Headhunting is the targeted direct approach of specialists and executives on behalf of a hiring company – people who are not actively looking for a job. The headhunter identifies suitable candidates in the hidden job market, approaches them personally and stays involved through to the signed contract. In Germany it usually takes eight to fourteen weeks and costs 25 to 35 percent of annual salary, paid by the client.
This article covers the method: the process step by step, a checklist before you start, a worked cost example, outreach templates with explanations, typical mistakes – and the part most guides skip: the legal framework around poaching. How to choose, brief and pay a headhunter for an executive role is covered in our post on choosing a headhunter. The full mandate process is covered in our post on executive search, the advisory side in recruitment consultancy.
What is the difference between headhunting, executive search, recruitment agencies and active sourcing?
The terms are often mixed up. The table sorts them by what actually happens:
| Term | What it is | Typical level | Usual fee route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headhunting | The method: approaching passive candidates directly | Specialists to leadership, wherever profiles are scarce | Retainer or success fee |
| Executive search | Headhunting as a confidential, exclusive full mandate for top positions | Managing directors, board, division heads | Mostly retainer in instalments |
| Recruitment agency placement | Placement from an existing candidate pool or from applications | Broad specialist and clerical roles | Mostly pure success fee |
| Active sourcing (in-house) | Your own recruiting team approaches passive candidates directly | All levels, mainly bottleneck profiles | No commission; cost of tool and time |
What does a direct-approach search look like step by step?
A headhunting project follows the same basic structure in practice, whether an in-house recruiting team, a search firm, or a dedicated researcher runs it. The table below lists the seven steps with realistic effort:
| Step | What happens | Realistic effort |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Define target market and requirement profile | Briefing with the client: role, requirements, salary band, relevant industries and target companies | One kickoff meeting plus 3–5 hours of write-up; sign-off usually needs 1–2 feedback rounds |
| 2. Market mapping and identification (longlist) | Research across business networks, databases and target companies; a longlist of typically 30–60 names | 1–2 weeks, 15–25 researcher hours |
| 3. Direct approach (first contact) | Candidates on the longlist are contacted personally, usually by phone, message, or a business network | 2–4 weeks, running in parallel with further identification; responses trickle in over time |
| 4. Qualifying conversations and shortlisting | Structured interviews on motivation, fit and availability; narrowing down to a shortlist | 2–3 weeks, 45–90 minutes per conversation |
| 5. Shortlist presentation | Three to five profiles are presented to the client with an assessment | One meeting, usually in week 5 to 7 of the project |
| 6. Interview rounds and contract negotiation | The client runs its own interviews; the headhunter mediates feedback and salary negotiation | 2–4 weeks, depending on scheduling |
| 7. Handover and follow-up | Onboarding support, often with a contractual guarantee period in case of early dropout | Through to start date, then a 3–6 month guarantee period is common |
In practice, a headhunting mandate for a specialist or executive role runs eight to fourteen weeks from kickoff to signed contract. Highly specialized roles can take longer, because the longlist is thinner and the approach needs more attempts before it lands. After signature, employees still have a notice period, often three months.
What do I need before I start? A briefing checklist
Most searches fail not at the approach but at a vague brief. Before the first message goes out, this should be written down:
- Must-haves and nice-to-haves separated: five must-haves at most. Ten must-haves means no longlist.
- Salary band stated openly: without a number the first call ends on money, not on the role.
- Target companies and an exclusion list: where may you search, where not (customers, partners, no-poach agreements)?
- The real selling point: why would a satisfied person listen at all? Scope, budget, team, growth.
- Decision path and dates: who decides, how many rounds, how fast feedback comes.
- Confidentiality: may the company name appear in the first message, or only later?
What does headhunting cost? A worked example
The fee is based on the gross annual salary of the filled position. Instaffo gives 25 to 35 percent as the market range for placement; Münker & Partner states an average of 27.5 percent for direct-approach mandates (both accessed September 2026 and checked in the previous version of this article). The exact rate depends on effort and how rare the profile is. The example uses one assumption: €90,000 gross annual salary for a specialist in a lead role.
| Fee rate | Calculation | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| 25 % | €90,000 × 0.25 | €22,500 |
| 27.5 % (average per Münker & Partner) | €90,000 × 0.275 | €24,750 |
| 35 % | €90,000 × 0.35 | €31,500 |
Depending on the contract, expenses and VAT come on top. A retainer is often due in instalments (on engagement, after the shortlist, at signature); a success fee only on hire. Whether the rate is worth it depends on the alternative: a role that ads can fill in weeks does not need a headhunter. A role that has been open for six months and costs revenue or project progress every day often justifies one.
What does a good direct approach look like? Templates explained
The texts below are patterns, not copy-paste blocks: they only work if you fill the placeholder with something concrete you researched about the person.
First message in a business network
Hello Ms Berger, your talk on restructuring quality assurance at [company] caught my attention. We are looking for a Head of Quality Management at a mechanical engineering company in southern Germany, with budget and responsibility for about 40 people. Would you be open in principle to a short, confidential conversation? If not, that is completely fine.
Why it works: a concrete reference, the role in one sentence, a small ask and a real way to say no. Salary and company name may be left out in the first step if the mandate is confidential – but not if the person asks.
Follow-up after five to seven days
Hello Ms Berger, a quick follow-up on my message from last week. If the topic does not fit right now, a simple "no, thanks" is enough and I will not write again. If it does: I could call you tomorrow or the day after, from 6 pm.
One follow-up is normal, more than two is pressure. A clear no is accepted and the contact is not reopened.
First call: the permitted frame
Hello Mr Weber, this is [name] from [firm]. I only have a short question: would you be open to a new role in principle? It is the head of purchasing at an industrial company. If yes, we can arrange a time outside your working hours.
This matches what the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) allows as a brief first contact at the workplace (see below). If the person is not interested, the call ends there.
What makes a direct approach actually work?
- Personalization over templates: a real reference to the person's career and current situation, not an interchangeable stock message.
- The right channel: reaching the person where they actually respond – that isn't always LinkedIn; in German-speaking markets XING or email can work better depending on the profession.
- Discretion, especially when the person is currently employed and an open interest in leaving could work against them.
- A real value proposition, not just a salary number: scope, growth and responsibility often convince experienced people more than a figure.
- Fast follow-up on interest: someone who responds and then hears nothing for days is gone by the time you get back to them.
- Transparency about the client once genuine interest exists – the exception is a confidential mandate where the client's name is disclosed only later.
What mistakes show up most often in practice?
- A longlist that is too broad and impersonal – a recognizable copy-paste message gets ignored and can damage the client's reputation.
- Reaching out without researching the person first, so the message reads like spam.
- First contact at the workplace that runs too long or too aggressively – legally risky, see the next section.
- Not accepting a clear no, and reaching out again despite a decline.
- No feedback loop with the client during the search, so expectations drift away from what the actual candidate market can deliver.
- Leaving candidates in the dark for too long between interview and response, so they drop out.
- The same person is approached by several colleagues or for different roles without coordination – a classic as soon as more than one person sources.
Is it legal to poach a competitor's employees?
Yes. Poaching staff away from another company is part of open competition and, under German law, generally permissible – grounded in the constitutional right to freely choose one's workplace under Article 12(1) of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz). Germany's Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) has confirmed this repeatedly: poaching only becomes unfair "when unfair accompanying circumstances are added, in particular the use of unfair means or the pursuit of unfair purposes" (BGH, judgment of 4 March 2004, case no. I ZR 221/01, BGHZ 158, 174 – "Direktansprache am Arbeitsplatz I", i.e. "Direct Approach at the Workplace I"). Source and date: judgment text via lexetius.com and dejure.org, accessed 11 September 2026.
The most practically important boundary concerns calling someone at their workplace. In a trilogy of rulings, the BGH set out that a brief first call, in which the person is asked whether they're interested in a new role and the role is briefly described, is not unfair competition (BGH, "Direktansprache am Arbeitsplatz I", cited above). The moment the caller extends the conversation beyond that – for example by discussing the person's career history in detail, or continuing the call despite a lack of interest – it becomes unfair (BGH, judgment of 22 November 2007, case no. I ZR 183/04 – "Direktansprache am Arbeitsplatz III"). Whether the call reaches a company mobile or a landline makes no difference (BGH, judgment of 9 February 2006, case no. I ZR 73/02 – "Direktansprache am Arbeitsplatz II"). Source and date: full judgment texts via dejure.org and nulegal.eu, accessed 11 September 2026.
Today's statutory basis is the general clause in Section 3 of the Act Against Unfair Competition (UWG), combined with Section 4 No. 4 UWG (targeted obstruction of a competitor; source: gesetze-im-internet.de, accessed 11 September 2026). Disparaging the person's current employer to make the move more attractive additionally falls under Section 4 No. 1 UWG. Simply approaching someone during a running notice period or an existing contractual tie is not, by itself, unfair – it only becomes so once intent to cause harm or unfair means are added, such as bribery, inducing the disclosure of trade secrets, or a systematic effort to poach an entire team in order to cripple a competitor's operations; in those cases Section 826 of the Civil Code (BGB) – intentional damage contrary to public policy – applies as well.
| Conduct during outreach | Assessment | Reasoning |
|---|---|---|
| A brief first call at the workplace asking about interest and briefly describing the role | permissible | BGH, "Direktansprache am Arbeitsplatz I", I ZR 221/01 |
| Continuing the call after the person has clearly shown no interest | not permissible | exceeds the BGH's "brief first contact" limit |
| Presenting the person with their own CV details or career history during the first call | not permissible | BGH, "Direktansprache am Arbeitsplatz III", I ZR 183/04 – already counts as courting |
| Calling a company mobile instead of a landline for poaching purposes | treated the same as a landline, permissible only as a brief first contact | BGH, "Direktansprache am Arbeitsplatz II", I ZR 73/02 |
| Arranging a follow-up outside working hours and off company premises | permissible | part of the permissible first contact |
| Reaching out privately, outside working hours (personal phone, business-network message) | permissible | no disruption of business operations, no use of the employer's equipment |
| Disparaging remarks about the target's current employer | not permissible | Section 4 No. 1 UWG (disparaging a competitor) |
| Approaching someone despite knowing they're under a running notice period or contractual tie | permissible in principle | right to freely choose one's workplace (Art. 12(1) Grundgesetz); becomes unfair only with added unfair means or intent |
| Inducing an immediate breach of contract or the handover of trade secrets | not permissible | Section 826 BGB and Section 4 No. 4 UWG (targeted obstruction) |
| Systematically and jointly poaching entire teams to cripple a competitor's operations | not permissible | Section 4 No. 4 UWG (targeted obstruction of a competitor) |
This section places the legal position in context based on published BGH case law and the statutory text; it is not a substitute for legal advice in an individual case.
What applies under data protection law for direct outreach?
Candidate data – name, current role, contact details, career history – is almost always collected from third parties during a direct-approach search: business networks, company or industry registers, not directly from the person concerned. The legal basis is usually legitimate interest under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR, weighed against the interests of the person contacted. Because the data wasn't collected from the person themselves, the notice obligation under Article 14 GDPR also applies: the headhunter must inform the person of the controller, the purpose of processing, the legal basis, and where the data came from, "within a reasonable period after obtaining the personal data, but at the latest within one month" (Article 14(3)(a) GDPR). In practice this usually happens at the same time as the first approach. The person also has an ongoing right to object, plus rights of access and erasure. Source and date: Regulation (EU) 2016/679, consolidated text via eur-lex.europa.eu, accessed 11 September 2026.
Hire a headhunter or approach people yourself – and where does active sourcing help?
A headhunter pays off for confidential hires, rare profiles and when internal capacity is missing. For bottleneck profiles with many open roles, approaching people yourself with a sourcing tool is often cheaper, because effort per candidate drops. It does not replace personal market knowledge for sensitive executive roles.
Sprad (Atlas) searches LinkedIn, GitHub and your own talent pool in one search. You describe the target person in free text instead of building Boolean strings, and the tool checks every profile against the requirements. If results appear instantly, it is usually just a keyword search. Deep Context search finds people with specific company experience, for example someone who guided a merger or built a start-up through Series A and B. Outreach runs over LinkedIn and email, follow-ups included, with the whole conversation per person in one inbox; the system warns when someone has already been contacted, which removes the double-approach mistake. In the Recruiting area of the public PeopleSearchBench, Atlas comes to 73.5 out of 100 in our own re-measurement, converted to the published scale. PeopleSearchBench (Recruiting), published by Lessie, October 2026. Other systems' scores as published in the benchmark; Atlas is our own re-measurement with the benchmark's open test procedure, converted to the published scale; not an official entry.
On cost: Recruiter Lite is €79 per seat and month, Atlas Recruiter €299 per seat and month (billed annually, net), and you can start free with 100 credits a month. One Atlas Recruiter seat for a year is €3,588, about 14 percent of the average fee of €24,750 from the worked example above. Limits we state openly: no AI note-taker, no placement reporting, no SMS channel, and the deep search takes a few minutes because far more AI runs per profile (quick search: about 3 seconds). More in people search, Sprad for recruitment agencies and executive search software.
Frequently asked questions about headhunting
What is headhunting in simple terms?
Headhunting means approaching suitable specialists and executives directly even though they have not applied. The client (a company) usually hires a search firm for it or does it with its own recruiting team.
Is headhunting the same as recruitment agency placement?
No. A recruitment agency usually draws on an existing candidate pool and often works purely on a success fee. Headhunting actively searches the hidden job market for people who aren't looking at all, usually on an exclusive mandate, following a structured longlist-to-shortlist process.
What does a headhunter cost?
Typically 25 to 35 percent of gross annual salary, with an average of about 27.5 percent. On a €90,000 salary that is €22,500 to €31,500. The client pays, never the candidate – anyone asking candidates for money is not legitimate.
How long does a headhunting project take?
From clarifying requirements to a signed contract, eight to fourteen weeks is typical in practice. Highly specialized or rare profiles often take longer, because the longlist is smaller and more approaches are needed before someone is genuinely open to moving.
Is it legal to directly approach a competitor's employees?
Yes, in principle. Germany's Federal Court of Justice bases this on the free choice of workplace and open competition for staff. It only becomes unfair through added circumstances, such as extending a workplace call too far, disparaging the current employer, or using unfair means.
Can a headhunter call someone at work?
Yes, for a brief first contact. They may ask whether the person has any general interest in a move and briefly describe the role. Anything beyond that – a longer conversation, career details, continuing despite a lack of interest – is unlawful under BGH case law.
Does a candidate have to consent to data processing in advance?
No, usually not. Processing is generally based on legitimate interest under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. The headhunter does have to inform the person once their data has been obtained from a third party – at the latest by the first approach, and in any case within one month.
What is reverse headhunting?
In reverse headhunting the direction flips: instead of a company searching for a person, a specialist or executive hires a service to approach suitable employers discreetly. The cost is often carried by the candidate themselves, unlike in classic headhunting. This article covers classic headhunting on behalf of a company.
Jürgen Ulbrich
Jürgen Ulbrich has more than a decade of experience in developing and leading high-performing teams and companies. As an expert in employee referral programs as well as feedback and performance processes, Jürgen has helped over 100 organizations optimize their talent acquisition and development strategies.
