Benefits of internal recruitment

You’re the Office Manager and you’re in charge of initiating the recruitment process. The Head of Marketing runs off and joins the competitor (good for you, you didn’t like her anyways) and one asks you to find a replacement. 

Recruitment requires a lot of efforts to attract candidates, sort through applications, carry out interviews…And even after all this, the chosen person doesn’t necessarily match the position. Back to square one. Before looking here and there on the internet with headhunters or in application banks etc…have you checked if a qualified person exists in-house? Certainly, some may be interested, wouldn’t they? Choosing to recruit internally, avoids a lot of mishaps. 

First of all, what is internal recruitment? We speak about internal recruitment when a vacant position is offered to an employee in the company, through a promotion for example. And this represents several advantages. Here are the many benefits of internal recruitment! 

You already know the candidates

Recruiting internally could be risky. You can never be 100% sure, if the person is going to be in tune with the teams, processes, values etc.…At any given time, the newcomer could run off before the end of the trial period and you won’t be able to do anything about it. And even the best of interviews don’t help getting away from these risks. Often, you’ll see if you’ve made the right choice when you’re actually experiencing the real situation. 

However, when one recruits internally, the risk level isn’t the same. Even if the candidate didn’t handle this position before, you’ve already seen this person work in your company. You know if he/she has properly integrated the teams, if he’s in tune with the values of the company, if he isn’t a lazy bum, if he can handle conflicts etc.…This way, you’re much more confident, during the recruitment. 

It’s less expensive

Recruiting externally costs money, a lot of money. There could be financial loss, if the candidate leaves the company before the end of the trial period. But there are other sources of costs: potential costs to display job ads, recruitment agency fees, the time spent on interviews, time employees spend to welcome the newcomer (theoretically, they are paid therefore it costs money) …

Most of these costs don’t really exist for internal recruitment: onboarding is less burdensome, and you almost don’t need anything or anyone, to help the candidate. 

The internal candidates know the company well

In-house, the candidates already know if they like their company or not. They know if it’s worth staying and progressing within the company or going and looking elsewhere. If someone is thinking of running off soon, because he/she can’t stand his colleagues and the food at the canteen is just awful, it’ll be silly for him to apply for a new position. If a collaborator candidate applies to a job internally, it shows the he wants to commit to the company. 

At the end of the day, there isn’t much of a chance that you’ll need to hire a new person, right after the recruitment process: the candidate already knows the company, teams and even the position itself. 

Once again, onboarding is easier with an in-house candidate. However, be careful, and don’t completely forget about onboarding: it’s still necessary to carry out one for a new position, as the person needs to acquire new knowledge and processes. 

In-house candidates are easier to find

When one recruits externally, one needs to be extremely patient. Displaying ads, sorting through applications, interview, etc.…It can take days before you find the right candidate. Even worse, never find this person and cry about it.

But in-house, things are easy peasy: all you need to do is display the ad through an email or directly go see the people who may be a match for this job. 

You boost collaborator commitment

Certainly, the most important point. Recruiting internally means showing that your company gives opportunities to progress, train and evolve. It’s a very positive sign. This is what your collaborators (at least the one who wish to stay) want. Show what they’re capable of. And why not even add a few euros on their pay slip. 

It requires muuuucchh less time

For all the reasons mentioned previously, it doesn’t take much time to contact a candidate internally and offer him a position. You can easily address this person, even get feedbacks from his superior and check his past performances and success. Perhaps, you won’t even need to set an interview, as you already know the candidate.