Any company looking to hire executives or specialist candidates in Europe should look to dedicated Headhunters and recruitment services who have region-specific knowledge. Not only will they be able to find domestic candidates but they can also help find individuals in the surrounding DACH (German, Austrian and Swiss territories) and also across all of Europe. Skilled recruiters will be able to speak English, which is the common business language of course, but they will have the professionalism and business understanding to reach an even wider audience.
So what do Headhunters do?
Headhunters identify, attract and approach specific people who are in specialist jobs and they attract them to their client’s company. So, if you know an organisation with a challenging senior level vacancy then a headhunter could help them find the best people for the job.
Why would a company turn to German Headhunters?
There are a number of situations where a Headhunting company with a German office could be useful. It is very common for International organisations that are considering to enter the European market, to begin looking at opening a German office and hiring a brand new local team. This makes sense because Germany is central in Europe, there is excellent infrastructure and accessibility. The education standards are very high, and the skill base and work ethics of Germans has a strong global reputation for quality and integrity.
So imagine a US or Chinese company wants to expand into Europe, then a good starting point would be to hire a team in Germany. However, they may know nothing about the geography of the country, commercial hubs, cultural factors, competitive space, or skill base connected to their industry. A headhunter with experience of the German market will be able to guide them through the whole process. Firstly, from identifying suitable cities to sourcing great candidates who can assist with creating legal entities, hiring additional team members who can source offices, work with local chambers of commerce and build a business base to enable the company to operate and sell across Europe.
Region-specific recruitment specialists could also work with clients to help present candidates that are not only German but come from surrounding German speaking countries and also wider afield. There is no reason why a Headhunter located in Germany cannot also identify and source people in France, the UK, Nordics or even Eastern Europe in order to present their client with a mixed shortlist from various backgrounds. This will help clients identify the best person for the job and the best location for the company.
Other more obvious situations where region-specific headhunters need to be engaged are when a German company wants to hire in its immediate vicinity or region. In a highly competitive market space or even where skills are very limited, headhunters can find the best people. Many large corporates have existing Central European Operations and sometimes they need to replace staff or expand a team, so an expert executive search consultant or German headhunter is needed.
More frequently international organisations who want to hire very specific skills often turn to region-specific to find a key roles. Once the individual is appointed, they are then relocated, often to the companies head office to fulfil their roles. Over 3 million Germans work abroad within OECD countries and a third of these are located in the US.
There are a multitude of reasons why corporates would need to use region-specific recruitment
agencies, with a few of the most common listed here in this article. We should also consider that the
public sector will also have a need to attract German nationals and in particular education and
research facilities like to hire highly educated, multilingual candidates from Germany. Whatever the
reasons, German Headhunters provide valuable insight, experience and capabilities in sourcing top
notch candidates.
