Dear damion-ga;
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question. I hope this provides you with greater insight into the
history of the headhunting industry:
. . . . . . . . . . . .
1920?s
?The work carried out by the search sector is an activity which has
always existed (the old boy network/friend of a friend, etc). The
field cannot therefore be considered new, nor even particularly
mysterious. Instead of company directors finding a new member of staff
through their own networks, they hire a company, which is assumed to
have an even wider network of contacts. The field first became
established as a sector in its own right in the US in 1926.?
HUMAN CAPITAL GROUP
?THE HISTORY OF HEADHUNTING?
http://www.hcg.no/no/newsletter/thehistoryofheadhunting/
. . . . . . . . . . . .
1930?s
With the depression taking its hold on the world economy, employment
was at an all time high. The professional recruiting concept, like
most industries, had no place in a world where there was little demand
and virtually no progress in this industry is noted during the decade.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
1940?s
Employment agencies began to advertise for workers who were not
obligated to military service for the war efforts and actively pursued
both skilled and non-skilled workers to fill the void and meet the
demand for highly desirable and lucrative Defense Department
contracts. To gain attention, the effort was intentionally marketed in
the style of Army recruiters, giving applicants the feeling that by
helping themselves they were also doing a public and patriotic service
to their country. This was the moment of re-birth, if you will, for
the headhunting industry, albeit somewhat primitive. Because many of
the prospective employees were women (ala ?Rosie the Riveter?
propaganda), and women did not have the same foothold in the workforce
that men traditionally had prior to the war, they were largely assumed
to be temporary workers, but whose placement was necessary all the
same. Not surprisingly, the ?US Employment Service? was one of the
forerunners of the headhunting industry during the 1940?s.
BRITISH EMPLOYMENT PROPAGANDA POSTER
http://www.u.arizona.edu/~kari/ws6.jpg
ROSIE THE RIVETER
http://history.acusd.edu/gen/st/~mcintyre/wecando.jpg
POSTER FROM THE ?US EMPLOYMENT SERVICE?
http://history.acusd.edu/gen/st/~mcintyre/farm.jpg
. . . . . . . . . . . .
1950?s & 1960?s
With the end of World War II and the upturn in the world economy, men
returned to work, and in many instances with new technical skills or
with government assistance to obtain such skills. The workforce became
more technical and better educated at the same time that world
industry began to require these professional attributes. Headhunting
agencies, still working out their places in the grand scheme of things
became known as ?retainer firms?, ?placement agencies? and ?personnel
consulting? services for lack of more creative terms. The vast
majority of those who found placement through these specialized
companies were at either end of the spectrum; the skilled laborers or
the executive managers. During this same era however, mom-and-pop
businesses were prolific and those who wanted to earn a fair wage were
generally satisfied with their jobs in factories, business and other
endeavors. On the other hand, younger people were contemplating new
wars and new conflicts and were becoming ever focused on the
philosophies and political dynamics of what was happening in the
economy and government. Those who wanted to be headhunted for their
skills had little trouble doing it but the demand was just not quite
there yet to sustain and entire industry devoted to placing skilled
workers in skilled jobs. The 1970?s would change all that forever.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
1970?s
?Some time in the heady, economically strong days of the early 1970s,
the stodgy old employment agency faded into history. In its place came
corporate headhunters -- agents working not for job candidates but for
companies desperate to lure high-quality workers.?
?CORPORATE HEADHUNTERS WALK THIN LINE?
http://www.uga.edu/news/newsbureau/releases/2000releases/headhunters.html
Enter ?Uncle Sam? (from the US perspective) and the government?s
desire to define professional recruiting and the legal obligations
(and ultimately the fate) of companies that used headhunting services
and those who found employment through the services?
[excerpts from PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CONTRACT EMPLOYEES
http://www.pacepros.com/CENewsletter_html/cenewsletter_020701.html ]
?Prior to 1986 recruiting firms operated exclusively in the realm of
full-time, executive employment. And temporary help agencies operated
exclusively in the realm of less skilled, low-paid, clerical, light
industrial, and seasonal temps.?
1970's: IRS steps up enforcement of employment taxes.
?Needless to say, the increased enforcement efforts by the IRS put a
damper on the hiring of self-employed consultants because companies
had no way to protect themselves from the risk of overzealous and
arbitrary reclassification of self-employed consultants.?
1978: Congress tries to rein in the IRS.
?In the absence of aggressive employment tax audits, companies could
once again feel secure in outsourcing specific projects to
self-employed consultants. The result was a significant increase in
the number of skilled knowledge workers added to the contingent
workforce.
During this period, the staffing industry was still confined to the
permanent placement of full-time management and executive employees on
the one hand, and clerical, seasonal, and light industrial temps on
the other hand.?
1982: Congress tries and fails to define employee and independent contractor.
?In 1982 the US Senate Finance Committee proposed a simple five-factor
test, which if enacted would provide specific criteria for determining
independent contractor status. The legislation failed to pass, and it
was clear to everyone, including the IRS, that Congress was incapable
of providing leadership in this area.?
Really? Now there?s a revelation. It took them a long time to
determine that didn?t it? Congress effectively threw up it?s hands and
threw the issue to the sharks?the IRS itself:
1984: The IRS resumes aggressive employment tax audits.
?The IRS was very successful at generating large revenues from
companies that used ever-increasing numbers of highly skilled and
highly compensated Independent Contractors. And yet, by 1986 at least,
the staffing industry still had no way to cut a slice from this large
and lucrative pie.?
1986: Congress eliminates safe harbor for certain technical workers.
?The Revenue Act of 1978 had earlier established that employers could
appeal reclassification by the IRS if the employer's industry had
consistently treated certain classes of workers as independent
contractors. But section 1706 of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 changed
that by amending the Revenue Act of 1978 so that employers could no
longer seek safe harbor relief from reclassification for independent
contractors in certain technical job classifications who were placed
at the employer through a third-party agency. The affected job
classifications were:
Engineer, Designer, Drafter, Computer programmer, Systems analyst, and
other similarly skilled workers engaged in a similar line of work.?
?Employers needed salvation, and they found it in traditional temp
agencies. By converting independent contractors to regular employees
of a temp agency employers could mitigate the risk of reclassification
by the IRS. Temp agencies paid the workers' payroll taxes and income
taxes, thereby satisfying for the most part the IRS's concerns
regarding payment of applicable taxes.?
[end excerpts from PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CONTRACT EMPLOYEES
http://www.pacepros.com/CENewsletter_html/cenewsletter_020701.html ]
Basically, corporations beat the IRS at their own game by doing
exactly what the IRS had accused them of failing to do in the first
place and by simply reclassifying employees? statuses and moving them
from 10-99?s to W-2?s. By the 1990?s when the dot-com boom began to
explode and money seemed to be falling from the sky the door was
opened for headhunters to place Engineers, Designers, Drafters,
Computer programmers, Systems analysts, at will, along with the most
prestigious CEO?s, Directors and Managers that money would buy.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
1990?s
The term ?headhunting? becomes known by many catchy names; among them
are, "converged" or "distributed" recruitment strategies,
"synthesized" recruiting, "broadband" staffing and even it?s own
acronym, MARS: Multi-disciplinary Advanced Rapid Staffing. At the peak
of the dot-com boom companies begged for more fashionable names,
concepts and functional ideas to help support the enormous demands of
the seemingly invincible economy ? not knowing, of course, what lay
ahead:
?There were three primary forces at work that brought about the
development of the MARS system. The first was economic in nature, a
result of the incredible demand placed on the staffing industry for
highly qualified leadership during the dot-com boom, when the
availability of top leaders was basically zero.
The second was the obvious inability of the staffing industry to
satisfy the talent demands of the dot-com boom. The boom clearly
revealed that although some of the newly developed computer and
Internet staffing tools were helpful, they were not enough. The
stagnant sales orientation of the traditional staffing industry had
perpetuated a lack of invention and evolution. Caught by surprise and
without scientific, responsive recruitment products and service to
resolve the new economy's human capital demands, staffing and HR were
slow to respond. No recruitment methodology existed that could
effectively overcome these economic forces.?
ELECTRONIC RECRUTING EXCHANGE
http://www.erexchange.com/articles/db/33E418AFB80B4D6F9C3BA27FA7D6CA76.asp
. . . . . . . . . . . .
2000?s
Belatedly, but to some extent following the way of the dot-com
downturn, headhunting firms began to fail and fold at an alarming rate
as the trickle down bust of the early 1990?s boom began to take it?s
toll:
?Last year alone, some 500 headhunting firms -- or about 10% of the
industry -- went under, according to consultants Kennedy Information,
which publishes a directory of executive recruiters.?
XTREME NEWS
http://www.xtremerecruiting.org/blog/archives/news/2003_07.html
. . . . . . . . . . . .
The early history of headhunting in the USA, in terms of the
individual companies, is discussed in greater detail in John Byrne's
The Headhunters:
AMAZON
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0025179500/inktomi-bkasin-20/ref%3Dnosim/103-8894459-8976614
. . . . . . . . . . . .
Below you will find that I have carefully defined my search strategy
for you in the event that you need to search for more information. By
following the same type of searches that I did you may be able to
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future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad ? Google Answers Researcher
INFORMATION SOURCES
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SEARCH TERMS USED:
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