5 ways to improve your internal hiring

Internal hiring is a bit of an oddity. 

On one hand, existing employees often make the best individuals to fill a position: they have a lot of institutional knowledge, and understand what it takes to get work done at the organization. Employers benefit because by providing internal mobility, people are more likely to stay at the organization, and job candidates are likely to be attracted to growth opportunities. Existing employees onboard fast, don’t cost as much money in recruiting costs, and customers already know them, so there is less disruption to customer service.

On the other hand, many companies don’t put the same effort into internal hiring as they do when they look outside to fill jobs. They don’t actively court internal employees for new roles. They wait for employees to express interest rather than coming to them. And they don’t clearly explain to employees how a new job can help them gain new skills that will benefit their careers.

Read on for some suggestions on how to make internal hiring as effective as external hiring.

How to improve your internal hiring

Here are some suggestions for improving your internal mobility.

Manage all internal hiring activity from one platform

New AI-powered talent-acquisition platforms offer a way for employers to share jobs internally first. They help you quickly organize, sort, and search open positions from one centralized location. Companies like CityFibre that previously distributed jobs through chats and emails have found this centralization valuable.

These technologies provide an employee-friendly experience so employees can easily identify and apply to open job postings with the same application/profile management features as external candidates. They also help companies set up different screening processes for internal and external candidates.

Use data insights to improve internal hiring

You are probably using analytics to analyze your external hiring. These analytics include such metrics as where the best sources of candidates are coming from, what it costs on average to hire an employee, and how many days it is taking to fill a job.

But you may not be deriving enough insights from your own employees. Study the data that you have to determine what is appealing to them in a new role. Find out what’s most important in keeping them at the organization, whether it’s a chance to try new things, learn new skills, meet new people, experience a different location, or something else. Survey employees about their candidate experience just like you might survey external candidates. 

Change the mindset of managers to improve internal hiring

Managers need to be trained to think of employees as working for the company, not the manager. Managers shouldn’t be “docked” or penalized because a company wants to leave their job for a new one internally. On the contrary, managers should be incented for providing employees a chance to learn new skills that can benefit the organization.

Start recruiting your own employees

This is the frustrating challenge that so many companies are overlooking. Employers often leave employees in the awkward position of having to ask their managers or ask another manager about an open job. Employees often feel that they are letting the manager down by inquiring about an open role. Organizations should actively push internal jobs to employees and talk to their employees about open opportunities.

Companies can encourage managers to talk to employees monthly about open jobs in the company that might be a good fit for them. Or companies could have an organization-wide career day every so often, such as every quarter, to promote an environment of new internal opportunities to learn new skills or take new internal jobs.

Take a holistic approach to internal hiring

Internal hiring should be part of a larger approach where employees feel like the organization cares about their careers. 

Employees should be able to take on internal gigs to learn new skills or experience departments outside of their own. Many companies are creating “talent marketplaces” that help facilitate employees getting these gigs. Employees could participate in a company hackathon. Employees could help the company evaluate technology, or they could teach other employees a skill that they know, or a piece of technology they are familiar with. A company could help employees be matched with mentors. 

A new internal job is only a piece of the larger internal-mobility puzzle.

Take advantage of the internal-hiring opportunity for diversity

For so long, companies have tried to fill jobs with someone who has had a very similar job title in the past. Many companies just don’t want to take the risk of hiring someone who may or may not be able to transition to a different kind of role than they’re used to. In other words, internal hiring often feels less risky for hiring managers. 

But managers who are already familiar with an employee know that the individual has the skills to succeed in a different role. They know the marketer would be good at sales, or the salesperson would be good at marketing. They have seen someone whose job is mostly customer service turn their job into mostly a sales job through upselling to customers. 

Or, they have seen how someone in the organization is able to learn quickly and can take on new skills or knowledge. Perhaps someone in the organization taught themselves an AI skill, or maybe they learned more about cybersecurity within three or four months. That employee has shown the desire, curiosity, and ability to learn new things quickly and could become knowledgeable in another area fairly quickly. 

All of these represent opportunities for diversity because people are being hired based on their skills and experience, and not on their past job title, past employer, or prestige of their college.

The guiding principle of internal hiring

The most important thing to remember about improving your internal hiring and your internal mobility is to treat the process with the same effort as you do when you look externally. Many companies have brought leading AI technologies and strong practices to their recruiting, but don’t make the same effort for their own employees. The result is people feeling like they don’t have opportunities to grow. Ultimately, those employees leave for new jobs. 

Let us know If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you improve your internal hiring,