[RECRUITING

SERVICES MARKET]
- Request for Research Proposal -

Background
In May of 2015, a member of our research team was
approached by a local headhunting firm interested in
developing a market study that would allow them to
identify growth opportunities within the recruiting services
market in Costa Rica.

As MBA students at INCAE Business School, we recognize

that this particular research provides additional value for
our team members in the form of useful knowledge and
exposure to practices within the HR function of firms
active in this dynamic job market.

Although that project did not materialize, our team was

able to confirm, through web-research and informal
conversations with similar providers, that there is no
publicly available source producing this type of market
intelligence at the moment. Furthermore, a reliable
investigation that looks into preferences, needs,
aspirations and practices of HR Managers that consume
recruiting services could become a commercially
valuable publication.

INCAE Business School is an international business school

located at the Francisco de Sola campus in Nicaragua
and the Walter Kissling Gam campus in Costa Rica. The
Financial Times has ranked INCAE as a top global MBA
program and The Wall Street Journal has ranked INCAE
Business School as one of the top 10 international business
schools in the world.

Our team has identified 31 providers of recruiting services

currently operating in Costa Rica. A preliminary
assessment of their offering shows significant overlaps in
their service portfolios.

Obtain market insights that support recruiting service

providers in the process of formulating their competitive
strategies, identify opportunities for innovative solutions
and ultimately improve their position in the market.

Additionally, from the original request that sparked this

initiative, we were able to learn that there is a high
degree of rivalry between firms in this market since they
compete on two fronts. They first try to attract and retain
corporate clients and secondly, they need to find and
capture the highest quality talent.

Research Problem

Managerial Problem

As market researchers, we propose the following

research questions to address the managerial problem.
-

What are the value drivers for customer decisions

within the recruiting services industry?

What information channels are the most critical to

connect with actual and potential clients in order
to influence their decision making process?
What is the importance of branding when
selecting a recruiting service provider?
What are the criteria to assess performance of
recruiting service providers?

Methodology
We are going to make an explorative and descriptive
research,
applying
qualitative
and
quantitative
methodologies following this roadmap:

1- Analysis of bibliographical sources: The first step of our

research consists of an extensive analysis of publications,
books, journals and websites in order to gather base
informations about the headhunter market in Costa Rica
and HR related issues.
2- In-depth personal interviews with HR managers: We will
execute 6 interviews of 1 hour with:

Stacy Montagner - McKinsey & Company

(www.mckinsey.com)
Andrea Ramrez - Laboratorios Labin
(www.labinlab.com)
Grettel Abarca - POSSIBLE Software Co.
(www.possiblepos.com)
Heidy Morales - Montecillos
(www.montecillos.com)
Jorge Lpiz - INCAE Business School
(www.incae.edu)

Each member of the team will conduct one interview

using a general guideline created to understand
satisfaction
levels,
investment
in
HR
services,
differentiating factors among providers and challenges
for tapping into the countrys talent pool.
3-Focus group with HR managers: We will organize a
focus group with HR managers from SMEs and
multinational companies with offices in Costa Rica. We
will foster open and free participation of the attendants.
The moderator will be Fabin Lpez; Giancarlo Camperi
and Guillermo Valverde will be observators registering the
behavior of participants and Aurelien Dumont, Luis
Montero and Javier Cazanga will be transcribing all
insights from the participants in a journal.
4-Questionnaire design and execution: We will create a
short and easy to understand questionnaire. We are

going to apply it through Google Forms in order to

facilitate the collection of the responses.
5-Analysis of gathered information: Finally we will make
an analysis and synthesis of the insights collected. This
information will be useful to create conclusions and
recommendations to recruiting service providers in Costa
Rica.

Giancarlo Camperi: Paraguay, Lawyer and

Economist, Msc. in Microfinances. Working
experience as Program Specialist in Peace
Corps/Paraguay
and
Youth
Secretary
in
Municipality of Villarrica, Paraguay.

Guillermo Valverde: Guatemala, Bachelor in

Business Administration York University (ESI) 2013.
Working
experience
as
financial
analyst,
packaging and promotions coordinator and retail
and replenishment analyst in Exxon Mobil,
Kellogg's, Kimberly & Clark and Puma Energy.

Javier Cazanga: Costa Rica, Industrial Engineer.

Experience working as consultant across multiple
industries in process optimisation since late 2008,
most recently as analyst with McKinsey & Co.

Luis Montero: Costa Rica, Business Administrator.

Work experience in research in McKinsey & Co.
and marketing in Clorox Company.

Fabian Lpez: Colombia, Industrial Engineer, SAP BI

Certified Consultant, Experience in consulting and
health related industries basically in operations,
marketing and project management.

Use of Information
According to the methodology stated above; we will use
interviews, questionnaires and focus groups to develop
different insights about HR managers and their key issues
when working with recruiting service providers. This will
lead to deeper understanding of their concerns and
expectations in order to identify market opportunities.
Serving as a valuable input for headhunting firms
concerned with implementing new competitive
strategies.

Research Team Members

The INCAE research team is conformed by the following 6
students:
-

Aurelien Dumont: Belgium, obtaining a masters

degree in Business Engineering with project
management and supply chain speciality.