Between November 2021 and April 2024, the number of “recruitment consultants” registered on the Malt freelance platform, leader in France, increased by 127%, or 7,200 independents. Inspired by the traditional “headhunt”, these new talent detection experts have the mission, thanks to their network, to find “the 5-legged sheep” that all companies are chasing: the candidate who is not not only has the required technical skills but also a personality that is perfectly aligned with the culture and objectives of the client company. Above all, for the “match” to work, they must mirror the aspirations and values of their candidates.
In the current context of the “war for talent”, these professionals have been in increasing demand in recent years. As a reminder, executive hiring is at “historic levels,” according to APEC, which forecasts 337,000 white-collar positions to be filled in 2024, after an already record year in 2023. No surprise that “recruitment managers” appear in the Top 10 of the annual ranking – in 8th position – of the most sought-after professions in France (+20% growth in five years) published in January 2024 by LinkedIn. It is even the 4th profession which recruited the most juniors at Bac+5 in 2023.
No specific diploma
In addition to a thriving job market for these experts, there is no real barrier to entry. Which makes it all the more attractive. It is in fact not obligatory to have studied human resources. This is evidenced by certain profiles of our interviewees: a former bank account manager, a graduate in business development or even a lawyer. Charlie*, 31, registered with the Paris bar, worked as a recruiter in a firm in Barcelona for a year. “I was attracted by the dynamic side of the job, not repetitive, and by the autonomy it offers,” she justifies. And to point out: “This job has little to do with HR. We are closer to that of sales: you sell a candidate to the company, and the company to the candidate. »
These new generation recruiters operate directly and most often on LinkedIn, a hunting ground of 950 million professionals around the world, including 28 million in France. They come to lend a hand to the HR departments of companies, which in addition to recruitment must take care of remuneration, training and even improving the working conditions of employees. Fanny, 38 years old, ex-HR director in large groups confirms this: “ Recruitment is part of the HR scope but between all our missions, we don’t have time to do everything. It really is a job in its own right. » A source of frustration, she decided two years ago to change her mind, becoming a freelance recruiter or as she likes to say “talent matchmaker”.
Up to 15,000 euros per recruitment
Another advantage of the job: you can earn a very good living. Recruiters are paid on commission and are traditionally paid at the end of the mission, that is to say when the candidate signs their employment contract. On average, he receives 25% of the recruit’s gross annual salary. To this commission may be added possible daily costs invoiced to the client for the duration of a mission (up to 650 euros per day for some on Malt for example).
Robin, not yet 30 years old and already six years in the sector, became independent in 2019, after having built up a solid network of profiles thanks to an HR job within the scale-up Doctrine, a software service for legal professionals. Claiming 55 profiles recruited in less than two years in this first job, he quickly does the math: “As an employee I could earn on average 3,500 euros gross per month (around 70,000 euros per year fixed) whereas by being independent, by once identifying a high profile such as a CEO, I can receive for recruitment between 10,000 and 15,000 euros. »
As a freelancer, obviously contracts can end overnight. Especially since the recruitment sector is “one of the most exposed in times of crisis”, recalls Virgile Raingeard, co-founder and CEO of Figures, remuneration management software for HR.
“Business awakening”
Still, the market is promising, due to the growing outsourcing of recruitment in VSE/SMEs, particularly in the regions. Faced with certain sectoral shortages (notably in construction, health, transport, etc.), independent recruiters have no difficulty finding clients. Proof of this dynamism, around twenty intermediation platforms have emerged over the past ten years, such as Good Recruiter or Odyssée RH (160 consultants), which offers VSE/SME owners the opportunity to purchase an HR manager for 150 euros per month..
Among those that count, the Mercato de l’emploi launched in 2016 lists 482 independent self-employed recruiters. Their clients (also large companies like SNCF, SFR or Ag2r La Mondiale) pay on average between 4,000 and 6,000 euros depending on the profile of the candidate recruited).
“It’s less a boom in recruiters than an awakening of businesses,” notes its founder Jenny Gaultier-Vallet. The majority (70%) of its approximately 3,000 clients had never used a recruitment firm before. A sign that recruitment consultants still have good days ahead of them…
Failed recruitment can be costly!
If hiring a headhunter costs a certain price, recruiting poorly can cost even more. On average, according to ManPower, HR Voice and Opensourcing, a failed recruitment would cost the employer between 30,000 and 150,000 euros depending on the profile (study dated 2022).
