I felt your article on recruitment, referred to in the leader as the “dog-eat-dog world of the headhunter”, was imbalanced and it was interesting that you only approached one source for a response – Hays, which is not a headhunter but a recruitment agency.

Large recruitment agencies rely on their databases of candidates to fill vacancies. Almost all are office-based and have little face-to-face contact with clients or candidates. As a real industry headhunter, we would never cold-call individuals en masse offering non-existent jobs just to get CVs and then sell them to the highest bidder. This is nonsense and against the Data Protection Act.

We meet our clients to develop an understanding of the type of person that would suit the role and only approach potential candidates who meet the brief. The individuals are then invited to meet us to discuss the opportunity. If they are keen, they are introduced to the client. Usually, only two or three people are put forward, which finds the right person for the role and saves the client sifting through countless CVs.

True headhunting is thorough, professional and confidential. We rarely advertise, unless a client wants us to, and we have few registered candidates. There are a lot of wannabes out there giving real headhunters a bad name.

Stephen Rollinson , director, SPR Group

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