approaches them to gauge interest in the open job.

Consider active candidates

In some cases, the headhunting team looks for active job seekers in tandem with their passive candidate search. They may post the job to job boards or attend conferences or hiring fairs to look for qualified potential applicants. They'll ask these candidates for application materials like resumes, cover letters and reference lists to better review their qualifications.

Review and vet

Once the headhunting team has amassed a selection of candidates, they'll work with the rest of the hiring team to review and initially vet the group. At this stage, they'll often narrow the field to a few outstanding candidates to continue through the headhunting and hiring process.

Interview and assess

For high-level executive positions, candidates can often expect a series of interviews with multiple groups of company stakeholders. Following all the interviews, the hiring team gathers to discuss who should receive the position.

Extend job offer

After making a hiring decision, the company extends a job offer and completes any negotiations as needed to finish the headhunting and hiring process.Related: How To Impress a Headhunter

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How does the recruiting process work?

Recruiters often use a relatively formulaic process to find and vet potential candidates. These are the most common steps for recruiters:

Identify open positions

Recruiters begin the hiring process by receiving a list of open or new positions to fill. In many cases, the head of the company or the HR department shares this information with the recruiting team.

Create a job description

Once the recruiters know which job or jobs they're filling, they establish thorough job descriptions. They might meet with other employees in the same role, the direct manager of the open position or HR representatives to obtain the information they need to write clear and comprehensive job descriptions. Usually, the job description includes these elements:

Job title
Key job duties and responsibilities
Necessary education
Necessary experience
Applicable skills
Steps for how to apply

Post on job boards

Most recruiters use the internet as their primary resource for recruiting potential candidates. Many use job boards, like Indeed, to share the details of their open position or positions with those seeking employment.

Seek other applicants

Some recruiters engage in additional recruiting methods to broaden their talent search. They might attend job fairs, industry-specific conferences or networking events, or review past applications for viable candidates.

Interview and assess

After gathering a pool of potential employees, the recruiting and hiring teams create a list for interviews. In most cases, these candidates interview a single time. After the interviews, the recruiting and hiring teams discuss the candidates and make a hiring decision.

Extend job offer

The company makes an employment offer to the chosen candidate. They enter into salary negotiations and complete the recruiting and hiring process once both parties agree on a final contract.Related: How To Get a Recruiter To Notice You

Executive recruiters

What Is Headhunting, and How Is It Different From Recruiting?