Article: Why isn't internal hiring as popular as it should be?

Talent Acquisition

Why isn't internal hiring as popular as it should be?

Hiring an individual who fits a role profile perfectly is quite challenging, but then internal hiring can help, provided you consider it as an option and not as a final resort.
Why isn't internal hiring as popular as it should be?

Some organisations don’t think internal hiring is a good option or do you think they could just be blind to its benefits and eventually look at hiring external candidates? While it may be a good practice to introduce new perspectives vis-à-vis new hires, sometimes it is better to look within the organisation and hire talent that might have been asking them to hear their professional goals. However, when hirers overlook employees’ desire to switch departments, they end up creating another problem: attrition. 

While we had already discussed benefits of internal hiring, this piece in particular focuses on why it is not practiced widely and how and why organisations need to rethink their work culture.

Companies assume that internal candidates lack requisite skills

When a manager wants to hire someone for a new role or for a vacant spot, they prepare a list of skills hoping to find a ‘perfect’ or a ‘near-perfect’ match. But, how often do they hit the bull’s eye? Their inability to recruit can be attributed to various reasons and one obvious factor is that skills are now dynamic. Even your existing employee must be on his/ger toes to keep up with latest development in their sector, whether technological or not. 

In order to bridge this widening skill gap, organisations must keep a lookout for internal candidates who might have exhibited a potential to fill for a certain kind of a role profile. If you identify them ahead of time then you will have saved those many man hours looking for them everywhere. 

Internal hiring is considered as poaching and not promoting high achievers

It is cent percent true that organisations can find competent people both internally and externally, but the former must be given a leverage since their growth graph is known to you. There is no reason why managers must fight internally for not letting other departments to hire ‘their’ people. This territorial mentality needs to undergo a change and employees must be seen as a part of an organisation and not just as a pawn of department heads. 

If an employee has a skill set and potential to perform better then there is no way they must be kept from applying for any role in question. If their wings are clipped and they start believing that their career graph is going nowhere then they will look for opportunities elsewhere. Who knows an employee who earlier underperformed in the PR department might do excellent in their new profile as a content creator? 

They have inhibitions in investing in employee’s professional development

Currently, it seems as if organisations prepare to fight attrition than focus on how to make current employees stay back. Why? Perhaps it all boils down to them thinking that training programs ultimately have no returns. And, this is exactly that needs to change. As a standard practice, while conducting mid-year or annual performance reviews, managers must ensure that their managee mentions (both in writing and over discussion) about their professional development and training needs. The purpose must be to identify their motivation and how they can be encouraged to develop cross-functional skills. 

Of course you will have invested money in their professional development and your fears might be justified that if they leave then it’s a lot that goes for a waste. However, in the current situation, as long as they are working with you, your concern should be to stop give them stability and bring stability within the organisation. Give them an opportunity because people often look forward to bettering themselves. Having played your part, you can only wait and see how they give it back to you who took active interest in building their careers. 

So, are you ready to create a culture of encouraging people to have aspirations and also enabling them to realise the same? 

Read full story

Topics: Talent Acquisition, Recruitment

Did you find this story helpful?

Author

QUICK POLL

How do you envision AI transforming your work?