Headhunters take on an enormous responsibility with the acceptance of a mandate to search for competent, qualified top executives. In living up to expectations and identifying eligible, appropriate, high-performing candidates of great personal integrity, numerous new and partly unknown tools are available to them thanks to the rapid expansion of social media platforms. In times when recruitment tasks are increasingly performed internally by personnel managers, it is particularly crucial for headhunters to adapt to such new trends.
The present study examines whether social media are a suitable medium for the recruitment of executives by headhunters and identifies the new opportunities and challenges they present to recruitment experts. By means of a survey, the extent to which social media platforms are already being used by headhunters, in particular in their search for executives for the German fashion business, is investigated. Taking into account the results of this survey as well as the latest research concerning headhunters, social media and the fashion business, the study concludes by putting forward recommendations for the use of social media in headhunting executives.
