Isn’t head hunting people for jobs unfair and illegal?

I recently got excited on learning that a company I wanted to work for was soon hiring. I waited for them to advertise in vain. Doesn’t the law demand equal opportunities for all? Rita

Dear Bob,
How an organisation manages its recruitment and selection process is not dictated by the law. Rather industry best practice provides a guideline on what should be the ideal. If it is found that a company has not followed its own policy on recruitment, then it becomes an issue of due process. Many organisations will have guidelines and or policy on how the recruitment process needs to be managed. It will probably include a combination of different methods, of which headhunting is one method. The decision to headhunt is influenced by many factors but key is cost, both in terms of time and money.
Headhunting can be managed in a significantly shorter time frame than a full scale recruitment process. The skill that is required maybe in short supply or unique and in such a case it’s unlikely to be found on the open market. In such cases, the cost of managing an open advertising would not be of any value to the organisation.
In the same way that work has changed, so has the way in which talent is sourced. Some orgnisations still advertise in the papers, because their policy dictates that they must.

Others will use recruitment agencies to help them identify talent. An important trend is the use of social media platforms. LinkedIn is now the biggest recruitment platform. Recruiters and organisations will source for their talent on the platform, without advertising. The traditional form of recruitment has changed and in order to remain relevant you need to adjust your strategy so that you remain relevant.