猎头，意为物色人才的人，是帮助优秀的企业找到需要的人才。这个词另外的说法叫做高级人才寻访。“头”指智慧、才能集中之所在，“猎头”也可指猎夺人才，即发现、追踪、评价、甄选和提供高级人才的行为。这是一种十分流行的人才招聘方式 。
Headhunting, meaning someone who looks for talent, is about helping excellent companies find the talent they need. Another way to say this is high-level talent search. “Head” refers to the place where wisdom and talent are concentrated, and “headhunting” can also refer to hunting for talent, that is, the act of discovering, tracking, evaluating, selecting and providing high-level talent. This is a very popular way of recruiting talent.
猎头的英文来源于拉丁文，原来是指美洲食人部落，作战的时候把对方的头颅砍下来，作为炫耀挂在腰间的行为，真正叫做猎头是二战以后。欧美一些国家战胜之后，从德国等很多国家里面寻找自己需要的科学家，他们像丛林狩猎一样，到处派专业公司帮他们物色比较优秀的人，这个词后来被借用成为猎寻人才，到国内把原来的含义拿过来叫做猎头。 猎头与一般的企业招聘、人才推荐和职业介绍服务有着很大的不同，猎头追逐的目标始终盯在高学历、高职位、高价位三位一体的人身上，它搜寻的是那些受教育程度高、实践经验丰富、业绩表现出色的专业人才和管理人才。简言之，猎头可以理解为高级人才中介，担当的是高级人才和企业的“红娘”的角色。
二战后，伴随全球化高级人才争夺和高级人力资源服务需求量猛增，猎头公司开始迅猛发展、经营规模不断扩大。20世纪60年代，众多的美国猎头公司通过重组、并购和联合，形成了庞大的产业(行业)体系，建立了完全的产业规范，从而在国民经济体系中集合或集聚成独立的产业(行业)形态，进而形成了一个专门从事为客户搜寻所需要的各类高级人才的新兴服务产业和配套产业，也就是猎头产业(行业)。猎头产业形成了市场基础之上的自身特征和运行规则(行规)。如在猎头领域，从事搜罗的人，冠以猎手、猎头专员等名称，即“鹰”;被猎的高级人才，则是猎物，即“狐”;需要引入新进人才的公司，即“客”，即猎头公司的派单(委托)方。
“猎头” 进入中国也就是二十多年的时间，世界第一家猎头公司于1926年诞生于美国，进军中国的第一家猎头公司诞生于1994年。随着中国的改革开放以及大批外资企业的涌入，中国猎头行业也随之萌芽，进入探索和快速发展阶段，出现了一些立足中国本土的猎头公司。尤其是随着中国加入世贸组织，整个经济环境正变得越来越具有竞争性，人力资源作为企业中最活跃的部分，成为企业进一步发展的决定性力量。猎头服务的出现，促成社会经济体制中人力资源的流动和合理配置，猎头服务已成为企业求取高级人才和高级人才流动的重要渠道，并逐渐开始形成了一种产业。
The English word headhunting comes from Latin. It originally refers to the American cannibal tribe. When fighting, they cut off the heads of the opponents and hung them around their waists as a show-off. It was really called headhunting after World War II. After some European and American countries won the war, they looked for scientists they needed from many countries such as Germany. They sent professional companies everywhere to help them find relatively outstanding people, just like hunting in the jungle. Later, this word was borrowed to become hunting for talents. In China, the original meaning was taken over and called headhunting. Headhunting is very different from general corporate recruitment, talent recommendation and job introduction services. The target of headhunting is always people with high education, high position and high price. It searches for professionals and management talents with high education, rich practical experience and outstanding performance. In short, headhunting can be understood as a high-level talent intermediary, playing the role of “matchmaker” between high-level talents and enterprises.
After World War II, with the global competition for high-level talents and the sharp increase in demand for high-level human resources services, headhunting companies began to develop rapidly and their business scale continued to expand. In the 1960s, many American headhunting companies formed a huge industrial (industry) system through reorganization, mergers and acquisitions and alliances, and established complete industrial norms, thus gathering or agglomerating into an independent industrial (industry) form in the national economic system, and then forming a new service industry and supporting industry specializing in searching for various types of high-level talents needed by customers, that is, the headhunting industry (industry). The headhunting industry has formed its own characteristics and operating rules (industry rules) based on the market. For example, in the field of headhunting, people who are engaged in searching are called hunters, headhunting specialists, etc., that is, “eagles”; the high-level talents being hunted are prey, that is, “foxes”; companies that need to introduce new talents are “customers”, that is, the dispatching (commissioning) party of the headhunting company.
“Headhunting” has entered China for more than 20 years. The world’s first headhunting company was born in the United States in 1926, and the first headhunting company to enter China was born in 1994. With China’s reform and opening up and the influx of a large number of foreign-funded enterprises, China’s headhunting industry has also sprouted, entered the stage of exploration and rapid development, and some headhunting companies based in China have emerged. Especially with China’s accession to the WTO, the entire economic environment is becoming more and more competitive. Human resources, as the most active part of enterprises, have become the decisive force for the further development of enterprises. The emergence of headhunting services has promoted the flow and reasonable allocation of human resources in the social and economic system. Headhunting services have become an important channel for enterprises to seek high-level talents and the flow of high-level talents, and have gradually begun to form an industry.