Ethical Headhunting Starts with Listening
I believe some of the best people aren’t looking for a new job because they are too busy being good at the one they already have. They are leading teams, looking after patients and service users, solving problems, managing pressure and delivering every day. Updating their CV or scrolling through job boards may be nowhere near the top of their list, and that is one of the reasons I believe so strongly in headhunting.
For me, however, headhunting comes with a responsibility. Just because I have a vacancy doesn’t mean I am going to contact every good person I know. I don’t believe in presenting candidates simply to make a placement, and I certainly don’t want to encourage someone to leave a good job unless I genuinely believe the opportunity I am bringing to them could be the right next move.
I might have a conversation with someone today who tells me they are perfectly happy where they are. During that conversation, however, I will listen to what matters to them. They might tell me that their next move needs to offer genuine career progression, a particular salary, more responsibility, greater flexibility or the opportunity to work in a different area. Sometimes it is about location, culture or leadership. Sometimes it is simply about being ready for a new challenge when the right one comes along.
I remember those conversations.
That doesn’t mean I contact that person every time a vacancy comes across my desk that they could technically do. In fact, I might not contact them for months. I don’t want to waste their time, and I don’t want to damage the trust we have built by constantly trying to sell them jobs that I already know are not right for them.
When the right opportunity does come along, it is different. The salary makes sense. The responsibilities represent progression. The organisation feels right. The role fits what that person previously told me they wanted from their career. That is when I pick up the phone.
Instead of saying, “I have a job, are you interested?”, I can say, “I remember what you told me you wanted from your next move, and something has come up that I genuinely think is worth us having a conversation about.”
That, to me, is headhunting.
Recruitment is a commercial business, but the recruitment fee should never be the reason for encouraging somebody to make the wrong career move. A placement might look successful initially, but if the candidate realises a few months later that the role wasn’t right for them, or the client realises we have presented someone who isn’t right for their organisation, nobody has really won.
I would rather wait for the right fit.
Good headhunting takes work. It means understanding the organisation you are recruiting for, the team, the role and what success will actually look like. It means researching the market and identifying people with the right experience, but it also means getting to know people beyond the qualifications written on their CV.
I want to understand what motivates someone, what they are proud of, what they want to achieve next and what would genuinely make them consider leaving an organisation where they may already be doing very well.
That relationship can start months, or even longer, before I have the right opportunity for them.
This is also why I believe employers need to look beyond applications when recruiting for specialist or hard-to-fill positions. The person who could be the strongest fit for your organisation may never see your advertisement. They may not be searching job boards or sending out CVs because, right now, they are fully involved in delivering for their current employer.
Finding those people takes research, relationships, patience and trust. It also takes knowing when not to make the call.
At 3Q Recruitment, this is the standard I want us to bring to permanent recruitment. We don’t want to move people simply because we have vacancies to fill. We want to understand where someone wants to go next, understand what our client genuinely needs and bring the two together when there is a strong fit for both.
For me, the real measure of successful recruitment isn’t simply whether we made the placement. It is whether, six months or a year later, the candidate and the client are both still glad we made the introduction.
That is the type of headhunting I believe in, and it is what Putting People First means to me.
