Recruiter (Germany)

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A recruiter (Engl. Recruiter ), also Headhunter is mediated someone suitable personnel to employers and customarily by the employer receives a commission. He acquires vacancies, prepares an occupation picture, compares it with existing interested parties, carries out so-called profiling if necessary and tries to lead interested parties and employers to a contract for an employment relationship.

In the Federal Republic of Germany , recruitment has been possible for all professional groups since 1994. Previously, there were exemptions for professional groups such as artists, but also executives.

Recruitment differs from employment in that the former is financed by the employer and aims to meet the demand for workers who are generally deficient due to difficult-to-obtain qualifications or requirements, while the latter is used by job seekers who have difficulty finding an adequate one To find work. In the case of private employment agencies, funding is provided by the job seeker or, in the case of public authorities, which were set up to reduce the number of unemployed and thus social expenditure, by the public sector.

Requirements and activities

The fields of application for recruiters are diverse, e.g. B .:

Legal classification

From a legal point of view, private recruitment represents a brokerage activity and is therefore classified as a brokerage contract under contract law , while employees of the employment agency are regularly employed or civil servants who are subject to social security contributions.

The aim of private recruitment is to provide the client - this can be an employer as well as a jobseeker - with a contract. On this basis, the brokerage law of the German Civil Code ( § 652 ff. BGB ) is to be applied. Here, the so-called broker has to promote the conclusion of the subsequent main contract. He has to mediate between the interests of the parties, make inquiries and obtain documents and receipts. It is important that the broker fulfills his task as a neutral mediator between the parties. Although he has to encourage the parties to make decisions, he has to refrain from anything that could endanger his neutrality. This duty of care distinguishes the work of the recruiter z. B. from that of the so-called evidence broker who only provides the opportunity to conclude a contract and the so-called trade broker for more details see: Brokerage Agreement

The process of acquiring vacancies from businesspeople or freelancers to place employees roughly corresponds to that in traditional sales , with a focus on recommendation marketing .

Legal situation before March 27, 2002

In the past, the state employment office (Arbeitsamt) had the authority over the placement of vacancies and thus the sole right to work as a recruiter. Under their supervision, the so-called permit for commercial temporary employment as well as the permit for private job placement were granted under strict conditions:

Official permission

Working as a private recruiter was only permitted with official approval (Section 291 SGB III). Section 293 SGB III regulated the requirements for this permit. A permit was therefore only given to those who had the necessary qualifications. Further provisions on the content of the application were regulated in Sections 2 and 3 AVermV.

The permit was issued by the state labor offices of the individual federal states of the Federal Republic of Germany. According to Section 294 SGB III, the permit was initially limited to three years and could be extended indefinitely on request, provided the requirements for this were met.

Remuneration only from the employer

The question of remuneration was also regulated by law (Section 296 SGB III). According to this, private recruiters were basically only allowed to demand remuneration from the employer. The fee was freely agreed with the employer. The agent was not allowed to demand or accept any remuneration from the employee (exceptions were artists , photo models , stuntmen and similar professional groups named in § 10 AvermV).

Data transfer to the employment office

Private recruitment agencies were only allowed to collect and process data on training and jobs as well as on employees to the extent that this was absolutely necessary for their placement activities. In the case of personal data or business or trade secrets, the consent of the person concerned had to be obtained in advance in each individual case. The supervisory authorities of the federal states were responsible for the data protection control of the private recruitment agencies in accordance with Section 38 of the Federal Data Protection Act ( BDSG ). According to Section 299 of Book III of the Social Code, the private recruitment agency had to regularly report non-personal statistical data on people seeking advice, advice, applicants, vacancies and placements to the Federal Employment Agency . At the request of the state employment office, the agent had to provide all information that was necessary for the implementation and verification of compliance with these provisions.

Market situation at the time

The obligation to notify - also for vacancies - led to the situation that HR consultants, primarily as headhunters, carried out direct placement without data collection, instead of e.g. B. high-quality vacancies for which they z. T. had expended high sales force and corresponding acquisition costs to report to the employment office free of charge. Only vacancies that were created directly as a result of a successful temporary employment contract with the customer in order to employ a previously hired employee were regularly reported to the employment office. The notification of a vacancy to the employment office was only made immediately before the contract between the previously hired employee and the previous temporary employment customer.

In 2002 this situation led to an extensive liberalization of industry regulations.

Legal situation since March 27, 2002

The entire private job and training agency is no longer subject to a permit. With the exception of a few provisions on placement abroad, on the form of placement contracts and the prohibition on calculating training placements, only a few provisions on the ineffectiveness of certain agreements and the general data protection treatment of data now apply ( Sections 292, 296 to 298 SGB ​​III).

The employment agency still has the task of ensuring compliance with these regulations ( Section 394, Paragraph 1, Clause 2, No. 4 of SGB III), but the central obligation to report statistical data has ceased to exist without replacement. A special suitability is also no longer to be proven, so that now every commercial mediator of employment can claim a legal claim to the success fee from the Federal Employment Agency from the so-called placement voucher .

The agency vouchers are limited to 2,000 euros (including VAT). Since January 1, 2008, long-term unemployed and severely disabled people can claim up to 2,500 euros (2,100.84 euros net). In practice, since the market liberalization came into force, the actual placement has continued to be limited to the placement of previously hired employees through temporary employment agencies. In quite a few cases, jobseekers with a placement voucher were found to be placed on the spot, as the first voucher installment of 1,000 euros was due when the employment relationship began, but this was terminated after a few weeks by the employer involved in the abuse, and then again Make sham mediations. In response to this, since January 1, 2005, the first installment has only been paid out if the employment relationship has lasted 6 weeks, the second installment of 1,000 euros is due after 6 months (usually after the end of the probationary period). The intermediaries were rarely able to acquire newly created jobs due to the generally poor economic situation, but they succeeded and often succeed in finding vacancies that neither the Federal Agency nor the relevant job information media are aware of, often because the employer is not aware of them or has time to publicly publish his vacancies. Although the employment agency tends to be a state-subsidized recruiter, the effect achieved for the newly employed should be viewed as politically intended.

Agency fee

It should be particularly emphasized that the new regulation ( § 296 SGB ​​III) allows a fee calculation also for job seekers. This remuneration may not exceed 2,000 euros (including statutory sales tax). For this purpose, a written placement contract must be concluded, which in particular shows the placement remuneration that the jobseeker should pay to the placement agent if successful. As a rule, this employee fee is based on the amount of the present placement voucher. But contracts that provide for something other than the reimbursed remuneration or a completely privately financed agency are now permitted.

No separate remuneration in connection with the placement may be requested for ancillary services such as application training, portfolio review or creation. A separate contractual relationship for coaching services is left to the two contracting parties as before. In the case of training mediation , only remuneration may still be requested or received from the employer ( Section 296a SGB ​​III). Mediation from and to non-EU / EEA countries is permitted. It should be noted, however, that only those foreigners who can receive a work permit can be placed.

Difference between HR consultants and recruiters

In a practical way (not through professional regulations or statutory provisions), the term recruiter has established itself for employees of the Federal Employment Agency and for those personnel consultants who primarily arrange simple employment relationships subject to social insurance from unemployment. The term of the so-called personnel consultant (also: "headhunter" or "executive searcher" within the industry) is common in the field of management placement and direct approach to employees willing to change. Direct Search also often deals with temporary contracts for interim managers or freelancers or investments or partnerships in law firms or practices. Both self-employed brokers and brokers who are subject to social security contributions work in the last two fields of activity.

The recruiter usually acts on a success basis (English: contingency) and only receives a commission if he successfully fills the position. The personnel consultant is hired on a mandate basis and receives part or all of the fee regardless of whether the position has been successfully filled (retained search). The company pays the recruiter for their effort and the recruiter for their (broker) success.

The search for executives is traditionally carried out via job advertisements in national daily or weekly newspapers as well as industry-specific specialist magazines, since the late 1980s also increasingly via direct searches and since the late 1990s via the Internet . The form of the direct search for skilled workers has been around since the 1920s. A short call from a personnel consultant at the workplace is also permissible according to a principle judgment of the Federal Court of Justice (Federal Court of Justice, judgment of March 4, 2004, Az. I ZR 221/01, direct approach at the workplace). It was confirmed in a further decision in 2006 (BGH, judgment of February 9, 2006, Az. I ZR 73/02, direct address at work II).

The search for vacancies for employees who are subject to social security contributions with medium to simple qualifications is also often done directly. In this context, however, the job applications published by the Employment Agency are increasingly being used or speculative applications from job seekers are being accepted.

On the employer customer side, i.e. when looking for companies with open or latent personnel requirements, personnel consultants and recruiters use similar marketing tools .

education

From August 1, 2008, there will be a three-year training course to become a personnel service clerk. This takes into account the high quality standards of the personnel service industry. Up to now, lateral entrants from a wide variety of entry-level professions have usually been active. Various chambers of industry and commerce offer further training for recruiters . Further training professions for personnel service clerks are in preparation.

Qualification and remuneration

The training to become a specialist in personnel consulting and recruitment (IHK) was developed in order to meet the changed conditions resulting from the liberalization of the industry.

  • Private specialization: Headhunters (for executives)
  • Federal Agency specialization: case manager

Independent personnel consultants or corresponding agencies are organized in the Federal Association of Personnel Placement (BPV), Federal Association of German Management Consultants (BDU) or, in the case of direct searches, in the Association of German Executive Search Consultants. The employer usually pays 20% to 35% of the total annual gross income of the hired manager (including variable remuneration components) as a placement commission. According to the BDU, the starting salary of an employed personnel consultant is around 3,170 euros (monthly), but after a few years there are large differences in income.

The mediators, who place mostly unemployed workers via placement vouchers and whose turnover is financed by the employment agency, pay lower salaries. The basic salary of an employed personnel consultant in a leading recruitment agency for skilled workers in Berlin is, for example, around EUR 900–1,000, plus 15–10% commission .

In addition to the commission model of the one-time brokerage, share payments are used specifically in the project market: Service providers who leave an employee or commission a subcontractor receive between 5% and 20% of the hourly rate paid to the end customer.

Current market situation

Relationship with customers

The possibility of successful recruitment in a job market without a sufficient number of vacancies results from a specialization of the recruiter or the targeted acquisition of latent personnel requirements in companies that have not yet reported any vacancies, but may consider doing so and shy away from it. The large number of applications that an employer or recruiter would receive if a job offer were published would often be economically difficult to manage. The associated administrative effort (not infrequently up to 1,000 folders, mostly without return postage) usually exceeds the organizational and financial possibilities of a smaller company. Successful recruiters respond to this with various strategies:

  • Acquisition of so-called latent personnel requirements as a service, if z. B. Overtime accrues, but so far no vacancies have been reported for various reasons.
  • Specialization in certain industries or the specialist placement services of the employment agency for severely disabled employees. These receive z. Sometimes very high training and material cost subsidies for their workplace.
  • The applicant's personal data are only collected using their own Internet forms in a suitable database.

Relationship with candidates

In most industries, there is a distinct pyramid from top to bottom, both in terms of information flow and interdependence. H. Each individual company usually works with only one or a few selected personnel consultancies and service providers who again fall back on one or more internal specialist agents. They have access to a large pool of candidates, which results from the profiles of the applicants for current and previous positions. So has z. B. a single personnel consultant usually only a maximum of one employee, personnel service companies, however, often employ several consultants, who after z. B. Grouped customers or areas, search for candidates. For applicants, this is a largely one-dimensional path towards a position.

In booming industries such as information technology or many engineering professions, however, the situation has changed a lot: Due to the shortage of skilled workers, companies often look for vacant positions via several personnel consultancies and service providers at the same time. However, only a small group of currently available applicants is available to them, so that the geometry here is more like that of an upside-down pear: Candidates are currently open to several equal positions in the companies and quite a few of them are offered at the same time by several providers. This leads to strong competitive pressure among the personnel service providers, since even when a contract is concluded between the applicant and the company, some service providers always lose out. In the project market for temporarily placed positions, it is also the case that within one and the same service provider, the various project brokers compete with each other in order to attract a candidate to the customer they serve.

Headhunting as a motif in the film

The work of headhunters is discussed in the films Headhunters (2011) and Houston (2013).

Others

The “Headhunter of the Year” award has been given by Experteer since 2016 in the areas of Executive Search, Best Newcomer, Recruiting Innovation, Best eBrand, Candidate Experience and Client Experience.

In 2018 the categories and winners were:

  • Best newcomer: PALTRON GmbH
  • Recruiting Innovation: Dr. Terhalle & Nagel
  • Client Experience: PENTAGON AG
  • Candidate Experience: EXECUTIVE SERVICES GROUP Personnel Consulting
  • Executive Search: i-potentials GmbH & SELECTEAM Deutschland GmbH

See also

literature

  • Oliver Haag, Jasmin Henkel: Headhunting - direct contact at the workplace. In: The HR manager. 2007, issue 9, p. 228 ff.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Federal Court of Justice, judgment of March 4, 2004, Az. I ZR 221/01, direct contact at the workplace  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.atypon-link.com  
  2. ^ Federal Court of Justice, judgment of February 9, 2006, Az. I ZR 73/02, direct address at work II
  3. ↑ Headhunter of the Year 2017. Accessed March 10, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Headhunter of the Year 2018. Accessed June 24, 2018 .