Headhunters ease hiring headaches - New Mexico's executive search firms - Industry Overview

New Mexico Business Journal, August, 1992 by Michelle Breyer

Steve Osborne, district manager of Norwest Mortgage Inc. in Albuquerque faced a major challenge.

He had to hire several highly skilled people for two new offices, and he had only two weeks to do it.

For Osborne, who is responsible for Norwest's entire New Mexico operation, his job left him little time to handle an all-out recruiting blitz.

Instead, he picked up his phone and called The Agency, an Albuquerque employee recruiting firm specializing in the banking industry.

Within two weeks, his new offices were manned with qualified people.

"It was the right thing to do," Osborne says.

Employee recruiters, executive search firms and personnel agencies -- sometimes called headhunters -- all serve an important role in the employment picture.

Personnel departments, which handle everything from benefits to affirmative action programs, sometimes can't concentrate on recruiting, says Bill Sanderson, president of Sanderson Employment Service.

"We can save them time and money and find them better candidates than they could find on their own," Sanderson says.

"We have full time to look for what they want," says Shirley Herndon, owner of The Agency, who has been an employee recruiter for the past 11 years.

"I have 10-12 hours a day to devote to the company. That frees company executives to run their business while we're looking for employees."

Recruiting services can help a company in two major ways: First, they help reduce the amount of time needed to spend on the preliminary phases of hiring. Second, they can assure a good supply of candidates who are genuine prospects for the job.

Headhunters also can offer a company confidentiality in the hiring process.

There are two types of headhunters: those who are paid a retainer in advance by the company and those who receive their fee when a person is hired. But the services of the headhunter don't come cheap.

The headhunters usually charge a fee ranging from 15 to 30 percent of the candidate's first year's salary, although it varies depending upon the position and the salary. A small percentage of firms receive a fee from the applicant, which usually starts at around 6 percent of their projected salary.

In most cases, headhunters seek out professionals who aren't actually looking for jobs. Although Herndon says she receives dozens of resumes a week from people hunting for jobs, she said 99 percent of the people she places are recruited from other companies.

"We seek out professionals not actually looking for jobs," she says.

Some firms, like Sue Wilson Employment Services, have found a successful niche by concentrating on the local market, working with a wide range of companies.

Others find it more effective to specialize in a particular occupation, profession or industry and draw from a nationwide client base.

The Agency specializes in the banking industry. Robert Half Accountemps focuses on jobs in accounting, finance and information systems.

Excel of Albuquerque Inc. fills jobs in the mining and construction industries. Sanderson Employment Service handles placements in the environmental industry.

"You almost have to specialize to be effective," Sanderson says. "You can't be everything to everybody anymore."

At any given time, Gary Repetto of Excel of Albuquerque Inc. says he is working with hundreds of companies. In addition to soliciting business from employers, he says he also must work on finding qualified candidates to fill those openings.

"I try to keep a job balance," Repetto says. "I have to keep the pipeline filled in all directions."

Those in the business admit that some companies scoff at their profession.

"They only come to a third-party source when they have needs that can't be readily met," Wilson says. "They usually come to us after they have tried other sources without success."

But some executives, like Larry Buchmiller, swear by headhunter services.

Buchmiller, president of Security Escrow Corp. in Albuquerque, recently used Sue Wilson Employment Services to hire a clerk and a customer service representative.

In the past, he says he tried newspaper ads, but was deluged by dozens of applications.

"With a recruiter, I was able to hire somebody within a week," Buchmiller says. "That's important. I have very little discretionary time available and that makes it very difficult to search for an employee. It's worth the money."

Michelle Breyer is a free lance writer based in Albuquerque.