Everything you need to Know about Internal Recruitment - ZenHR's Blog

The recruitment process is a core function of the HR department. It involves everything from posting vacancies, attracting, sourcing, shortlisting, interviewing, selecting, hiring, and onboarding new employees. To find the top talented people, companies use several recruitment methods such as print advertisings, online career networks like Akhtaboot, referral programs (read this article to know more about referral programs), social media, employment agencies, etc.

These methods fall under the term “External Recruitment” where companies rely on external sources to find qualified candidates. Many companies also use the “Internal Recruitment” method in the hiring process. Read this article to know everything about internal recruitment.

Internal recruitment is when companies aim to fill their open vacancies from their current employees instead of seeking external candidates.

The 4 Main Types of Internal Recruitment

1. Promotions: Promoting employees to higher positions inside the company.
2. Transfers: Transferring employees to the same level of their jobs but in new departments/locations.
3. Temporary to Permanent: Transferring part-time employees or freelancers into full-time employees.
4. Internal Advertisement: Promoting the open vacancies only for existing employees to apply.

Advantages

So, why some companies prefer to recruit internally instead of looking for talents from outside the company? Here are the six main reasons:

1. Lower Training and Onboarding Expenses: Existing employees don’t need to go through the entire training and onboarding process, which reduces the training costs.
2. Strengthened Employee Engagement and Morale: When the company gives employees opportunities for growth and development, they will be more happy and engaged.
3. Lower Job Advertisement Costs: Internal recruitment requires zero job advertising and promotion expenses.
4. Shorter Time-to-Hire: As the company hires from within its workforce, it needs less time to fill an open position, because there is no need to source candidates, evaluate them, and persuade them to join the company.
5. Enhanced Employee Loyalty: When existing employees are given priority over external candidates for any vacant position inside the company, this will give them a feeling that they have the opportunity to advance in this company which will make them more loyal.
6. Better Cultural Fit: Existing employees are already familiar with the company values, policies, and culture.

Disadvantages

Despite all of these benefits, sometimes internal recruitment doesn’t work for certain positions. Below are the four main disadvantages of this method.

1. Limited Pool of Applicants: Relying solely on existing employees for any open position means that the company will have a very limited pool of applicants, and maybe none of these applicants are qualified for these positions.
2. Lack of Fresh Perspectives: Companies sometimes need new and innovative ideas and perspectives for specific positions that existing employees may lack.
3.  A Gap in the Existing Workforce: Promoting or transferring an existing employee leaves his/her old position open, which will ultimately affect your business operations.
4. Lack of Diversity: A diverse workforce that includes people from different levels of education, cultural backgrounds, ages, and different demographics is usually more successful than a non-diverse workforce. Therefore, companies need to hire new employees regularly to have a diverse workforce.