My name is Teddy. I am a headhunter with KAPR Advisory. I have been in headhunting for 16 years. During this period, I have assisted many companies to hire the best talents in their industry and solved their hiring needs. In the process, I have also impacted many job seekers’ career.
Oxford dictionary defines a headhunter as “a member of a society that collects the heads of dead enemies as trophies”. That may be what a traditional headhunter does but I am quite pleased to say that this headhunter mainly does the second definition, that is “a person who identifies and approaches suitable candidates employed elsewhere to fill business positions”. And this headhunter has been successfully doing the “i-m-possible” in bridging the human capital gap. Yes, my “machete” is sharpened and I am good at what I do. So, fear not when I knock, for I bring the solution to your talent acquisition challenges.
Undoubtedly, many organizations have in-house recruiter. Many bosses hold the belief that the internal recruiter is mandated to meet their company’s human capital requirements. It is therefore of no necessity to outsource and engage with an external headhunter. More so when the economy is perceived to be soft, the need for cost-cutting inadvertently hit home. As the CEO – “Chief Entertainment Officer” (for I consider my main task is to “entertain” and keep stakeholders’ satisfaction high) for KAPR Advisory, I have no disagreement on the importance of keeping the cost low for a greater EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation, and Amortization) as a measure of a company’s operating performance.
Therein lies the irony. To task, an internal recruiter to undertake the function of a headhunter may instead lead to a higher cost. For this is akin to “putting the cart before the horse”. One will need to understand the difference between an in-house recruiter and a headhunter to appreciate the writer’s submission. Oxford dictionary defines a recruiter as “a person whose job is to enlist or enroll people as employees …”. In this context, we can use the analogy of a specialist doctor and a generalist doctor. An internal recruiter is a “specialist” that fills the vacancy with precision after the headhunter, a “generalist” sourced, assessed, and proposed the talents. This segregation of tasks between an in-house recruiter and an external headhunter ensures the effective and efficient use of resources. For this very reason, a recruitment partnership between an internal recruiter and an external headhunter is a perfect symbiosis, representing a mutually beneficial relationship.
Hopefully, this article helps to put headhunting in the right space. And companies gaining greater mileage in their recruitment partnership with a headhunter. Having said that, this headhunter needs to temporarily detach from the keyboard and off to collect more “trophies”.
Lastly, more power, and awesomeness to you!
