How to Successfully Navigate an Internal Hire

By Danielle Wirsansky on October 4, 2021

Recruiting internally is a great strategy to employ in your workplace for many reasons. It helps improve employee retention, confirming that if employees work hard for a company that their efforts will be rewarded and that there is room for them to grow and continue to climb the workplace ladder. It makes other employees, even if they are not currently looking for a promotion, feel more at ease with the company and makes them more engaged in their work knowing that in the future, they could be promoted. It helps retain institutional knowledge—there is nothing a manager regrets more than putting all the time and effort into training an employee only for them to be recruited to work in a better position elsewhere. High turnover is inefficient for businesses because of the time spent recruiting, hiring, training, and more when done over and over again. It also can demoralize existing employees who have not left the company.

As much as internal hiring is important and helpful to a company, it can often have unexpected pitfalls that can be difficult to navigate. Read on to learn how to successfully navigate an internal hire!

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Personal Feelings

First things first, when you are trying to internally hire to fill a position in your company, you must put aside your personal feelings. It can be a little bit more difficult to do so during an internal hire rather than an external hire because these are people from your own company, that you presumably already know.

It can be easy to recommend someone for the position because you know them and like them but putting personal feelings aside, you have to choose the person that would be best for the position even if you do not like them as much as someone else that is a contender for the role. You need to do what is best for the company and put a person in the position that will do the best job. This is not to say that you cannot use what you know about a person when reviewing them for a job position—just be objective.

And you might be surprised! Allow everyone the opportunity to apply for an internal hiring position even if you think you already know who the best candidate might be. You never know who has been taking classes and participating in other enriching activities that you had no idea about and that might make them a strong contender for an open position.

Set and Monitor Goals

If you want to internally hire for positions in your company, a great way to get employees ready and make your life as a recruiter easier is to help track and observe the progress of your employees. You can do this by working with them to set goals that they would like to achieve and then monitoring if and when they achieve them.

This will help you pinpoint which employees are working hard and taking strides to improve and better themselves within their workplace roles and help you keep up to date with their shifting and changing resumes. You will already be aware of where they are and what kind of employee they are when an internal hiring position opens up. So, it might take a little bit more time and effort steadily throughout the year. But it will help you stay on top of your job and truly find the best people to fill positions at your company, which is what your job is all about and even makes your job easier in the end.

Be Transparent

When you are hiring internally, it is very important to be transparent about the process and what is going on. Many companies try to be opaque and hush-hush about their internal hiring practices, which can cause resentment and make employees feel unappreciated, which makes them more likely to look for a company that will appreciate them. It can foster a very toxic work culture.

Avoid all that by being transparent instead. Keep the applicants apprised of the process. Make sure hiring practices are above board. If an applicant does not get the position, communicate to employees what they could do better or work to improve for next time but also be sure to identify where they excelled and what they did great in to help bolster their confidence.

Your company has great employees that are passionate about the organization and the work they do and the skillset to step up and take on new roles. Even though it can be a little bit tricky, following the strategies above can help you navigate the fine line and make hiring internally a positive and productive experience for all involved.

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