Headhunter, recruitment agency or temp agency: what does your company need?
Imagine you run operations at a logistics company and three needs land at once: twenty people for the warehouse over the Christmas peak, two administrators for purchasing, and a Head of Data to build a team that doesn’t exist yet. The temptation is to call one provider and ask them to handle it all.
It rarely works, because those three needs call for three different services. Temp agencies, recruitment agencies and headhunters are often confused, but they solve different problems. Choosing the wrong one isn’t just a question of price: it means looking in the wrong place.
Three services that only look alike from a distance
The most important difference is who employs the person and how candidates are found.
A temporary employment agency (in Spain, an empresa de trabajo temporal or ETT) employs the worker itself and places them with your company for a specific period. It’s designed for temporary needs, such as a seasonal campaign or a spike in work, and it also handles payroll and admin. In Spain its activity is governed by its own law, Ley 14/1994, and it can only be used in the situations where the law allows a temporary contract.
A recruitment agency helps you find the person, but you sign the contract. Its strength is usually the process: advertising the role, screening applications, interviewing and presenting finalists. It mostly works with people who are looking for a job.
A headhunter also helps you hire directly, but goes out and searches. It identifies professionals who fit, most of them employed with no plans to move, and presents your opportunity to them one by one. It’s more hands-on and slower per candidate, which is why it makes sense when the profile is scarce.
| Temp agency | Recruitment agency | Headhunter | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who employs the person | The agency | Your company | Your company |
| Type of need | Temporary | Permanent, profiles with a broad market | Permanent, scarce or sensitive profiles |
| How candidates are found | Own pool and ads | Ads and databases | Direct search and network |
| Usual way of charging | Margin on hours worked | Fee per hire | Fee per hire |
Five situations and what usually fits
You need twenty people for three months
The Christmas peak, a product launch or high season. These roles have a start and an end, often need filling within days, and you don’t want to take on all the contracts and registrations yourself. This is exactly what a temp agency is for.
Three junior sales reps for a new office
There’s a market, there are active candidates, and the challenge is screening well among many CVs. A recruitment agency with a solid screening and interview process saves you time without needing direct search. If your People team has the hours, you can even do it in-house. We explain how to decide in when to outsource recruitment and when to keep it in-house.
A Senior Data Engineer who isn’t looking
You post the role and get forty applications, none with the experience you need. That’s normal: good data people are usually employed, get approached often and don’t browse job boards. Reaching them means identifying them and contacting them with a message that interests them. That’s headhunting, even though it isn’t an executive role.
A Financial Controller who will manage two people
This is the case that raises the most doubts. It isn’t a leadership role, but nor is it a profile you’ll find with an ad. Good controllers with experience in companies like yours tend to be settled where they are. A headhunter specialising in finance can introduce you to three or four candidates who would never have seen your ad, assessed on the technical side and on how they manage a team.
A CFO, and nobody can know yet
The current CFO is still in post and the replacement hasn’t been announced. This is executive search: direct, discreet, with a much deeper assessment of leadership. We wrote a full article on how to run a confidential executive search.
Headhunting isn’t only for executives
For years, “headhunter” meant CEOs, boardrooms and very expensive searches. That picture is out of date. Today a large share of headhunting is for specialists and middle managers: senior engineers, data and AI profiles, product managers, controllers, marketplace leads and legal counsels.
The reason is simple. What decides whether you need direct search isn’t seniority, it’s supply and demand. If few people have the experience you need and nearly all of them are employed, posting an ad and waiting won’t work, whether it’s a leadership role or not. In fact, our Direct Recruitment service is designed precisely for specialists and managers.
The lines aren’t always that clear
In practice, many firms combine services. There are temp agencies with a recruitment division, recruitment agencies that headhunt for some roles, and headhunters who also post ads when the profile allows it. So rather than going by how a provider describes itself, ask how it will search in your specific case. If, for a scarce profile, the answer is that they’ll post the job and wait, you know what you’ll get.
Our advice holds for almost any company: sort your vacancies before you call anyone. Put the temporary ones in one pile, the ones with a broad market in another, and the scarce or confidential ones in a third. With that list in hand, knowing whom to call is much easier.
If your question is about that last pile, the hard-to-find tech, business or leadership profiles, Mimmic Talent can help. Tell us what you’re looking for.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a temp agency and a recruitment agency?
A temp agency (an ETT in Spain) employs the worker itself and assigns them to your company for a limited period to cover a temporary need. A recruitment agency or headhunter helps you find and assess the person, but your company signs the employment contract directly.
What is the difference between a headhunter and a recruitment agency?
A recruitment agency mostly works with candidates who are looking for a job, through ads and databases. A headhunter goes directly after professionals who aren't looking, identifying and approaching them one by one. Many firms do both depending on the role.
Is headhunting only for executives?
No. Executive search focuses on leadership roles, but headhunting is also used for specialists and middle managers when the profile is scarce and most suitable candidates are already employed, such as senior engineers, data profiles or financial controllers.
When should a company use a temp agency?
When you need to fill roles for a limited period for a temporary reason, such as a production peak, a seasonal campaign or cover for an absence, and you want the agency to handle employment and payroll as well.