The Importance of Executive Headhunter Agent Reputation.

Executive Headhunting is all about people and the truth is that in inter-human relations reputation matters. In executive search it is crucial. That however doesn’t mean that every reputation is a good one. In this article we will have a closer look at the subject of executive search agent’s reputation, its importance and influence on the headhunting process. Let’s get to it.

How to determine executive search agent’s reputation?

Reputation is rather a fluid concept. It cannot be precisely measured, there are no mathematic formulas which will allow us to determine if agent is reputable or not. We should rely heavily on our intuition and do a research to find out if we can notice signals which suggest good reputation of an agent. In order to gain the best possible understanding of this crucial for headhunting aspect, we have to split our research in 3 parts. We would have to analyze each “type” of reputation relevant to executive search. Those types are as follows:

In-Sector reputation – This refers to the reputation of agent across his/her sector of focus. It will influence pool of candidates, their willingness of cooperation and size of professional contact’s network.

Signals which indicate good in-sector reputation: network of professional contacts

Reputation across customers – This is the hardest one to check as many companies require headhunters to be discreet. You can however have a look at anonymous reviews. They can however be faked but often that would be your only hint. Theoretically reviews from clients would determine how satisfied are the clients with agent’s services.

Signals which indicate good reputation across customers – reviews

Professional reputation – How well known is the agent in the community of executive headhunters. The best headhunters are often members of organizations such as AESC.

Signals indicating good professional reputation – membership in headhunting organizations.

What are the consequences of bad, good and nonexistent reputation in executive headhunting?

One may think that every headhunter should have a reputation to work effectively. Being well-known across industry is however not always beneficial. It all depends on one crucial factor: Is this reputation good or bad?

What are the consequences of bad reputation for headhunter? – Headhunter with bad reputation across industry is ineffective headhunter. This person would scare away potential skilled professionals in your sector and may deliver you underperformers. This person network of contact would be small or irrelevant to your needs. Bad reputation in this business is acquired through unethical way of work or inability to match candidates with suitable clients.

What are the benefits of headhunter with good reputation? – executive search agent with good reputation across the sector of focus and headhunting community can broaden his/her professional contact network almost effortless. These professionals are known for their excellence and ethics. Thanks to this, top candidates are reaching out to them themselves, reputable agents are invited into various events relevant to both headhunting and sector of focus. Hiring agent like this gives your business an exclusivity in access to the wide pool of worlds leading executives.

What are the consequences of a headhunter with no reputation – This person is not necessarily unethical but it’s likely to have very poor network of professional contacts which drastically reduces chances for the perfect match.

Headhunting agents’ reputation is not mentioned too often across the sector. That’s because it is very hard to determine if agent is reputable or not and whenever their image is negative or positive. You may think now that this article is pointless as it is not possible to identify reputable headhunters. This is however not true. If you want to be sure that your executive search partners are reputable, you have to look for the best in the business. They will provide you proofs which vouch for their reputation. What exactly do we mean? In order to illustrate it to you, we will use example of our agency – EUROGALENUS.

What vouches for reputation of headhunting agencies? – EUROGALENUS example

Maybe we are not the most modest, but we have some good reasons for it. Let’s have a look:

Founded in 1992, and still going strong. Apart from having 30 years to build our renown and experience, this indicates that we are good at what we do. Otherwise, we wouldn’t get that far

According to  Expansión y Empleo (2019) and Equipos & Talento, we are ones of Spain’s top executive search agencies. We believe that this is a very strong proof vouching for our strong and good reputation.

We are member of AESC since 1994. This officially confirms that we are a reliable partner and ones of the best in the business.

We are registered in BlueSteps – AESC’s career service used by world’s top executives to pair up with most ethical, effective and attractive headhunting companies able to propel their careers. This only further expand our network of professional contacts.

We are Spanish partners of ECI Group – international network of companies in the consulting sector which include executive search. This only expands our opportunities, renown and ability to best serve our clients.

Luis Truchado – our partner and director was a member of AESC Global Board and served at European Council. Renown across headhunting community and various sectors becomes obvious at this point.

If you manage to find an executive search agency which presents similar proofs vouching for its renown, you can be ensured that their reputation will enable them to find you the one perfect candidate (if you are relevant to one of their sectors of focus). But why would you look any further? In EUROGALENUS we specialize in sectors such as: Service companies, Life Sciences & Healthcare, industry & Chemicals, FMCG, NGOs & Non-Profit. If you are in need of top-level executive in one of those sectors, we are your best bet. Contact us and find out more about the way in which we work.