Recruiting specialist staff from parts of the world outside of your area of operations is a process which can be fraught with potential difficulties. These difficulties may include language barriers, cultural differences, and a lack of knowledge as to where to find candidates which have the specialist skills that you’re looking for.

Such challenges can be avoided entirely by seeking the help of dedicated European Headhunters. European Headhunters have the experience, knowledge and networks to connect businesses with high quality candidates in foreign locations. For any business considering the use of European Headhunters, it’s important that they are made aware of the distinct differences between the two forms of recruitment – Contingency recruitment and Retained headhunting.

Contingency Recruitment Services

Contingency recruitment is generally thought of as the budget recruitment option. It often works on the ‘no win, no fee’ principal, and can be somewhat likened to a CV bank. Contingency recruitment is often where executive search companies go to list job posts, and where staff actively looking for better employment go to submit their CV.

The drawbacks of contingency recruitment include:

• A ‘pot luck’ approach to recruitment with a minimal level of commitment from job seekers and recruiters.
• Often working from an outdated database of candidates.
• Many CV’s posted by individuals who don’t have the relevant skills or experience for specialist, highly skilled roles. With no filter, this means a great deal of time can be wasted reviewing irrelevant CV’s.
• No guarantees or comebacks.

Retained Headhunting Services

The alternative to Contingency recruitment is Retained Headhunting. Retained recruitment services can be considered as a higher quality solution to recruitment. European Headhunters offering Retained recruitment services are able to track down the very best candidates, many of which could not be reached by any other means.

Retained Headhunting is ideally suited for businesses looking to fill senior level roles, or for highly specialist roles which require very specific skills and experience. Typically, retained headhunters will be employed to find a suitable candidate, up until the point that the candidate is actually in their new position. Their fee is often taken as an up-front percentage of the new candidate’s salary.

The extra cost of Retained headhunting services reflects the fact that they work much harder than Contingency recruitment services do, conducting extensive research, offering multi-lingual support, full client confidentiality, and can work to a timeframe as specified by the client.

Specialist retained headhunters will take the time to establish exactly what an employer is looking for and will often be industry experts, meaning they know what to look for in potential candidates. They will know where to source highly skilled candidates and be able to interview them (if required).

One such European Headhunter offering comprehensive Retained Services, backed up by a 100% guarantee, is MSC Headhunters. To ensure you have access to the very best candidates with the skills and experience you’re looking for, reach out to MSC Headhunters.