We have all faced at one time or another the challenges of replacing a team member; it can be really difficult not just to find someone that can fill a skills gap, but also be engaged in what the business does and how it does it.
But there is a school of thought that challenges the normal considerations of recruitment when it comes to filling that gap and that is internal recruitment - recruitment that comes from within your existing workforce.
It makes a lot of sense when you think about it, you already have the staff available and there could be the need to upskill someone within your organization or provide a different view point and analysis which the team could be lacking. We will look into the different reasons later in the guide.
In this guide we are going to give you a thorough understanding of internal recruitment, what the associated advantages and disadvantages are, how internal recruitment vs external differ and finally, how to develop your own internal recruitment strategy.
Internal recruitment is the process of filling vacancies in a business from its existing workforce. Unlike external recruitment which looks to fill vacancies with people outside of the existing workforce, internal recruitment is a method of recruiting that is widely gaining traction in businesses of all sizes thanks to the complexity of the recruitment landscape.
Internal recruitment is also one of the many typical processes that happens within a business on a regular basis - but you may never have considered it as internal recruitment. For example:
It is common to see staff promotions in all sorts of businesses. Whether it is a junior office worker becoming a manager or a senior level employee going onto the board of directors - or even running the company, staff promotions are one of the main forms of internal recruitment.
Again, transfers are something we all come to see in our working lives and this is even more common in today’s mobile working environments where staff can move from one place to another and find themselves in a new city regularly.
Staff transfers also apply to staff moving between departments. We see this more commonly happening in job fields such as automotive, technological and telecommunications - but they are not limited to those fields. You can find sales people moving into marketing departments and vise versa for secondment roles as well as permanent moves as well.
We will have worked with people who were temps before they were full time employees. Temp to permanent is more common than you would think, especially in organizations who find that the temp worker has the right attitude and skills to manage the workload they are given. By making them full time, the organization doesn’t have to focus on further recruitment costs or time consuming onboarding (more about this later).
And finally, another internal recruitment tactic is employee referrals. There could have been a meeting where a skills shortage was discussed and a manager in that meeting may have someone in their team who would be the perfect fit or it could be that for an employee to improve their career prospects, a sideways move may help - this is all supported by employee referrals.
Of course, when a new position opens up, it can be very difficult to fill that position with standard recruitment procedures of looking to the marketplace. You may feel that your team balance would be disrupted with a new, unfamiliar face or that you “simply don’t have the time.” All of these make for reasons to internally recruit, but they are not the best starting point.
So what are the advantages and disadvantages of internal recruitment? We are going to take a closer look at some.
External recruitment is when you go to the job market to fill a role in your organization. The candidate more than likely has no experience within your business (with the exception being old employees who may have left some time ago) and is applying with a fresh set of skills, ideas and knowledge that can be added to the organization. Candidates will know about the role through job boards, recruitment agencies and even word-of-mouth.
We have seen what some of the advantages and disadvantages are in internal recruitment, but what are some of the associated advantages and disadvantages of external recruitment?
We have seen the positive impacts that internal recruitment can bring to an organization, but how do you go about creating a strategy that rewards this type of recruitment approach and combine it with other elements required to find the right staff for the roles in your organization - be it internally or externally?
The solution is to create a clear internal recruitment policy that can be used as a tool to help with internal recruitment purposes. We are going to talk you through developing your own recruitment strategy.
Fundamentally, once this document has been created, getting it to all members of staff and building it into the HR process is essential. When an opportunity arises to recruit from within your organization, this is the strategy that must be followed but to make that work, it requires everyone to know that the system must be followed.
The internal recruitment process allows anyone within the organization to be able to apply for a role unless they have otherwise been promoted into it, or recommended the vacancy from their line manager.
This helps to give employees proper encouragement which can help with not only motivation but also showing what skill sets they have that meet the requirements of the vacant position. The internal recruitment process thus must identify some key considerations for anyone thinking of making an application. What needs to be included in the job advert? Here are some suggestions:
I.e. Minimum time spent in the organization. Things like time already spent within the organization will give an idea of the acquired skill sets, their ability to understand what the workplace culture and environment is like and if they already have established relationships with members of the team and so on.
This is where the hiring manager's name is associated with the job posting. You may want to specifically state that “all applications must be forwarded to x person” with HR CC’d.
This may be a specification over how long the transition into the new role will take and who your current line manager is. It may also include things such as requirements to show what current projects or deadlines you are working on.
Specifying training will also encourage candidates from different areas of the business who want a career change to see this more favorably. Training in new areas of the business to them will be of benefit for their career longevity as well as progression.
If you are replacing a role, any announcement should come after the person leaving has made it public knowledge to their team/colleagues. Doing so beforehand can be interpreted as a negative move. Also defining who gets to send out the job notice via email applications or an intranet service must be clear in the guidelines.
You may want to specify just what exactly it is you want from your applicants as well. A C.V., a cover letter, it could be an answer to a job based question or even undergoing some psychometric tests as part of the application process.
Defining how applicants will be screened and shortlisted is an internal process for hiring managers to follow. This could include things like, years of service, basic skills competencies, a face-to-face meeting etc.
This is where you could also utilize psychometric testing and help identify candidates through behavioral analysis in the questionnaires as well. Combined, this gives candidates a much wider chance to show their skills and workplace attitude.
Once again, this is defining how applicants should be given feedback on their applications. It may be that there is a face to face meeting about the process or a simple email detailing why they weren’t successful - this time around. By giving clear instructions in your process you are helping managers understand the need to be clear in their communications with their staff.
Internal recruitment is the process of filling vacancies in a business within its own existing workforce. From understanding workplace culture to even shortening the recruitment process, internal recruitment has become synonymous with many beneficial traits and can yield positive results for the organization in the short and long term.
Thomas psychometric assessments can be used to help hiring managers identify potential candidates and talents within the organization that may be suitable for more than one role within the business. This can help the organization understand its talent pool and look to internal recruitment as a long term strategy in the success of the organization.
If you would like to learn more about how we can help you with internal recruitment, please speak to one of our team.
