As Indonesia’s leading Executive Headhunter Company, we are regularly asked by those unfamiliar with the world of “Headhunting”: “Apa itu Headhunter ?”… Or “Headhunter Adalah ?”… Or “Apa itu Konsultan Headhunter ?”…
Because people in Indonesia are much more familiar with the Mainstream Terms of “Recruiter” or “Recruitment Agency“.
So I thought that I would write this article and answer these important queries: “Apa itu Headhunter ?”, “Headhunter Adalah ?”.
Because Headhunters and Recruiters are Very Different!
A Headhunter and a Recruiter work in an entirely different way.
A Headhunter and a Recruiter focus on entirely different types of hiring.
Apa itu Headhunter ? What is a Headhunter?
Headhunters are the “Matchmakers” of the Professional World. Their expertise is helping companies to locate, attract and secure the very best senior professional talent possible.
A Headhunter connects a client company, that has a senior job vacancy, to Top Class Executive Talent, that has the skills, work experience, leadership qualities, personality and culture fit that is required by the client business for that job vacancy.
Headhunters work as Middlemen, they sit between a Company that Needs to Hire AND the Executive Talent that has the Right Background Needed.
A business can Not find these unique senior professionals by themselves, they need the support of a specialist Headhunter Company.
A Headhunter must focus on the needs of their client company but at the same time must also satisfy the needs of Senior Candidates that they bring forward for Interview.
Because both parties, the company and the candidate need to “Match” and be happy for a successful hire to actually occur.
A Headhunter is also commonly called an “Executive Search Consultant” or an “Executive Search Recruiter“.
Because their job is all about “Executive Search“… finding the best Executive Talent for their client job vacancies.
In simple terms, a Headhunter specialises in identifying, attracting and securing, highly skilled, highly experienced senior professionals for Senior Level Job Vacancies.
A few examples of jobs that a Headhunter, like ProCapita Headhunter Indonesia, will perform:
> Country Head
> General Manager
> Chief of Finance
> Chief of Marketing
> Head of Sales
> Head of HR
> Chief Legal Counsel
> VP Procurement
> Director of Business Development
And etc. Basically Top level jobs within a company’s hierarchy.
Ultimately, Headhunters are Executive Recruitment Experts.
They Help Companies Hire Top Quality, Elite Senior Leadership Talent.
When working for a client business, Headhunting for a senior job vacancy, a Headhunter must proactively identify all potential candidates that might “match” with their clients job requirements.
Therefore, to be able to do this effectively, they must have a brilliant Executive Candidate Network, they must know & have access to all Executive Candidates in the market.
Here at ProCapita Headhunter Indonesia, our Executive Candidate Network currently stands at 450,000+ Candidates.
These individuals are located across the nation. And they cover all industry sectors and all job functions.
That means that for any type of senior hiring assignment that we work on in Indonesia, we can quickly access all the professional talent that a client business maybe interested in speaking to.
Once a Headhunter has identified and listed all the potentially relevant candidates for a clients job vacancy – aka once they have built the Talent Long-List for the role – the Headhunter will then directly reach out to each and every person on the list.
They will professionally market their client organisation & the job vacancy.
A Headhunter must be a senior professional themselves, as they must be able to effectively interact with Senior Executives – on both the client and candidate side – able to answer all questions asked, have the skills needed to get senior candidates excited to explore a clients job opportunity.
99% of the candidates that ProCapita Headhunter Indonesia places into senior roles, are Passive Candidates.
A Passive Candidate is someone that is happily employed when we “knock on their door”.
They are Not proactively looking for a new job.
Apa itu Perekrut ? What is a Recruiter?
A Recruiter on the other hand is focused on Junior and Mid Level Hiring.
Often they are called “Recruitment Agents” or “Recruitment Consultants“.
In Indonesia, 95% of people that call themselves a “Headhunter”
Are NOT Headhunters they are Actually Recruiters!
So how does a Recruiter work?
A Recruiter will use LinkedIn Job Ads and Online Job Board Advertising to publicly promote their clients job opportunity.
By using Online Job Ads a Recruiter can quickly find Active Job Seeker Candidates, people that are looking for new work and will Submit Their CV by “clicking apply” to an Online Job Ad.
A Recruiter will review all the Active Job Seeker CV’s that they receive and submit the best ones to their client.
Recruiters are great for Junior and Mid Level Hiring.
Where Active Job Seeker Candidates are more than enough.
When speed is the most important thing and an “OK” candidate is all that is needed.
So, as you can see a Headhunter and a Recruiter work in an entirely different way!
Apa itu Headhunter ? Headhunter Adalah ? = a Senior Executive Recruitment Expert that directly approaches all potential executive candidates “behind the scenes”.
Apa itu Perekrut ? Perekrut Adalah ? = a Recruiter is focused on Junior and Mid Level Hiring and receives Active Job Seeker Candidate CVs via LinkedIn Job Ads and Online Job Board Portals.
A Real Headhunter Company, like ProCapita Headhunter Indonesia, will NEVER use Online Job Ads to Attract Senior Candidates.
Why? Because it is a totally inappropriate way to gain senior candidate interest.
It suggests that a company does Not take its senior level hiring very seriously. Does Not invest in its Executive Recruitment. Which is a big turn-off for any senior, happily employed candidate.
Apart from anything else, you can Not access Top Class Employed Senior Candidates via Online Job Ads — because they are working hard and Not looking at Job Ads.
So if you see someone that calls themselves a “Headhunter”…
But they are Advertising Jobs Online…
You now know that they are actually a Recruitment Agent.
They are NOT a Headhunter.
Headhunter Job Description and Daily Responsibilities
A Headhunters Work Includes the Following:
- Identifying Their Clients Exact Hiring Needs: They will talk in-depth with their Client Company to understand fully their specific recruitment needs, to understand their corporate culture and what the “Ideal Candidate” for their senior job vacancy looks like.
. - Talent Pool Research & Mapping: Once it is clear what a client company needs, a Headhunter must find and list out all the best potential candidates in the market based on these specific requirements. This involves creating the Candidate Long-List – which can be short or incredibly long, depending on the hiring briefing and the size of talent pool available. The vast majority of these individuals will be happily employed and Not looking for a new job.
. - Candidate Approach and Discussion: Once all potential candidates have been identified, a Headhunter will then directly approach each person, via email, whatsapp or etc and promote their client organisation and the job vacancy details. They will speak to the candidates that are interested to know more, they will motivate these senior professionals to explore the opportunity & Submit Their CV.
. - Candidate Evaluation: A Headhunter must assess each candidate that they speak to, with the clear aim of identifying those that are the “best fit” for their client role, both professionally and culturally. They will Submit The CV’s of the most qualified, “best fit people” to their client firm.
. - Interview Scheduling: Once a client has decided which candidates they would like to interview, a Headhunter will coordinate the interviews between their client company and the selected senior candidates.
. - Financial Offer & Negotiation: Once a client has selected a Candidate that they wish to Hire, the Headhunter will gather all of that persons detailed current compensation data and also their payslip evidence. The client shall use this information to prepare their Financial Offer. The Headhunter will then play a key middleman role during the “Offer Stage”, to ensure that both their client firm and the executive candidate selected can reach a successful middle ground, where both are happy and the hire can be completed.
. - Post Recruitment Follow-Up: Headhunters will stay connected with both the hired executive and their client to ensure a satisfactory match has been made.
Keahlian apa yang dibutuhkan untuk menjadi headhunter terbaik ?
What Skills Are Needed to be a Good Headhunter?
A Headhunters job revolves… almost 100%… around People & Information.
Therefore, it is unsurprising that Headhunters must have a great mix of both soft & hard skills to be able to perform their roles well.
Essential Skills in the Life of a Headhunter:
Multi Tasking: Headhunters are working on multiple deals at a time and typically all are urgent. They must be able to handle this vast workload. For each deal they are interacting with large volumes of candidates, they must be able to jump around between assignments seamlessly and without any errors.
Information Gathering: A lot of a Headhunters job is focused on Information Gathering. They must be able to understand exactly what a client company wants… They must continually collect candidate data and organise that data effectively so that they can quickly build the candidate long-list for any hire.
They must be highly inquisitive, able to “think outside of the box” able to dig very deep to find the perfect candidates needed.
People Assessment: A great Headhunter can talk to a candidate and quickly identify if that person is a good fit or not for their client vacancy. Having strong “people assessment skills” is super important.
Marketing and “Soft” Selling: A Headhunter is continually marketing, continually doing “soft selling”, whether it is interacting with new potential clients and explaining why that company should use their services, or talking to senior candidates and knowing what to say and how to say it, to get them interested to explore their clients job vacancy.
Organisation Skills: Excellent organisation skills are beyond essential. You are managing multiple deals and potentially hundreds of candidates simultaneously. If you are not well organised things get confusing and everything falls apart very quickly.
Meeting Deadlines: Most assignments are urgent and clients need and expect results fast. You need to have huge amounts of energy and the ability to Work Hard and Long to be a Good Headhunter, to be able to meet key deadlines and achieve the results sought asap.
And an Exceptional Headhunter Also Has:
Deep Career Experience: To be able to effectively assess a Senior Candidate and decide if they are a good fit for their clients needs, to be able to effectively manage senior clients and senior executive candidates – to be taken seriously and listened to – a Headhunter must also be a senior professional themselves with a wealth of career experience and deep knowledge and insights that they can share and use to guide others.
Great Gut Instinct: A Top Class Headhunter possesses a very strong “natural gut instinct“, they are able to sense “Grade A Professional” vs “Average” fast. And to develop this skill takes years of work experience and interaction with thousands of candidates.
Excellent People Skills: If you are Not good with people, if you do Not really care about people, if people do Not generally like your attitude, if you do Not invest time and effort to build rapport with people, if you do Not seek to build long term relationships with people, you will NEVER be a good Headhunter. End of! People won’t want to work with you – clients or senior candidates. Headhunting is a long term relationship industry, it is Not transactional. People Must Like You.
The Key Benefits Of Working With A Headhunter
Businesses use Headhunters when they need to ensure that a senior or critical position is filled by the very best person possible.
When Active Job Seeker Candidates applying via Online Job Ads… is simply not enough.
Benefits For Companies:
- Instant access to all potentially relevant Top Class senior candidates in the market.
. - Most importantly Access to all Passive Candidates, people that are happily employed and Not looking for a new job.
. - Start to Finish 3rd party recruitment process management. Headhunters are Executive Recruitment Experts, they know how to run an effective, efficient, successful executive recruitment process.
. - Confidentiality! The ability to “hire from behind the scenes“. So the public market does not hear about a senior job vacancy.
. - Expertise in negotiating Offer Terms that lead to a satisfy result for both parties and a successful close.
. - Streamlining of the general executive recruitment process, saving time and resources.
. - Quick targeted results.
Benefits For Candidates:
- Exposure to exciting senior positions that they would otherwise never hear about.
. - Support, advice and guidance throughout the executive recruitment process.
. - Assistance during the Offer & Negotiation Stage, helping to set realistic expectations based on market guidance and facts.
. - Access to the wisdom and knowledge of a Senior Executive Recruiter who can answer all questions that a candidate may have, help them to make the right (& also smart) decisions.
Wrapping Up – Headhunter Adalah…
Whether you are a company that is in pursuit of senior leadership talent to help take your business to the next level, or an individual senior professional striving forward in your career, understanding how Headhunters work & operate is important.
For both parties involved, client and candidate, the work of a 3rd Party Headhunter can be a catalyst for significant growth and change. They are Not simply “Recruiters”; they are strategic partners, advisors, and career architects.
In a world that is continually evolving, fostering a relationship with a Great Headhunter could be one of the most astute decisions for your business or career.
I hope that this article has helped to answer any queries that you may have about “Apa itu Headhunter ?” or “Headhunter Adalah ?” – because understanding “What is a Headhunter” and “How a Headhunter Works” is important in the professional landscape.
Apa itu Headhunter ? – ProCapita Headhunter Indonesia.
Jakarta’s Premier Headhunter Company.
While you are here, for companies that are looking to make a Senior Appointment in Indonesia, please have a look at This Article which gives an overview about our Executive Search Headhunter Services & How We Work.
Similarly, please check out This Article which gives our Headhunter Tips on how to successfully handle a C-Level Hire in Indonesia. Also This Article which gives further context and detail to the Big Differences between a Headhunter Company and a Recruitment Agency.
For Businesses that are looking to Hire Executive Talent in Indonesia please Submit Your Enquiry to ProCapita Headhunter Indonesia. Or you can reach us through our Contact Details Here.
A Senior Headhunter Consultant will respond within a few hours.
You can also View My Executive Headhunter Bio Here and please feel free to connect with me on Linkedin!
