Is headhunting a dirty word?

To uncover some of the myths behind headhunting, this month HR Magazine spoke with Rosemary Leung, Director, Templar International Consultants Ltd. to get her take on what HR should be looking for in terms of successful executive recruitment.

Rosemary Leung leads Templar, which is the executive search arm of the Adecco Group, specialising in the retail, consumer, tourism and manufacturing sectors. The team is also well versed in cross-sector disciplines including senior and general management, HR, and in-house finance.

Local vs expat hires
Based in Hong Kong, Leung’s organisation makes the majority of its placements, around 70%, in Hong Kong, with the remainder being in China—especially for companies which also have offices in Hong Kong. Leung explained that in regard to recruitment efforts in mainland China, many companies seek candidates internally from within China—to leverage advantages that come with fluency in Putonghua, comprehensive market knowledge and complete cultural understanding. Other companies based in mainland China may prefer to bring in expatriate talent from overseas in order to try to foster greater breadth of thought with fresh ideas coming in from different mindsets.
There are some distinct differences in the hires required for the mainland China market and those required for Hong Kong positions. By way of example, Leung explained, “A lot of the time it’s got to do with the package…understanding the Chinese mentality and having a fluent grasp of Putonghua is an important factor to lead a local team in China. A lot of luxury retail brands used to hire expatriates from France, Taiwan or even Hong Kong to run the China businesses about five or six years ago, because at that time this industry did not really exist in China—and there was no suitable local talent. A couple of years later when the industry was a lot more developed, the local talent pool was more developed too, and so there has been an increasing tendency towards localisation and many now prefer to hire local candidates.”

Asian values—important?
Many companies, especially European-based companies, have well-established businesses in the APAC region. Many companies strengthened their businesses in the APAC region, and their staff were able to gain hands-on experience which helped nurture a more in-depth understanding of the Asian culture and mentality.  Although this makes a dramatic difference to business success, Leung still contends that many organisations still have a considerable amount to learn about the Asian market—but that this was easily remedied. She explained, “…a lot of the time, this simply arises because the headquarters have different views on how to run their business in Asia, perhaps cultural differences haven’t been fully considered.” She added, “This happens to a lot of companies in Asia.”

To help alleviate such issues, Leung suggested that expatriate staff posted in Asia should be allowed to experience as many ‘hands-on’ postings as possible.

This ‘getting their hands dirty’ would then help them properly understand the local difficulties that are being experienced, along with greater insight into the nuances of the local market. Such information should then be fed back to organisations’ headquarters to help the whole team better understand what’s going on.

Recruitment mindset
Leung pointed out the importance of recruitment partners working with HR to fully understand the company’s culture, especially for finance positions or HR positions. She explained, “We need to understand the company’s objectives, and the challenges they face. We need to know the structure of the company to see if a candidate can really maximise their contribution given that certain company structure.”

Many in HR don’t trust recruiters
Leung encouraged those in HR to share more with recruiters, for example information about the background of the existing team, as this allows a much greater chance of finding the right fit for the team. She added, “It’s really up to the individual HR departments, I think they know it’s helping them so generally they are willing to give out the information. It comes down to the trust we have built with the client, the trust between the two parties, and once we have established that trust, then things become a lot easier. They will know that we are not taking advantage of the information they are giving us.” When asked about the level of trust between HR departments and recruiters, Leung was quite candid in her response and explained that she had worked with some HR who only provide limited information which recruiters can only really provide a ‘checklist’ kind of recruitment. To avoid this, Leung encouraged HR to be as open as possible when working with recruiters, as this would directly benefit the organisation in terms of obtaining a best-fit candidate.

Separating the wheat from the chaff
Besides looking at candidates’ types and level of experience, Leung also stressed the importance of recruiters looking at candidates’ ‘development potential’, degree of open mindedness, and ability to adapt to working with incumbent teammates.

She pointed out that many executive-level candidates, because of their considerable experience, know very well what they want and what they don’t want, so tend to be ‘more choosey’ when it comes to job opportunities.

To cope with this, Leung explained that a critical part of the screening process for recruiters was to see whether or not the candidates themselves were opened minded enough to look at different ways of how to work in a new organisation.

Why is headhunting a dirty word?
Leung explained, “Executive recruitment is more targeted than general recruitment and, as such, requires more understanding of the job and industry itself and also the market for a recruiter. It’s a direct approach, like headhunting, and doing proper research to really focus on a specific person from a specific background. I think it’s this process that sometimes gives it that negative connotation, the process of having to dig out who is in the market and find out who the competitors are.”

At Templar they themselves use the term ‘headhunting’ but don’t see it from a negative perspective.
Leung commented, “It’s just seen as another method to gain right candidate for the position—it’s quicker and more targeted. I personally think it’s the best thing to do, because some job functions are very unique and hard to fill.”

Recruiting C-grade staff
Leung advised that when companies recruit C-level candidates it’s important for them to understand the person’s mentality and see whether or not they share the same vision and direction as the company itself. She explained, “What happens is that a lot of C-level candidates join a company and work there for a long time but when they join a new company, only work there for about a year and then they want to leave. In some cases, the reason they leave so soon is that they feel the company has a different direction or belief to themselves. So I think it’s important to find out as much from the candidate as possible, face-to-face in the first interview or second interview with the board.” She added, “At the same time as share with them as much as you can with regards to the management style, so both parties have a better understanding of what they are taking on. There are some things that candidates will only find out about a company and its people once they sit down face-to-face with the people in that organisation. There is a lot to learn, and candidates can’t find out everything simply from the company website.”

Recruitment roller coaster
In terms of recruitment trends, there have been some major ups and downs in the last ten years: the financial crisis being one of the obvious downs. Leung explained, that this had turned around the existing recruitment market from candidate-driven back to being largely client-driven. Leung said, “I noticed that after the crisis it remained a client-driven market for senior positions because a lot of executives had been out of jobs, I have seen a lot candidates who haven’t worked a single day this year, more than 20%, and they’re still looking.” Leung conceded that things had improved recently, and that there were numerous job opportunities, but still remained cautious stating, “I wouldn’t say it is easier now because the recruitment and selection process itself has been longer and tougher. Companies are more selective and cautious these days, especially those in Asia and interview processes could even take up to half a year before a final decision is reached.”

But it’s not all bad news and the retail and consumer sectors in Hong Kong and China are among the hottest in terms of active recruitment in the current market. According to Leung, the retail sector has posted at least 10% more openings in the second half of the year compared to the first half, with many companies planning further headcount increases for next year. Leung explained that this is due, in part, to a flurry of new stores and flagship stores being opened in Hong Kong and China—many with 40 plus staff members. Moreover, numerous companies have restructured, following the financial crisis, which has created even more job opportunities on the market. Headhunting, dirty word or not, is likely to become more prevalent than ever as HR moves to attract an increasingly larger number of candidates to fill such positions.