Many businesses prefer internal recruitment over external hiring simply because someone from outside will by definition not be as familiar with the firm’s systems and its corporate culture and policies. On the other hand, relying completely on internal promotions comes with its own set of problems. Let us have a closer look at internal recruitment advantages and disadvantages.
The Pros Of Internal Recruitment
Below are a few of the most important benefits of internal recruitment.
It’s Not As Expensive As External Hiring
In the first place, the firm won’t have to bear the cost of agency fees and/or advertisements. In a large company with regular job openings, this can be substantial. Secondly, when you hire somebody internally, you also won’t have to deal with counter offers from other companies. Plus the candidate is not as likely to turn down the offer or start haggling about the remuneration package.
It Can Be Done Much More Quickly
Promoting someone from inside the company can also be done a lot quicker and the outcome is much more certain. To start with, chances are good that you know everything you want to know about the candidate. Secondly, internal candidates are already familiar with the firm, its systems and processes, and its values.
You also do not have to advertise the position and then wait for responses - you can directly approach your candidate of choice. That means there is no need for interviewing several candidates, spending many hours sifting through their CVs, and doing background checks. First considering internal recruitment sources before starting to look outside the firm, therefore, often makes a lot of sense.
Onboarding Time Is Drastically Reduced
Let’s face it, even if you hire Elon Musk it will still require a major investment in terms of time (and money) until he is familiar with the firm’s values and culture and the responsibilities attached to that particular position.
An internal candidate who has been with the firm for a long time will already be familiar with all of that. He or she will most likely also already have met most of their new team members. It is therefore much less likely that a month later the company will grind to a standstill because the newbie wasn’t aware that pressing the red button in his or her office shuts down the company’s computer systems from New York to New Delhi.
It Improves Worker Engagement
If your firm has a policy of internal recruitment, your workers will know that staying with the company will in the long run become a career and not just a job. That will make them feel engaged, appreciated, and happy. And it’s a well-known fact that happy workers mean happy clients.
Without providing your staff the opportunity to grow their careers at the firm, they are much more likely to move on to the next better opportunity as soon as it comes their way.
It Will Make It Easier To Recruit Externally When The Need Arises
Once the news has spread that your company has a policy of first recruiting internally before trying to find the right person outside the firm, it will strangely enough make it easier to recruit external staff. For most people, their careers are very important and if you can prove that your firm offers better opportunities for career advancement than someone else advertising a similar job, job seekers are much more likely to want to become part of your team.
The Cons Of Internal Recruitment
As with most other things in life, internal recruitment doesn’t only come with benefits. There are also a couple of drawbacks to keep in mind.
Now And Then You Might Need a Fresh Perspective
Sometimes bringing new expertise onboard could be your only option, particularly in a department that has been experiencing problems recently. An outsider will bring fresh insights and ideas and he or she might be able to restore motivation and morale in a way that an insider could not.
Let’s, for example, say your sales department has been underperforming for quite a while and recently the sales manager decided to look for greener pastures. Promoting his or her deputy might not bring the new insights that are needed to revive that part of the business. There are many other internal recruitment examples where looking for new talent outside the firm actually makes more sense.
It Could Negatively Affect Morale
Group psychology is sometimes a strange phenomenon. If one member of a team gets promoted to a leadership position the others might feel rejected and unappreciated. This is particularly true if the successful candidate is not popular.
One way to prevent that from happening is to adjust your internal recruitment methods. The firm’s internal recruitment process should always be completely transparent and you should never allow even a hint of favoritism to creep in. Everyone should feel they have an equal chance of being promoted.
Recruiting Internally Could Mean Having To Train Two People
If you promote someone from inside the company, he or she will typically take a while to find their feet in the new position. On top of that, their old position will now be vacant and you will be faced with the same decision you had to face in the first place: Should you recruit someone from outside the firm, or do you fill the position internally?
If you have someone who has been working for the firm for a long time and who has valuable skills and knowledge, the decision to promote him or her most likely makes a lot of sense. In the case of relatively junior staff members, however, it might sometimes just be quicker and cause less disruption to recruit someone from outside.
The Internal Pool Of Applicants Might Be Too Small
If your firm has a million employees spread over 20 countries, it is unlikely that a situation will arise where you do not have the necessary skills and experience inside the company to fill just about any vacancy.
If the business is much smaller, and particularly if a new position has been created, it could easily happen that the pool of qualified applicants inside the company is not big enough. In that case, even though you believe that skills can always be taught - the longer onboarding time for an internal candidate might simply be too long to make it viable.
