According to companies, the biggest rise in the popularity of headhunting has occurred over the past year. “We saw the biggest demand since 2016. After a noticeable decline in the spring of 2020, when the first global coronavirus wave came, companies have adapted to the new situation, making 2021 a record year in terms of headhunting,” said Wolf Co-founding Consulting Co-Founder. Hunt Ivar Mesenský.
Head hunter Michal Toman from the Brno agency Engage Advisory has a similar experience. “Year-on-year growth in our country is just over one hundred percent and demand continues to increase. We have also seen in recent weeks that we no longer accept some new projects because we are unable to allocate teams for them, ”he describes.
According to Bubeník, the main reason for the sharp increase in demand for headhunting is the structural transformation of the market in the last two years. “Pandemics, the energy crisis and inflation are factors that force companies to react immediately and undergo a reorganization of the current structure,” he describes. The new situation also requires new experts.
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“There is not only an exchange of people in key roles, but also the emergence of new roles. The companies attach much greater importance to strategic purchasing or business roles, “he states.
The headhunter with many years of experience Pavel Plachý from the Prague flow-r also recorded a higher demand for business roles. “Companies also want top executives with a technical background, such as a plant manager or a research manager,” he adds.
Today’s shortage of manpower also has an impact on the nature of the required experts. “Companies are looking for leaders who can address staff shortages both conceptually and strategically. It is an exaggeration to say, internal recruitment and staffing agencies supply fish and fishermen’s headhunters, “Mesenský describes.
One in ten
Headhunters often go head-to-head in the environment of competing companies. “The vast majority of our clients expect ‘ready-made’ people who bring know-how and can get involved and benefit immediately, so we hunt very often in competition,” explains Toman.
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According to him, the biggest challenge is to fill technically oriented positions in the fields of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering or construction. “Today, these employees are closely guarded by companies, tried to take good care of them and keep them satisfied, which requires headhunters with a lot of experience and a certain degree of innovation both in reaching these candidates and in the ability to gain trust and bring them to the negotiating table.” describes the pitfalls of your assignment.
Plachý has a similar experience. “Nowadays, all skilled candidates work somewhere, so each of the candidates we place comes from a different company. However, our work is not ‘dragged’ by force or some kind of manipulation, but rather to discover interesting driving factors of a particular person, which will force him to change his work in the following period, “he says.
According to him, about one in ten candidates succeed in discovering the driving factors among candidates. “Others are satisfied with their roles and are not ready for change,” he adds. People who hunt headhunters are not interested in the amount of reward offered. “You have to offer a well-formulated career opportunity mission and the client’s corporate vision, which should be able to undermine the ‘loyal’ of the hunted leader towards his current employer,” Mesenský notes.
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However, the interest in gaining competition employees does not always apply. “We also see an interesting trend for some customers, when on the contrary they don’t want people from the competition because they are afraid that they will not be able to quickly learn new processes, a different system and they will have their eyes closed,” explains Toman. “Clients want to maintain fair relations with the competition,” adds another reason Iveta Sigmundová for the personnel agency Aprofes.
The demand for experts is growing
Although headhunters have historically been perceived as suppliers of top management candidates, this has changed in recent years, according to Wolf Hunt hunters. “In recent years, companies have increasingly turned to us for specialist positions and other ‘non-managerial’ positions that they were previously able to fill from their own resources, so companies are increasingly looking to use headhunters across different levels of positions,” says Mesenský.
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“We use headhunting for positions where we know we have short fingers, because the path of standard job portals has not historically paid off. It is necessary to use someone who is an active part of the community and not just a ‘foreign lady from HR’, “says Eliška Štěpánková, Fidoo’s HR manager. According to her, these are usually IT positions.
“IT companies, construction, some types of production and e-commerce are strengthening a lot in the field. On the other hand, we see a relatively significant decline in the automotive industry, “confirms Mesenský.
The headhunter’s remuneration depends on the rarity of the position and the amount of financial evaluation of the sought-after candidate and ranges from hundreds of thousands of crowns. “Normally, this is a third of the annual financial reward,” says Bubeník.
Shy indicates the range between 300 and 600 thousand crowns as the usual reward for the head. Some hunters charge a fixed amount. “The average value of the contract is around 400 thousand crowns for a successful search and placement,” says Mesenský.
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