Who to Contact in Recruitment Business Development: Hiring Manager, HR or MD?

You found a company that is hiring. The role fits your niche, the ad has been live for three weeks and the location is right on your patch. Then comes the question that decides whether the next call goes anywhere: who do you actually talk to?

Get this wrong and even a perfect opener fails. Call the CEO of a 5,000-person group about a warehouse supervisor role and you will never hear back. Call a junior HR coordinator at a 30-person engineering firm and you will be told "the boss decides that" before you finish your sentence.

This guide shows you who to contact, how that changes with company size, where to find the right name and how to handle contact data so it does not come back to bite you.

Who decides whether a company uses a recruitment agency?

There are usually three or four people in play. They have different reasons to talk to you.

• The hiring manager. The head of engineering, the operations manager, the finance director. They own the vacancy, feel the pain of an empty seat every day and can judge your candidates. In most companies they are the strongest contact.
• HR or talent acquisition. They run the process, write the ads and often manage the agency relationship. In larger organisations they decide which agencies are allowed to send CVs at all.
• The managing director or owner. In small businesses they hire for every key role themselves and sign off on fees.
• Procurement. In big corporates, agency suppliers often go through a preferred supplier list (PSL). Procurement or HR manages that list. You rarely start here, but you need to know it exists.

The rule of thumb: talk to the person who loses the most if the role stays open and who can say yes to a fee.

Who to contact by company size

Company size is the quickest way to narrow it down. Treat this table as a starting point, not a law.

First, HR becomes more important as companies grow, because they control which agencies get in. Second, the top person becomes less useful as companies grow. A managing director of a 20-person firm in Leeds may answer the phone herself. The CEO of a listed company in Chicago will not read your LinkedIn message, and nor should he. He does not own the vacancy.

How to read a job ad for clues

The job ad itself often tells you who to call. Look for:

1. A named contact. Many ads, especially from smaller companies, list a name for questions. That person is either the hiring manager or the HR contact for the role.
2. "Reports to". If the ad says the role reports to the plant manager or the head of finance, that is your hiring manager.
3. The department and location. A role in the Dallas branch of a national firm points to the local branch or regional manager, not head office.
4. Who posted it. If the ad is on the careers page and branded by the internal talent team, HR runs the process. If it sits on a job board under the company name with a direct contact, the hiring manager may be more hands-on.
5. Repeats and volume. Several roles in one team usually mean one hiring manager with a big problem. That is a strong reason to call them directly.

If you want to find more of these vacancies systematically, our guide on how to find companies that are hiring covers the sources and filters.

Where to find the right name

Once you know the role you want, find the person.

• The company website. Team pages, "about us", leadership pages and press releases often name department heads.
• LinkedIn. Search the company, filter by title and location. Check that the person still works there, as profiles go stale.
• Companies House (UK). The official register lists a company's current officers for free. Directors are useful for small businesses where they are also the hiring decision maker.
• The switchboard. Calling reception, saying it is about the advertised role and asking to be put through to whoever owns it is often the fastest route. We cover how to do that well in getting past the gatekeeper.
• Your own CRM. Past contacts and placements are the cheapest source of all, and people who move companies take their hiring needs with them.

Should you contact more than one person?

Often, yes. In mid-sized and larger companies, the hiring manager and HR both have a stake. If you only talk to the hiring manager, HR may block you because you are not an approved supplier. If you only talk to HR, you may never reach the person who feels the urgency.

A sensible approach:

• Start with the hiring manager, because they feel the pain.
• If they are interested, ask how agencies are usually engaged and whether HR needs to be involved.
• Bring HR in early rather than going around them. Being seen as the agency that ignored the process is a quick way to lose the account.

A short LinkedIn message to a hiring manager can work as a first touch, for example:

"Hi {first name}, I saw you are hiring a {role} in {city}. I recruit exactly in that area and know people who fit. Let's have a 15-minute call this week about what you need. Does Thursday morning work for you?"

It is specific, it is about their vacancy and it asks for one clear next step: a short call. For the call itself, see our recruitment cold calling script.

How to keep contact data clean and GDPR-aware

Contact data is the raw material of business development. Treat it carefully, both for quality and for compliance. This section is general information, not legal advice.

Keep the data accurate

• Note the source and the date you found each contact.
• Re-check before a campaign whether the person is still in the role.
• Prefer direct business contact details linked to the role over guesses.
• Delete or archive contacts who have left the company rather than keeping them "just in case".

Know the basic rules in the UK and EU

• Business contact details can be personal data. The ICO explains that an email address that identifies a person, such as one containing their name, is personal data, while a generic address like info@ is not. So UK GDPR or EU GDPR usually applies to your contact list.
• You need a lawful basis. For business development, many agencies rely on legitimate interests under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. That means weighing your interest against the person's and documenting it.
• Tell people where you got their data. If you did not collect the data from the person directly, Article 14 GDPR says you must give them privacy information within a reasonable period and at the latest within one month, or at your first contact if you use the data to communicate with them.
• Objections are final. Under Article 21 GDPR, a person can object to direct marketing at any time, and you must then stop using their data for that purpose. Put them on a suppression list and make sure nobody at your agency contacts them again.
• Calls have their own rules in the UK. The ICO says that for business-to-business calls you need to screen against both the Corporate TPS and the TPS, as well as your own do-not-call list.

In the US the rules differ by state and channel, so check what applies where you operate.

Making it a repeatable process

Finding the right person for one vacancy takes ten minutes. Doing it for every relevant vacancy in your market, every day, is where most agencies run out of time. That is the part LeadFlow handles: it finds companies hiring in your niche, identifies the decision maker based on the role and company size and delivers the lead into your CRM. If you want outreach handled too, Growth Engine runs the campaigns on the same data.

Key takeaways

• The best contact is usually the person who owns the vacancy and can approve a fee, not the most senior name.
• In small companies that is the owner or MD. In mid-sized and larger companies it is the hiring manager, with HR as a second contact.
• The job ad often tells you who to call: named contact, "reports to", department and location.
• In larger organisations, bring HR in early and check whether there is a preferred supplier list.
• Business contact details that identify a person are personal data in the UK and EU. Know your lawful basis, inform people and honour objections.

FAQ

Who should a recruitment agency contact at a company?

Usually the hiring manager who owns the vacancy, because they feel the cost of the empty role and can judge candidates. In small companies the owner or managing director often decides. In larger organisations HR or talent acquisition is an important second contact because they manage agency suppliers.

Should I contact HR or the hiring manager first?

In most mid-sized companies, start with the hiring manager and involve HR once there is interest. In large corporates with a preferred supplier list, HR or talent acquisition may be the gate you have to pass. In very small businesses there is often no HR, so go to the owner.

Is it a good idea to contact the CEO about a vacancy?

Only in small businesses where the CEO or owner hires for key roles. In large companies the CEO does not own individual vacancies, will rarely respond and cannot judge your candidates.

Is business contact data covered by GDPR?

Yes, if it identifies a person. The ICO says a name-based work email address is personal data, while a generic address is not. You need a lawful basis, such as legitimate interests, must provide privacy information and must stop marketing to anyone who objects. This is not legal advice.