Many terms, such as human resources consultant, have changed in meaning today, are used differently, or the general acceptance of the terms has changed greatly. This can be very confusing when trying to decide on a recruiting service provider. We would therefore like to take a closer look at the individual terms and give a brief overview of the current use of the terms in the field of recruiting.
A first term that often comes up is that of human resources consultant. A personnel consultant must first be differentiated from a recruiter: While the recruiter usually arranges simple employment relationships subject to social insurance contributions, the personnel consultant focuses on filling specialist and management positions. In doing so, the personnel consultant places special emphasis on intensively dealing with the client company and internalizing its values, goals and visions in order to be able to find suitable and appropriate candidates for the company on this basis.
Another term that often comes up in this context is classic headhunting. A headhunter acquires job profiles and generates profiles that fit the advertised position. This is done primarily with the help of our own talent pool and through direct search. If the commissioning company decides in favor of one of the headhunter’s candidates, the headhunter receives a rather high placement commission, which is usually fixed at the beginning and usually amounts to about one third of the gross annual salary of the placed candidate. Headhunters often offer their services for a high starting fee, the retainer.
We’ve always wondered why companies still pay so much money for headhunters! With our service “Kooku Recruit” we offer the so-called “headhunter killer”, i.e. a tailor-made solution at only about 30-60% of the usual headhunter costs.
In the age of digitalization, traditional headhunting is increasingly undergoing a transformation. While in the past the physical collection of business cards was often a well-kept source of the headhunter, in times of social media and access to Big Data, constantly updated networks such as Xing and LinkedIn are also gaining in importance, which takes away the exclusivity of the headhunter’s contact collection.
This development brought the concept of direct search to the forefront. Synonyms such as executive search, direct search or active sourcing are often used for this purpose. At Kooku Recruiting Partners, sourcers are also called researchers because the work of sourcing always involves active research into companies and positions.
A researcher at Kooku searches all interesting social platforms on the Internet to find and approach suitable candidates. Two competencies are required: targeted research with knowledge of all relevant platforms, and the ability to communicate and inspire candidates for the vacant position. The emergence of these tasks has established itself as a complete job profile and so you can book direct search as a single service or find dedicated research departments in larger companies.
Active sourcing and reaching out directly to candidates is now a meaty answer to “post and pray” – posting job ads and then “waiting for” and “praying for” suitable applications.
While the active sourcer or researcher concentrates on the search and approach, the competence area of the (interim) Recruiters mostly the complete end-to-end process the RecruitmentStarting with the determination of needs, the analysis of requirements, the attraction of applicants through job advertisements or via a (meanwhile mostly outsourced) direct search up to the selection in job interviews as well as the contract negotiations. The task of the recruiter thus requires not only excellent communication skills but also the ability to empathically and economically put himself in the shoes of all stakeholders (hiring managers, internal executives, senior applicants or C-level candidates or even very young applicants). Recruiters usually act on the company side and are used for hard-to-find specialists and managers as well as for all operational profiles.
Now that we have provided an overview of the technical terms used in recruitment, we would like to conclude by discussing the terms RPO(Recruitment Process Outsourcing) and Interim Recruiting. The terms differ primarily in their point of view. While RPO refers to the outsourcing of the recruiting process, i.e. the outsourcing of this process to an external service provider, interim recruiting stands for the temporary use of an interim recruiter on site, i.e. in one’s own company (from the Latin interim → “temporarily, in the meantime”). The mandate of the interim recruiter usually has a clear start and end point with a predefined fee. An interim recruiter usually has a broad client portfolio and is able to adapt very quickly to the circumstances of a new company, including all cultural aspects. Freelance recruiters often also work in a company on an interim basis. However, they often act as “lonely wolves” and rarely proactively join the company’s team. In addition, freelance recruiters can rarely be independently audited for their quality of work. Interim recruiters who come from an agency, on the other hand, are often well trained and have a high level of social competence – not least because they work in a permanent company and thus in a permanent recruiting team.
At Kooku Recruiting Partners, all recruiters and researchers undergo extensive training over several weeks in a variety of areas, including active sourcing, interviewing, and time and projectmanagement. If you have recruiting peaks to cover or need to bridge a parental leave, our service is made for you due to the high professionalism!
Do you have any further questions about recruitment outsourcing or interim recruiting? We at Kooku Recruiting Partners will be happy to provide you with advice and support at any time. We look forward to exchanging ideas with you!
