How to Hire a Headhunter

Running a business can monopolize more time than you have to recruit new talent--particularly if you're running solo. Hire a headhunter to fill key positions and bring in qualified personnel.





Step1
Investigate the cost. Headhunters may charge you as much as 40 percent of your new employee's first-year salary, although 20 to 30 percent is more the norm.


Step2
Understand how search firms charge. A contingency search firm only charges a fee if it finds a suitable hire. A retained search firm charges a fee based on a percentage of the new hire's salary, but does a lot more legwork to narrow the list of qualified candidates. Many top-notch headhunters will not work on contingencies, and many will want a fee if you fill the position with them or without them.


Step3
Find a headhunter with extensive experience in your particular industry or functional area to get the type of candidate you're looking to hire.


Step4
Verify their success rates. Some headhunters strike out on as much as 25 percent of their searches, depending on the industry they specialize in or the type of position they try to fill.


Step5
Ask questions about the process they use for identifying potential candidates, whether any personality or skill-based assessments are performed, and if references are routinely verified.


Step6
Check the firm's references. Asking past clients about the firm's performance is an excellent way to gauge how they'll approach your hiring needs--reputation is gold in the headhunting business, so do your homework.


Step7
Ask who'll be doing the actual search: a principal of the headhunting firm or a lower-level staff member. Find out how long a typical recruitment search takes.


Step8
Ask if there are companies they can't approach. Many headhunters won't recruit from their own clients, which limits the pool of candidates they bring to you. Similarly, provide a list of companies you do want them to approach. Chances are you know your competition better than the headhunters do; spend the time to educate him or her.


Step9
Be very detailed in your description of job requirements. A recipe for failure is to tell a headhunter, "We need a really smart person to head up sales." A more successful description is, "We need a candidate who has served in a VP capacity with a Fortune 500 company, handling international distribution of enterprise software to value-added resellers in Europe."