The benefits of working with maritime headhunters.

How do you find outstanding talent from your competitors?

Thinking of working with maritime headhunters on your next senior hire? It is hardly surprising. Making the wrong hire can be a major setback for any company who then has to use up valuable resources to reverse the mistake. And then, while you are trying to find A++ talent, you are not focusing 100% of your attention on the core aspects of your business.

So-called "difference makers" — CEOs, sales directors and so on — are hard to find. There are only a few of them and lots and lots of companies just like yours who are trying to hire one. To build a high performing team, you need to find a way of not only identifying the best talent, but persuading them to join your ranks.

However, the big question remains: are maritime headhunters a worthwhile investment? In this article, we take a look at why headhunters are your best option for hiring top talent.

Maritime headhunters source the best candidates.

One of the problems with handling the recruitment process yourself is that it is hard to apply a filter. While it is true that you have social media at your disposal and can do everything yourself, there will be a lot of candidates who just are not suitable or appropriately qualified. Separating the wheat from the chaff can be a real pain.

Expert headhunters do not waste time sifting through multiple applications from unsuitable candidates. They have a narrow, but clearly defined, pool of talent to call on and can identify exactly who is best suited to your role. Maritime headhunters are able to offer up appropriate CEOs, sales managers, and so on, according to their skills, fit, personality, and interests.

While it is difficult for small businesses to identify the right fit amongst a large pool of talent, it is much easier for data-driven headhunting firms.

Headhunters take a load off for you.

Hiring managers already have a lot on their plate. They do not want or need the added pressure of having to scout the top talent. Recruitment is tedious and can quickly turn into a nightmare after a succession of wrong hires.

Because this is what headhunters do for a living, they are able to allocate more energy, resources, and time to the recruitment process than you and your in-house team can. They allot time to research and source their qualified candidates and you are free to focus on the aspects of your business that you need to be focusing on.

Moreover, you do not need to worry about coordinating feedback or follow-up calls. Maritime headhunters take care of all of this for you, right up until the moment an offer is accepted.

Headhunters target passive candidates.

When it comes to filling senior level roles, such as CEOs and sales directors, you might find that job postings are ineffective. Primarily because the outstanding candidates you want simply will not respond. They are already in a job that they enjoy and are content with. At this point, they see no reason to make a switch and your job posting certainly will not catch their eye.

However, all is not lost. The best maritime headhunters are able to make contact with passive candidates, before marketing and selling your brand and the vacant job role to them. Then, they make the close. Headhunters have a knack of reaching the right people — people that you otherwise would not be able to catch. Then, they use their skills of persuasion and knowledge of the market, your sector, and your company to convince them to make the switch.

Headhunters have a large network.

You might think that you have a pretty big network. But a headhunter's network is always much bigger. The challenge for a lot of businesses is that their network — though large in their own eyes — is usually quite small when compared to the market as a whole. Worse still, the number of available CEOs is slim.

The moment you begin working with a maritime headhunter is the moment that your network increases considerably. Professional headhunting firms have a huge network of contacts that they can choose from. Even better, they are all highly qualified. There are two obvious advantages here: one, your recruitment process will speed up and become more efficient. Two, you are guaranteed to hire a top-notch candidate.

Tips for working with maritime headhunters.

1. Be selective. When choosing which maritime headhunters you want to work with, be selective. If a particular firm is not really appropriate to your situation, politely decline their offer. Interview them first and find out how reputable they are. Turn to your network to see if there is anyone who has already worked with this headhunting firm before. Ask them what their experience was like and if they would recommend them to you.

2. Chat on the phone first. Headhunters sometimes make the first move. They will give you a call, and if they do — you should pick it up. Chatting on the phone will give you a good idea of what they are all about, and whether or not they are a good fit for your company and what you are looking for.

3. Be transparent. For the best results, you need to be as honest as possible with your headhunter. This means being honest about compensation, job objectives, your company's culture, your branding, where you see your business heading, projected growth, and any other details you can think of. Make sure that all the bases are covered so your headhunter has all the information they need.

4. Work with retained headhunters. There are two types of headhunters: contingent and retained. Contingent headhunters require zero fee until they have landed you a hire. Retained headhunters, on the other hand, ask for some of the fee upfront. Working with the latter offers you more advantages because they offer exclusivity and are guaranteed a fee. From the start, this motivates them to land you a top-notch candidate. Moreover, with this exclusivity, the retained headhunter is giving you full access to their network — as opposed to mere cast-offs that other companies have already rejected.

Making the right investment.

Hiring headhunting firms for your next hire has many advantages. It allows you to outsource one of the most demanding and yet costly parts of the recruitment process, freeing you up to focus on your business and freeing your hiring manager up to focus on what they are really good at. Identifying and catching the eye of the best senior executives is difficult. Luckily, you can improve your odds of attracting the best candidate by handing the reins over to professional maritime headhunters.