Is your business in the middle of the Great Resignation? If so, you probably want to stem the tide. You can offer your employees more money, more flexibility and better perks as a way to keep them engaged and satisfied at your organization. But another key area to look at? Internal hiring.
According to Harvard Business Review, an average of 10 internal candidates apply for every open position in large organizations. Those who don’t land the job are twice as likely to leave the company as their counterparts who didn’t apply for the new position. (People who get an interview with the hiring manager are less likely to leave but still leave at a higher rate than others.)
That can have a pretty serious impact on your business: the cost of even one employee leaving can set your company back by about a third of that person’s yearly salary. Faced with this high cost of too much turnover, organizations should consider three key questions in assessing candidates for open internal position
To keep reading, click here: The 3 questions to consider when promoting internal candidates
Another reason to hire an internal candidate is that it will often demoralize the person who does not get the job and the amount of effort they put into the job may diminish.
Also, and this is covered some what in question #1, but you should hire people for potential not necessarily skills they already have. I thought there was an article on this site that covered this but I can’t find it.
With a current employee you know if you are getting someone with a strong work ethic (or not), someone who will fit into your organization (or not), and other similar things.
With an internal candidate you will also have someone with institutional knowledge which can be helpful.
I am not saying that you should always hire the internal candidate but I am saying to not dismiss the internal candidate just because some else has a certain skillset which the internal candidate can learn.
I don’t know if it was mentioned but the interviews for the candidates ( no matter where internal or external) should be done exactly the same. So unless the persons who do these evaluation interviews are the immediate supervisor, an internal candidate should be meeting with exactly the same interviewers and the only difference maybe is how their current resume is received, as it can be forwarded thru the internal mail directly to the person where an external candidate’s resume gets passed on after HR review as an acceptable candidate. An internal candidate only has to submit an updated resume because they are already an acceptable person for the company.
Going through the similar interview will also give the candidate a way to measure their expectations of the job to the actual job because of the questions asked. The interviewer should be expecting the candidate to explain what they can contribute and evaluate their answers as the skill needed without prejudice as sometimes the lack of a fancy degree but in-house knowledge of the job is the better candidate. The choice should not be determined by the need to replace the candidate’s current position as a deterrent but should be part of the questioning of the leadership skills. Anyone can fill a position but being the one in charge means you also can develop others to job skills. The key to choosing the correct person for the job is what proof they can provide of job skills in a tangible manner not a verbal ability, unless communication is the main skill needed not results.
I had an assignment from 2007 through 2010 in which I promoted 21 internal candidates from craft jobs into management and one internal candidate from one level of management to the next.
These candidates all had superb subject matter expertise and, I believed, very good management potential. I was willing to provide the training and mentoring needed to help them with the management skills, knowledge and ability.
One of the biggest benefits of these promotions to everyone concerned was that they created a more diverse and equitable management team. I took over a team of mostly Black craft workers and mostly White mangers; my internal promotions transitioned the management team to mostly Black mangers. I felt this plan showed respect for capable, smart, willing employees, and for the team as a whole.
We had only one disappointment involving a newly-promoted manger who behaved 0poorly and was returned to her craft position. In the same timeframe I fired one of the few external management hires I made for cause. So I feel my strategy was successful.