What Is a Headhunter? Definition and Traits in Indonesia

Headhunting is a service that companies across Indonesia increasingly rely on. For businesses that want the best candidates for a given position, a headhunter is often the fastest route. Before looking more closely at headhunters in Indonesia, it helps to understand what a headhunter is.

A headhunter is a company, agency, organization, or individual that searches for, selects, and places qualified people or professionals in a position within a company. In other words, a headhunter is a recruitment agency that looks for top talent to fill exclusive vacancies at companies for specific roles.

In short, headhunting is an executive search service. It covers positions such as managers, as well as specialist staff in certain segments, who are often at the mid-management to senior or expert level. Because their job is to find the best candidates for the companies they work with, headhunting firms in Indonesia show certain traits that prove they can be relied on to find a professional or senior executive.

Here are the traits of a trustworthy headhunter in Indonesia:

1. A strong track record of working with clients to close deals, and frequent recommendations from other companies.
2. A portfolio, and the ability to describe many cases of recruiting staff in each industry segment they have handled.
3. A wide network of contacts, meaning a database of candidates who have already been placed.
4. An official website and social media accounts as points of contact in addition to a physical office.
5. No "grease money" services, and no requests for large sums of money as a promise to a company that a certain candidate will pass the selection and be hired.

The responsibility is heavy: headhunters must find and recommend candidates with specific expertise for positions such as manager, chief, head office, or other roles in a company. It is no surprise that headhunting firms in Indonesia are still relatively few. Many of them have been working for more than two decades, one example being Tempindo Jasatama. Quite a few of the firms that handle headhunting were founded and grew overseas, such as Kelly Services, Boyden, Michael Page, JAC Recruitment, RGF HR Agent, and Robert Walters.

So how does a headhunter actually work?

After receiving a candidate request from a client, and before deciding which candidate fits, a headhunting firm in Indonesia digs as deeply as it can into the qualifications and the exclusive skills the client needs. All of this preparation is meant to choose the right people, so the client company has fewer candidates to screen. The goal of using a headhunter is to pursue candidates who truly fit the role and can bring growth and benefits to the company.

Read also: Benefits of Using a Headhunter Service for Companies