Although recruiting and headhunting have the same goal of hiring candidates and these terms are often referred to similarly, they are quite different processes of acquiring, screening, and finally hiring prospects.
In this blog, I will go into the meaning of recruitment and executive search as well as touch on the procedural differences between them.
RECRUITING
Recruitment is the acquisition of qualified prospects usually for lower-end to mid-level positions but can be for almost any position and experience level. It’s the entire hiring process from identifying a staffing need to the applicant’s onboarding with their new company, and everything in between. For example, procuring job-seekers, reviewing applications, doing interviews, conducting assessments, reference checks, and more.
HEADHUNTING
Headhunting, sometimes referred to as executive searching, is a more proactive and specialized process usually used to find potential candidates to fill top or limited positions. Headhunting also involves reference checks, conducting interviews, and assessments but the primary difference is in the way headhunters procure prospects. An employer often hires an individual or company to conduct searches in order to fill high-end, specialized, or tech positions.
DIFFERENCES IN RECRUITMENT AND HEADHUNTING
Whether you want to recruit or headhunt to find the right candidate, depends on the position you want to fill. Generally, the recruitment process entails posting a vacancy on a job board(s) and/or social media in order to acquire talent via applications.
This method requires you to review plenty of applicants that might not be a fit for the role at all but is effective for mass hiring. As for headhunting, an executive search is conducted on LinkedIn for instance, and talent is actively sought out. Once the perfect candidate is found they will cold contact the prospect even if they aren’t actively looking for opportunities.
This practice makes it necessary to scour through tons of profiles that may not even be interested in a new job but is successful in finding candidates with hard-to-find skills. These are the main differences between these two processes among several others and some similarities.
It boils down to quality with headhunters vs quantity with recruiters. Don’t get me mistaken, I’m not saying one is better than the other as that solely depends on your business’s specific staffing needs. For example, if you are looking to expand your customer service department and need to fill many spots, the recruitment process is the way to go. But if you are looking to hire an engineer with a specific tech stack headhunting is more optimal.
VENTES
Investing your company’s time, money, and other resources into hiring someone that turns out to not be the right fit can end up being more costly than working with a recruitment agency or headhunter that has the resources and skills to accomplish the task. So, why not entrust Ventes with your remote staffing needs?
We provide recruiting and headhunting services to staff your company remotely from Latin America. So, whether you are looking to fill an IT role or a more entry-level position, Ventes has you covered. We are experienced and have been successful in filling roles from QA, Front-end, Back-end, Full Stack Engineer, and more with the use of headhunting.
Our recruiting has allowed us to fill a plethora of positions from basic customer service and sales positions to more advanced roles like account manager, ad buyer, general/operations manager, and many more. Ventes tailors our process to your remote staffing needs.
This blog was written by the staff at Ventes Mexico LLC Ventes Mexico is a top-rated outsource recruitment firm located in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Founded by an American, with 16 years of living in Mexico, Ventes Mexico operates in the USA and Mexico. The company specialized in remote staffing and headhunting. Each of its employees is 100% bilingual (English/Spanish).
