6 Advantages of Internal Recruitment Process

Finding the right candidate for an open position doesn’t have to be hard.

You could hire externally, and there’s certainly a time and place for this. If you want to bring a fresh perspective to your business or need a particular skill that your company currently lacks, outside hiring is the way to go. However, hiring externally can be time-consuming and expensive; you’ll have to:

• Post job ads;
• Wade through resumes;
• Go through a long onboarding process.

Fortunately, there’s an easier option: hiring internally.

You will save yourself a lot of trouble and wasted resources by looking at your current employees to fill new positions. Avoid the work of sending out job ads and poring through candidate resumes by hiring internally. 

Not quite convinced? Here are six advantages of internal recruitment process:

1. You know the candidates

You want the right people to work at your company. If you’re not careful, you’ll get stuck with bad hires. 

The good news with hiring internally is that you already know the candidates. You’re familiar with their personalities and can rely on their proven track records with your company.

You don’t have to rely on references or background checks to get an idea of what an internal prospect is like—you have easy access to their peers and performance metrics like attendance or sales figures.

Hiring outside of your company brings an element of unpredictability. A candidate could be the perfect fit for your team, or they could turn out to be not so great. But hiring internally is a safe bet where you know what you’re committing to. Avoid the risk and remove guesswork—hire the person you already know.

2. The candidates know the company

It’s frustrating when you bring a new employee on board, only to have them leave because they feel like the company is not a good fit.

When you hire one of your own, that problem rarely occurs. Internal hiring brings candidates that have already made the decision to stay. They are much more likely to:

• Feel comfortable working for your company
• Fit in with the company culture
• Agree with company values and goals
• Work well with coworkers and existing processes

3. It’s easier

When working to fill an open position, it’s good to be considerate and mindful of the strain the hiring process places on your HR department.

When you hire externally, you have to market your company to prospective employees and hunt down, reach out to and follow up with a huge pool of candidates. The process takes an extraordinary amount of time, effort and money, and by the end you’re still not completely sure of what you’re getting.

Internal recruitment makes the hiring process much easier and less stressful for you and your team. You don’t have to:

• Carefully study resumes
• Check social media profiles
• Conduct background checks
• Hope references are being honest

When you hire someone internally, you already have their records and know who they are. You will have a pretty good idea of whether the individual gets along with their peers, where their strengths and weaknesses lie and how suitable they are for a different position at your company.

4. It saves time and money

Hiring an outside employee can get pretty expensive. You have to pay money for ads, cover fees for background checks and sometimes even invest in rigorous training.

When you hire someone from within your company, you avoid many of those expenses: 

• You already have their background check completed.
• You have them fully on-boarded—no ads needed.
• Because they’re familiar with company processes and routines, you may even save training costs.

You will also save enormous amounts of time. Instead of going through countless resumes and interviews, you will only have to work with a small pool of candidates—sometimes even just a single person—from your company.

Hiring internal candidates also has a much shorter onboarding process than hiring external candidates. Current employees have already:

• Passed drug screening
• Signed up for insurance
• Filled out important documents for HR 
• Provided tax ID and bank account information for payroll
• Received their uniforms, access cards, identification and appropriate equipment
• Gone through job training
• Obtained relevant certificates
• Complied with government regulations
• Become familiar with your business’s facilities
• Gained experience collaborating with their coworkers

Internal candidates are already part of your company and familiar with the workplace, so you can speed through the hiring process and they can hit the ground running without missing a beat.

5. It boosts employee morale

One advantage that is sometimes overlooked when recruiting internally is the effect that it has on other employees at your company. 

Hiring externally can bring resentment. After all, you didn’t choose someone from among the hard workers who have been there from the start. 

However, when you hire workers internally, you send the message that you appreciate your employee’s skills and talents enough to recognize where they can best fit in your company. You also inspire more loyalty and motivation because they realize they aren’t stuck—they can climb the ladder or get promoted if they work hard.

6. It improves your company’s reputation

This benefit builds on the previous one. When you hire internally, you demonstrate that you observe, care about and value your employees. When employees feel valued for their skills and talents, they’re happier on the job. And when employees are happier on the job, they talk positively about the business they work for.

You can make this part of your brand image. If you’re known as a company that hires internally and rewards hard work, you will have a much easier time attracting top talent when you do need to hire externally—make internal recruitment a selling point to external candidates and mention it in your job ads.

Save Yourself Headaches with Internal Recruitment

Internal recruitment is all about using resources that you already have. You don’t have to look outside of your company to find the people you need. Folks within your business are capable employees with proven track records, loyalty and work ethic. 

If you’re running into roadblocks hiring externally, consider looking for candidates among folks who already work within your business. Encourage your employees and make the process of filling a job easier with internal recruitment.

Written by

Giovanni Riva

Graduated in Business Administration, he spent 5 years working in the 3rd sector, before joining Pipefy to start the commercial area of the company. After developing the Pipefy Young Guns Trainee program, today he is responsible for employer brand and talent acquisition of Pipefy.