Headhunter: a strategic ally
The headhunter is not still not a fairly important player in our country, and certainly less than in the Anglo-saxon ones, where the major firms that dominate the world markets.
Let’s start from the word “headhunter”: the meaning refers to the professional consultant who optimizes the relationships between businesses and people, thanks to its deep knowledge of the market’s background and its important network.
Therefore, the headhunter is a revelant and helpful job figure in an environment composed of limited resources, i.e. technical skills, candidate and firm level and good opportunities.
For the company that engages the headhunter’s consulting skills, an another meaning is “trust”. This term can be placed in an external figure whose contribution is not immediately discernible. This basic prerequisite to good collaboration clashes with an Italian tradition focused on “strong” relationships, that is based on the knowledge of friends, relatives, or otherwise belonging to one’s own circle.
These patterns had been well descriving in the sociological literature since Banfield, in his “amoral familism” that would stop the socio-economic dynamism of Italy. For these reasons, the first problem that the headhunter must face is “breaking the ice” of the distrust of the small to medium-sized businessman, who is typical of the Italian economic fabric, but who nevertheless is almost always curious and interested in a person who could solve the chronic problem of personnel shortage.
Beyond this comprehensible resistance, collaborative and successful business stories are often achieved. There are indeed significant benefits for the company that takes advantage of the headhunter. He/she is primarily a consultant, not an operational employee to whom a part of his/her own recruiting process is outsourced. As a consultant he/she will be able to suggest innovative solutions: expanding the recruiting base locally, emphasizing their client’s brand, highlighting their values, and helping them write a more effective job description. In other moments he/she will merely share his/her experience, for example, by helping the client define the right salary according to market parameters.
Last but not least, a mindset shift is also needed among job hunters. In more dynamic labor markets where switching firms is more frequent, it is normal to be found by a headhunter and still consider it an opportunity. Businesses often use this channel exclusively, and all applicants know that to get good opportunities it is good to be in the headhunter database. In Italy the headhunter is frequently perceived as a troublemaker and his/her proposal for contact is binned, particularly among those who are most in demand in the market. However, this is understandable in the first instance, but short-sighted in the long run. We believe that a greater presence of the headhunter in the Italian labor market can bring considerable improvement to dynamism, fostering more mobility, and efficiency, with a better match between supply and demand.
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