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PortugalRecruitment and Selection
What is a headhunter and what is it used for?
What are the functions of a headhunter in a company?
Isabel García
HR Consultant
10 of March, 2025
There is an increasing number of companies that have a headhunter on board. Or that hire one externally. But, do you need a headhunter in your company? This is a very specific role when it comes to talent acquisition and personnel recruitment, but we often don’t have a clear understanding of their roles and duties.
Keep in mind that in a labor market that is constantly evolving like the current one, you need to innovate. If you don’t, your organization will become outdated. Hence, companies turn to the services of headhunters in order to keep improving. However, you should be clear about what these headhunters do.
Roles of a headhunter in a company
The main role of a headhunter is to search for talents with skills that are hard to find. To find those individuals with a special talent for a certain role. All while following the company’s guidelines. Of course, this is a different type of talent search than usual.
Generally, they don’t look among the candidates who send in their resumes, instead, they go for any specialized profile. It doesn’t matter if they are seeking employment or not. In fact, often their job is focused on professionals who already have a job. Their role will be to persuade them to change it.
Beyond talent management, the duties of a headhunter include analysis of the job market and of the position to be filled. This way, it’s easier to determine what features the professional should have to occupy the vacant position, the ideal profile. From there, it becomes easier to begin the search.
Most of the time, companies turn to this profile to fill very specific positions. Those harder to find in the conventional job market. For instance, they are a good resource when it comes to hiring executives or managers. Especially if they need to be attracted from other companies.
Due to its characteristics, the headhunter is usually an external profile to the company. Many of these talent hunters are self-employed, or they have their own structure. Organizations resort to them when the need to hire that specific profile arises, they are usually not on payroll.
Differences between a headhunter and a recruiter
It’s worth noting that a headhunter and a recruiter are different, although some may confuse them. The job of a recruiter is based on resumes that reach the company and selection processes. They also handle recruitment and selection policies and strategies.
On the other hand, the headhunter has a network of contacts that allow them to select the appropriate candidate. Networking plays a key role, and, as we have seen, they play an external role while the recruiter is employed by the company. It’s said that a headhunter doesn’t look for jobs for candidates, but candidates for a job.
How do headhunters work
Every person has their own way of working, their own processes. Headhunters are no exception, but there are some fundamental or standard steps. Knowing them is essential to understand how a headhunter works:
- Receives information from the company: they must accurately know what the company is looking for, what position is to be filled. Knowing the specifics of the position will make it easier to present the offer to their candidates.
- Search for contacts: once they know the characteristics of the position to be filled, they can start searching. For this, they turn to their agenda, LinkedIn or other sources.
- Contact with the candidate: they explain what position needs to be filled, the company’s expectations, what’s being offered, etc. This is a more or less informal approach to get to the next step.
- Interview with the headhunter: this serves to filter between the different candidates they had initially. Ideally, this phase ends with between two and five candidates for the position.
- Interview with the company: after the headhunter’s pre-selection, the company interviews the final candidates. Then all that’s left is to decide who to choose.
Benefits of having a headhunter in the company
As you may have deduced, the main benefit of having a headhunter is access to a talent that is very hard to find. This profile specializes in recruiting active candidates. Professionals who are not actively looking for a job… but who could join your team.
These are key profiles for the development of the organization. And not only that, but they also handle the in-depth analysis of the market. In this way, the company saves time in these processes and ensures the hiring of the right workers. They help find the best candidates.
Another advantage of having a headhunter is that companies do not have these professionals on their payroll. The fact that they work autonomously or semi-autonomously allows us to turn to them in case of need. Given the scarcity of talent in the current job market, they will always be a good option.
How to coordinate with the headhunter
If you decide to work with one of these professionals, the coordination between HR and the headhunter is crucial. To do so, it’s advisable to have a strong human resources software like Sesame HR that helps with the selection. The headhunter can generate reports of the different candidates from there.
When it comes to conducting job interviews, the company has information on each candidate. Their experience, their strengths and weaknesses, or the comments from the headhunter themselves will be keys to making the final decision. You can also evaluate candidates this way.
Want to know more? Don’t miss out on recruitment content you will find on the Sesame HR blog. Furthermore, in our guides you’ll find the keys to attracting professionals from your competition to your company. Employee experience, benefits, personnel management, and high-performance teams…
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