Recruiting in China

Executive search is about enticing the right person for a job, writes Vivienne Reiner.

HEADHUNTERS can do no wrong in the current economic climate, with a global skills shortage fuelling growth in their industry. Revenues for executive search firms worldwide have grown by 20 per cent each year for the past two years, and indications are very good that 2006 will also be a year of significant growth, according to US-based Peter Felix, president of the Association of Executive Search Consultants.

"Assuming a 20 per cent increase this year, then the market would be more or less back to its peak 2000 level with worldwide revenues at about $8 billion,'' Felix says. "Any growth beyond that would take us to new heights.''

Search has experienced strong growth in the past few years because of a war for talent caused by demographic trends in Western countries and high competition for experienced management in new growth markets such as Asia and Eastern Europe. In Australia, the market is quite buoyant across all sectors, and particularly strong in infrastructure and resources. As well, the rate of change in Australian companies jostling to improve position, and mergers and acquisitions, have placed further pressure on the hunt for executives.

Executive search organisations tend to perform searches for senior positions offering remuneration upwards of $150,000-$250,000. But in Australia search is also becoming more common for more junior roles, thanks to the low unemployment rate. Employers are increasingly turning to recruitment agencies to target specific organisations and people to fill positions below the $100,000-mark.
Recruitment agencies with executive search arms, however, can be less research-intensive than headhunting firms that specialise in search.

Rob Pocknee is a partner in Cordiner King, the Australian arm of leading global executive search group Amrop Hever. Cordiner King receives up to 100 unsolicited resumes every week. But the people Cordiner Kings wants are often those well looked after by their employer, or too busy to apply for a new job.

"Sometimes the best candidates will not respond to an advertisement, and in fact that's probably becoming more and more the norm the higher you go in terms of the job,'' he says.
From the employer perspective, it may also be preferable not to advertise an upcoming vacancy, because this could be sensitive. To some people, headhunter is a bad name, suggesting a profession which poaches otherwise happily employed individuals.

But Pocknee believes the best headhunters present the information and leave the next step to the individual. According to Antony Beaumont, country director for Australia of another big global headhunting firm, Russell Reynolds Associates, people targeted for approach are generally ready for a new challenge. It is increasingly common for their companies to respond with a counter-offer, but Beaumont says about 80-90 per cent of people who accept counter-offers and stay put end up leaving within a year.

Beaumont says one of the exciting elements of working in the industry is the potential for finding the right placement that transforms an organisation. He once saw an injection of outside expertise boost a share price substantially. Some headhunters keep unsolicited CVs, but Beaumont says his firm focuses on search rather than collating and managing the numerous requests for work that come its way.

"It's like a golden age for executive search,'' Beaumont explains. "As companies become more international, the potential impact of executives who can really make an impact and drive performance and demonstrate that superior leadership is more marked. There's more demand for these people and there's a relatively small pool of them.''

The job of headhunting may sound mysterious, but there is generally a set way of going about the business that guides the profession. The first task is to get a clear brief from the client -- perhaps not so easy when it involves a number of stakeholders. Next is to identify possibilities. Headhunters search their databases, speak to sources and specialists, and look at people in similar roles to the brief.

They then act as a mediator between the short-listed candidates and the client. Getting a meeting between the interested parties can be a job in itself, with full diaries and executives often in overseas locations. A change of mind at the last minute can further drag out the process. Searches commonly take three months or more, and are not always successful.

Headhunting can be done by large international executive search firms, boutique firms that may focus on one or two niche markets, or by national recruitment agencies with executive search arms. Larger firms tend to be brought in for appointments at the CEO level or for positions reporting to the CEO, and where candidates are hard to find.

Stakes are high, with executive search firms generally charging up to a third of the position's first-year salary -- (placements resulting from advertising average about one fifth of the salary, and some headhunters charge a fixed fee). One standard headhunters generally set for themselves is to not approach people previously placed for another client. Damon Sharwood, the director of legal search and recruitment agency, Dolman, says the exception is a past placement approaching the agency off their own intitiative.

Sharwood says in some cases people have said in their exit interview that they were headhunted, rather than admitting they had been looking. "It's happened a few times and we have then had to go back and explain ourselves,'' Sharwood says.

How can people increase their chances of being headhunted? As well as approaching agencies, people should raise their profile. Julie Mills, the chief executive officer of Australia's peak body, the Recruitment and Consulting Services Association Ltd, says in this new era of privacy law headhunters can face hurdles getting information -- but there is nothing to stop people posting their own details on the internet.

And Gaby Riddington, senior principal at local recruitment firm Hamilton James & Bruce, which also does executive search, says people can become more visible by presenting themselves as expert in their area -- especially beneficial for those who do not network outside the workplace to make presentations at conferences, publish papers or do volunteer work for professional associations.
Riddington says people who are looking for new opportunities should not get complacent, or let their standards drop. And she says it is worth the effort to recommend a suitable person if someone approaches you for help in a search -- it's likely the favour will be returned.