The term "headhunter" has been used a lot in the Vietnamese labor market in recent years. Companies frequently seek high-paying employment through headhunter firms, especially at the management level. So, what is the definition of a headhunter? How is the job of a headhunter in Vietnam today? In the next article, we will provide broad information to you.
1. What is a headhunter?
Senior recruitment experts, mind hunters, and headhunters are all titles for people who operate in the consulting and recruiting services sector on business orders. In other words, they serve as a link between talent and commerce.
Headhunter is a recruitment expert, mind hunter
Currently, the demand for talent recruitment of enterprises is increasing day by day. Therefore, headhunters appear to help candidates and businesses "find their perfect half" in the fastest time!
2. Why did the headhunter service appear?
The concept “headhunter service” was first established in the mid-twentieth century, when large industrial manufacturers started operating in the West. Then this kind of service was introduced to Vietnam around 2000. Also at this time, Fortune 500 companies decided to invest in Vietnam.
Why did the headhunter service appear? As you know, large factories will be invested with huge financial amounts, and sales development always goes hand in hand with large economic contracts. Therefore, activities of research, development, production and supply of products require fast and timely, invisible medium creating pressure for enterprises. Therefore, the issue of personnel has become the most important factor in the management model of the Executive Board. To support the infrastructure growth, as well as the research process, the development of advanced products, and the supply chain to work closely and effectively, the arrangement of core personnel is essential. At this time, the human cost also becomes equally important as investment. In order to meet the requirements of outstanding business operations, corporations were focused on finding new core talents to bring innovations and satisfy the market requirements in the shortest time. At this time, headhunt service becomes the most suitable solution for these businesses.
Headhunter is the most suitable solution to find core talents for businesses
3. What is the work process of a headhunter?
You can simply understand that headhunters are like bridges that find the most suitable candidates for the employer in the shortest time. Each headhunter has a different way of working, but they all have the following common characteristics:
- When starting a new Human Resources project, headhunters will collect and search for relevant information about the company's vacancies. For example: job requirements, personality, skills needed to meet the nature of the position, etc. To broadly understand the business, as conditions permit, headhunters will visit the office / factory of the enterprise if possible to learn about the nature of the industry, corporate culture and discuss with the candidate first.
After the above step, the headhunter and the business will sign the contract and confirm the positions to be recruited. Also learn the specific requirements of each position.
- Next, the hunters will determine which potential candidate files will be reached through a variety of channels. For example, from headhunt company data, LinkedIn, relationship networks, personal data, etc.
- Potential candidates are contacted first by the headhunter to discuss more specifically about the job, this is a step to help the headhunter better understand if the candidate being approached is suitable for the corporate culture and the job requirements of the employer. No recruitment, points that are not presented on the job description or requirements.
- After the initial evaluation and analysis of candidates based on their experience, the headhunters will send the resumes and evaluations of the candidates to the business. Candidates who meet the requirements of the business will be contacted by the business for a direct interview with that headhunter. Before that, the candidates were carefully consulted by their headhunter.
- After the candidate is selected, the headhunter continues to closely support the candidate in the process of accepting the job and other relevant necessary stages. Probation letters will be sent to both candidate and headhunter at the same time.
- With some headhunt service companies, the hiring process doesn't stop there. According to the company motto of Navigos Search - "success after achieving the dream job", headhunters will continue to accompany businesses and candidates even after the successful recruitment. From there, headhunters will maintain good relationships with clients and candidates; maintain cooperation opportunities; and support candidates to succeed on their career journey.
- The above is the daily working process of a "head hunter". Headhunters must always keep client and candidate information confidential. That is why headhunter recruitment sites do not show detailed customer information on the job search page, you can refer to it at the jobs search page of Navigos Search.
- Refer to the working process of the leading headhunter company in Vietnam - Navigos Search to in-depth understand the overview work of a headhunter.
Headhunter is a “bridge” to connect company and candidates
4. Is Headhunter similar to HR and Job Portal?
Currently, headhunt service is quite popular, but many people are still confused with the company's human resources department - HR (Human Resource) and job portals such as VietnamWorks, Careerbuilder, Vieclam24h,...Therefore, the following information will help you distinguish these concepts.
4.1. Human Resources Department
Some large enterprises will have their own HR department that specializes in recruiting and managing personnel for the company. This is the department that requires people with experience, expertise and skills in recruiting, managing people, in order to find, maintain and select the most suitable candidate for the whole business. However, many small and medium enterprises today do not have this department. In some cases, they integrate into other departments instead of having separate ones.
4.2. Headhunter
To develop businesses according to market requirements, businesses need more and more highly specialized employees or provide extremely difficult recruitment requests such as urgent recruitment requirements for senior positions, positions that require high expertise, industry-specific or mass recruitment in a short time,... The HR department in the company cannot respond in time because of personnel limitations in the department.
With headhunters, these problems can easily be solved. Headhunter is a unit, who operates independently from the human resources department of a company. Headhunters are present in companies providing recruitment and people solutions. Currently there are many headhunting companies such as Navigos Search, Adecco, Michael Page,... The function of headhunters is very specialized, they do in-depth research on human resources activities, solutions for human resources, people, and markets to give the advice that best suited to the requirements of enterprises.
4.3. Recruiting Website (Job Portal)
The website having a job portal, also known as the recruiting website (Job portal) is the place where companies' job postings are concentrated. This can be understood as a job information floor, where recruiters, human resources departments post their company's job advertisements and candidates look for suitable jobs to apply for.
On the recruitment website, there is no presence of experts in the process of applying, interviewing and testing jobs, which means the whole process is dependent on the candidate's search ability and the employer's ability to self-assess the employees as well. Examples of current recruitment websites: VietnamWorks, Careerbuilder, vieclam24h,...
You can learn more about headhunting services of Navigos Search to better understand different types of headhunter services and the methods of implementation of these types today in Vietnam.
5. What should a headhunter do to be successful?
It seems that every headhunter must ensure their communication ability with these 4 following subjects: the host company, client businesses, technology, and high-level candidates. Therefore, every headhunter needs to hone the skills related to the above interactions and proficiently apply those skills to be successful in the headhunter job.
5.1. Proficient in technology
It is assured that technology is vital for headhunters. They use technology to capture and connect with wide-ranging candidates. The use of technology will help headhunters optimize the following jobs:
- Unlimited connections, candidate database management
- Automatic candidate selection, minimizing manual time
- Communicate with more diverse candidates
- Receive and transmit information quickly
- Maximize market intelligence
Proficient in technology is one of the key point to help a headhunter succeed
5.2. Combination of skills: Searching, analyzing, and selecting information
A common feature of the headhunter job is connecting to an extremely large network of candidate databases. Therefore, headhunters must be equipped with thorough skills in searching, selecting and analyzing data and information, thereby identifying candidates who are potential and best suited to employers. At the same time, headhunters must get an assessment and compare the information to avoid giving low-qualified advice, which lacks data or is unrealistic with the labor market and the client's industry.
5.3. Extensive understanding the market
The next secret to becoming successful headhunters is extensive understanding of the market. Unlike people who do direct business (such as sales, sales, marketing, communication,...), headhunters rarely do the market research and have little contact with customers. Therefore, without extensive market knowledge, headhunters will become "lagging" for businesses and candidates.
So what does market understanding include? Indeed, it is difficult to limit the scope of market knowledge. However, these are the related outstanding market knowledge:
- In-depth knowledge of one or several industry sectors or the labor market in general
- Knowledge of labor market supply and demand
- Job market characteristics in each region
- Advantages and challenges for employees when looking for a job
- Difficulties in recruitment
- Opportunities to develop professions and fields in Vietnam
- Labor trends and recruitment in industries
5.4. Understanding all fields and industries
The job of the headhunters is also the job of the recruiters. However, the difficulty of the headhunter is not only recruiting for 1 company or not going into a specific field, but can recruiting for any company of any field that needs to hire talents. Therefore, understanding all fields and industries is a prerequisite to help headhunters screen candidates, communicate well and recruit potential candidates easily. Moreover, the goal of headhunters are mostly senior personnel and they themselves have mastered the knowledge of the industry. To conclude, if you want to hunt "heads of people" and do not want to "dance the ax through the eyes of the workers", headhunter experts need to cultivate knowledge in all areas to be more professional.
Headhunters need to cultivate knowledge in all areas to be more professional
5.5. Communication Skills
Communication skill is an important part of the headhunter profession. With good communication skills, headhunters can be able to link huge amounts of information and convert it into useful data for their listeners - recruiters or potential candidates. Headhunter is an intermediary, both recruiting, finding candidates and providing recruitment services for businesses in need. Therefore, in at least 1 business order, the headhunter will communicate with 2 subjects: Candidates and business owners. Without communication skills, the headhunter will hardly reach the final destination of the profession.
The headhunter's communication skills require the ingenuity to use selective words as well as the exchanging information methods to optimize all conversations. With each object, the headhunter needs a separate method to talk. Headhunters also have to understand the psychology of their customers to communicate more perfectly.
The headhunter's communication skills are reflected in the following aspects:
- Professional language
- Speak fluently and with intonation
- The speaking style is suitable for each different audience
- Know how to suggest a story for each communicator
- Do not bring the story to a dead end
- Always clearly define the purpose of communication and aim to communicate throughout the conversation
5.6. Psychology targeting and persuading ability
To be successful in this profession, the headhunter also needs to grasp the psychology of others like a psychologist.
In fact, if they have the ability to grasp the psychology of the opponents, it is very easy for headhunters to achieve the purpose of communication. Understanding psychology is the fundamental condition that helps the headhunter convince the candidate and allows the headhunter to know what the candidate wants, what he is afraid of and what difficulties he encounters.
Not only that, a good psychological grasp also entails good persuasion ability and is a "tool" to support the headhunter in the process of job exchange, interviewing and persuading candidates to go to work.
5.7. Negotiation skills
Negotiation skill is essential for recruitment, and even more important for headhunters. Simply put, a headhunter hunts high-level positions. Compared to basic staff positions, hunting for senior personnel will be much more difficult and this requires professional negotiation skills.
5.8. Customer care skills
Recruiting is not just about finding people. To get good results, headhunters must take care of the customer as a professional customer service employee.
Headhunter's customer care work is carried out in 2 main stages:
- Before transferring candidates' information to the business: Headhunter exchanges information, advises, persuades and takes care of candidates for them to accept working. They also have to take care of potential candidates or those who are still confused about work. At that time, the headhunter experts will try the best job to make them "need for work".
- After transferring the candidate's information to the business: Headhunters need to stay connected with them for at least a 1-month probationary period. At this time, the headhunter will have to actively inquire about the job, find out the reason why the candidate intends to leave to timely solve for the company. This is both customer care and the warranty policy of the headhunter service.
6. Navigos Search - The leading headhunting company in Vietnam
At the present, Navigos Search is the leading prestigious and effective headhunter company in Vietnam with more than 20 years of experience in the recruitment market. The biggest advantage of Navigos Search is that it belongs to Navigos Group, which is the owner of the number 1 recruitment website in Vietnam - Vietnamworks. With a huge data volume of 375,000+ senior candidates, 85,000+ senior management candidates (Senior manager, C-level) and more than 5,000,000+ accounts from VietnamWorks data, it has become an extremely fertile resource for businesses. headhunter supports clients in all industries.
In addition, Navigos Search has highly experienced consultants, who are deeply knowledgeable in each of the core industries, and a strict working process ensures the best quality information. All of this has helped Navigos Search reach new heights in customer service quality, leading in the field of recruiting mid and senior-level personnel in Vietnam.
Navigos Search - The leading headhunting company in Vietnam
Right now, whether you are looking for a job or want to be notified about positions that match your skills and ambitions, quickly send your CV to Navigos Search to be contacted immediately if there are any suitable vacancies. Especially, if your business is looking for human resources, please contact Navigos Search with the information below:
Contact information for the Southern team:
HereContact information for the Northern team:
Here
- HCM Headquarters: 20th Floor, e.town Central Building, 11 Doan Van Bo, Ward 13, District 4
- Hanoi Branch: V. Building - 125 Ba Trieu street, Hai Ba Trung District
- Hotline: 1800 585 826
- Email: contact@navigossearch.com
- Website: navigossearch.com
- Fanpage: facebook.com/NavigosSearchVietnam
middle and high-level talent hunting company