Headhunters target grassroots employees

Headhunters are targeting grassroots employees instead of focusing on traditional tailored services for executive managers, since the labor market has set a higher requirement for candidates from all levels, a report said.

According to a survey by China's major internet-based recruitment service provider, Liepin.com, 24.21 percent of the posts released on its platform were looking for grassroots staff. Only about 14 percent were for senior managers.

Since the boom in startups and internet companies in recent years, which tend to have a flexible management structure, the grassroots groups also need to be very skillful and professional, thus to some extend changing the headhunting market, industry insiders said.

It also shows that enterprises are attaching more importance to grassroots employees, many of whom come from the post-1990 generation that are often very innovative, quick to learn and can complete their job well, insiders said.

Besides, about 43 percent of posts on Liepin.com offer an annual salary of less than 300,000 yuan ($45,340), compared with 5.8 percent for the highest promised salary of 1 million yuan, the report said.

Among all the resumes downloaded on Liepin.com, 37.7 percent were from people aged 30 to 35, the golden age to be hunted, it said.

The lower salary and younger age of potential candidates suggest that more ordinary workers can establish links with headhunters through the internet, it said.

Founded in 2011, Liepin.com now has more than 300,000 headhunters. The report sampled the 320,000 headhunters and 710,000 posts on the platform, as well as questionnaire to over 10,000 headhunters and 50,000 job seekers.

China has more than 50,000 headhunting institutes and about 250,000 headhunters with a market value up to 50 billion yuan, however 60 percent of employees don't know what headhunting really is, the company said.

Dai Kebin, founder and CEO of Liepin.com, said every employee needs a headhunter to plan his career and guide him to better promotion.

"Headhunters are not luxury products but people who can help you to find better jobs and change your career," Dai said.