Text 1. HEAD-HUNTING

The process of finding possible candidates for a job or function is usually called recruitment. Inside the organisation which is looking for recruits human resource managers deal with this task. It may also be undertaken by an employment agency. Either way the process of finding an employee may involve advertising, commonly in the recruitment section of newspapers or in a newspaper dedicated to job advertisements. Employment agencies will often advertise jobs in their windows. Posts can also be advertised at a job centre if they are targeting the unemployed.

Headhunting has a quite different approach towards the problem of vacant jobs. On the one hand, it is more aggressive than the usual recruitment process, much more discreet. Head-hunting is reserved to certain jobs and certain levels in the business world.

The main idea of headhunting is that there is already someone who perfectly fits into the position that is vacant. Most often this person has certain knowledge, specific contacts or highly wanted skills to fulfil the job. This makes standard recruitment obsolete, as the person or persons who are suitable are already known to the company, its human resources department or an external recruiter.

Why is this kind of recruitment reserved to certain jobs and levels in the business world then? Well, most often these people already have a job. Most likely their job involves employment at direct or indirect competitors of the company that is trying to fill their positions. Job positions where headhunting is used involve certain high skilled developers and several strategic positions in companies like management positions especially in the field of sales and marketing.

The reason for headhunting is that companies can save much time and money for certain projects if they hire the right person for the job. A person who already has the needed knowledge or has the needed contacts can mean the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful project.

But headhunting is not that easy as it may sound especially when you keep in mind that the person has a value to their company, either by knowledge, skill or his/her contact network. And the companies usually know about the fact which persons are valuable and attractive to other companies and therefore to head-hunters.

Apart from several legal issues that may prevent employees to change their jobs, such as competitor restrictions in their work contract which prevent someone to work for competitors for a certain time after they leave their current job, there are a lot of other difficulties. On the one hand, a company that employs someone who is highly attractive to other companies will make it hard for those companies to get in touch with this person or if this is not possible, they will make it at least as hard as possible for them to hire their asset by granting special advantages to this person in their contracts.

On the other hand, the person who is headhunted as well as the company that headhunts may get a reputation in their branch which can make future projects difficult for them.

That’s why headhunting is rarely used and just in cases where the profit of a successful hunt is higher than the damage caused to the reputation and position of the person headhunted as well as the company headhunting their new asset.

How does headhunting work and where do head-hunters work? Well, depending on the person that is to be hunted there is a direct and indirect approach. The direct approach is to offer the person a new job directly and straight either by phone, e-mail, coincidental meeting, at an exhibition or on the golf course. Or indirectly as over friends, conferences, well placed recruitment posts, customers or project partners of the person that is to be headhunted.

Head-hunters tend to be specialists in a particular niche, with some recruiting firms also specialising in a geographical region as small as a city and others recruiting worldwide. Niche head-hunters may specialise in a specific industry or type of employee such as medical specialists, information technology professionals, senior level executives or sales professionals.

Search firms generally commit to off-limits agreements. These agreements prevent a firm from approaching employees from their clients as candidates for other clients. Since they act as management consultants working in the best interests of the clients for whom they conduct searches, it would be counterproductive to simultaneously remove talented executives from the same companies. Search firms will decline assignments from certain companies, in order to preserve their ability to poach candidates from those companies. Very large search firms often insist on guarantees of certain amount of searches before they will put an entire company “off-limits”.

Task 25. Translate the sentences into English:

1. Підбором працівників займаються менеджери з персоналу. 2. Працедавці часто звертаються по допомогу в рекрутингові агентства для того, щоб знайти нових працівників. 3. Основна ідея “полювання за спеціалістами” полягає в тому, що особа, яка ідеально пасує на цю вакансію, вже має роботу. 4. З одного боку, “полювання за спеціалістами” є агресивнішим порівняно із звичайним рекрутингом, а з іншого – стриманішим. 5. У світі бізнесу “полювання за спеціалістами” застосовується лише для певних посад і на певному рівні. 6. Однією з причин “полювання за спеціалістами” є економія коштів. 7. Керівники фірм, як правило, знають, хто з їхніх працівників може зацікавити конкуруючі фірми і, відпо­відно, мисливців за спеціалістами. 8. Залежно від того, за ким полю­ють, підхід може бути прямим або непрямим. 9. Пошук працівни­ків передбачає подання оголошень про вакансії в газети. 10. Як правило, особа, за якою полюють, має певні знання і досвід, а також хороші ділові контакти. 11. Спеціалісти, за якими полю­ють, здебільшого працюють у конкуруючих фірмах. 12. “Мислив­ці за спеціалістами”, як правило, працюють у межах одного міста або однієї країни, проте існують рекрутингові агентства, які діють в усьому світі. 13. Здебільшого успіх проекту залежить від особи, яка над ним працює. 14. “Полювання за спеціалістами” може завдати великої шкоди як репутації фірми, яка полює за кимсь, так і особі, за якою полюють. 15. Рекрутингові агентства можуть спеціалізуватись у сфері діяльності працівників.

Task 26. Make up a plan of the text “HEAD-HUNTING” in writing.