What goes inside a recruiters brain? A dilemma unraveled.

Recruitment is in itself a talent-detecting process, but what type of candidates would "hit the ground running"? and what type of headhunting detective are you?

In the planning process, the search for required candidates starts with a question in mind, should you start sourcing active candidates (who are actively searching for career opportunities), most probably because the active searchers are your lottery ticket to get a placement in the least amount of time! You think?

Revisit this preliminary thought. Yes some active candidates may have not been approached by your organisation and have suddenly appeared on job boards, just for the sake of "let me expedite my worthiness in the market, or 'I need change, let me search for new challenges"

These candidates may or may not be top talented individuals, but then, how can you make certian? Then next step would be: headhunt passive candidates and sell them the opportunity you are presenting and let them know what they will miss, if they just pass.

This dilemma in the searching phase of recruitment goes down to a very critical point. Whether your client would value your service or not, depends not only on talented candidates' sourcing, but also on the perfect match between corporate specific requirements.

From experience, it is a lot easier to utilize job sites and other social mediums. But again, are more than 80% of the talent pool reachable? If your answer is Yes, then you have only gauged 20% of the value service to your client. Why is that? Because a researcher can utilize these mediums as well as you can, but what can't a researcher do? Headhunt impact candidates.

Would it be great if you headhunt passive candidates from direct competitiors? Those talented individuals who are satisfied with their current employer and have pertinent experience, and cannot jeoperdize their tenure by searching for opportunites? Another question emerges, would these candidates pursue lucrative opportunities if one came knocking on their doors! The answer is 8 candidates out of 10, a yes.

From experience, believe it or not, 20% of your total headhunted candidates, give you the 80% leverage to finalize a placement with your client.

Think about it.

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Comment by Mitch Sullivan on April 18, 2013 at 3:20am: Are you assuming that because a candidate works for a competitor company, they're talented? It sounds like it.

Also, you say that 8 out of 10 headhunted candidates will respond positively. Where did you get that statistic from?

Comment by Shereef Nabeel Abdulhalim on April 21, 2013 at 5:09pm: Hi Mitch. Thank you for your comment. For your first question, there is no certain possibility of assuring that a candidate being headhunted from a competitor is talented to an extent that he\she would make it to your final shortlist. Nevertheless, headhunting passive candidates who don't normally tend to respond to job ads, are either at a stagnant career level or are really satisfied with their current jobs, the later is my target. The statistic on 8 out of 10 is by experience, and yes most passive candidates would at least be curious enough to re-evaluate their market acceptance and are eager to know "what am I missing?" Its a receuiter's task to attract these candidates and present them a matching opportunity. Hope my answer cleared things up. Cheers!