Headhunting/Recruitement consultancy
Personnel consultants support companies and, in individual cases, other organizations as external consultants in their HR work. They are primarily used in areas that have a high demand for specialized or highly sought-after specialist personnel as well as for the search for management and executive staff.
In a study by the Federal Association of German Management Consultants, the consumer goods, mechanical engineering, chemical and pharmaceutical industries, the automotive industry and the consulting and healthcare sectors are named as the main sectors that make use of personnel consulting. IT specialists, engineers and sales and marketing professionals are particularly sought after.
In terms of services, a distinction can be made between advisory services, such as headhunting or salary and contract consulting, and support services, such as interim management or personnel leasing. Depending on the assignment, the range of services required can vary. Personnel consultants support their clients in the search for and selection of suitable personnel, carry out assessment measures such as psychological testing procedures or assessment centers, sometimes take on administrative tasks in personnel administration and also advise management strategically, e.g. on questions of employer branding or personnel development. The boundaries to organizational and management consulting are therefore fluid.
HR consultants work for specialists and managers by finding them potential jobs, providing compensation and legal advice or accompanying and coaching them during onboarding in their new job. They are also called in to conduct development discussions with employees in the event of upcoming staff reductions (e.g. due to outsourcing) and to help them reorient themselves and find a new position.
In the case of special assignments as interim managers, they do not take on tasks as outsiders, but temporarily become part of the management of their clients when there is an acute need, for example if the expertise is not available in-house or a temporary staff shortage needs to be bridged. Occasions for such interim management include the purchase and sale of companies, restructuring processes or the introduction and development of new processes and technologies.
Industry specializations make sense - especially for entry-level students with a background outside the HR sector
Depending on the focus of the services, the structure and designation of the activity vary. For example, pure recruitment agencies often operate on a contingency basis, while recruitment consultants tend to take on the task as a temporary mandate. Temporary employment agencies, on the other hand, employ their own staff, who they "lend" to other companies for a certain period of time by means of temporary employment contracts.
Many HR consultants specialize in certain sectors, as professional and specialist knowledge is very helpful for the job, along with interviewing skills and knowledge of human nature. This means that students from non-HR degree programs can also enter the profession if they have special industry and specialist knowledge and, in the best case, contacts in the target area. Jobs can be won actively, e.g. through home visits, phone calls or approaches at events, as well as passively, through PR work, a good web and social media presence, own publications, involvement in professional associations and, last but not least, with increasing experience, also through word of mouth. Because a certain amount of life experience and, above all, a large network of one's own are necessary for working in personnel consulting, young professionals in particular must first go into acquisition in order to build up a pool of company contacts and specialists. It is therefore often advisable to start as a junior partner or researcher in a recruitment consultancy. This often involves taking on preparatory tasks for the experienced consultants, such as researching potential candidates (e.g. in publications and social networks or by participating in industry events).
Advancing digitalization and the associated simplification of personnel research, as well as technologies such as chatbots that can interview applicants and select them based on biometric characteristics, could lead to drastic changes in the industry in the future.
