Internal recruitment: filling the post from people you already employ
Definition
Internal recruitment: filling a job vacancy with someone who already works for the business.
- Internal recruitment happens in two ways: promoting an employee into a more senior post, or transferring one sideways from another department or branch.
- Shorter induction: the appointee already knows the products, the till system, the suppliers and the customers, so they are working properly within days instead of spending weeks being shown round.
- A visible promotion ladder: staff who watch a colleague move up can see that effort is rewarded, so they work harder and are less likely to leave for a rival.
- No new thinking: an insider has only ever worked the way this business works, so a firm that promotes from within year after year keeps repeating methods nobody has questioned.
- A knock-on vacancy: promoting a supervisor empties the supervisor's own post, so one recruitment has quietly become two and the saving is smaller than it first looked.
External recruitment: buying in what the business does not have
- External recruitment fills the post with someone from outside, chosen from people who have never worked for the business.
- Skills and experience: someone who has run an online shop for a rival arrives knowing how to do it, which is the only way a firm gets a skill no current employee has ever used.
- Room to grow: going outside is the only route that adds a person to the payroll, because promoting an insider just moves the same employee around.
- A long induction: a newcomer has to learn the products, the systems and the people while drawing full wages, so for a technical post the business pays for months of work it does not yet get back.
- Managers weigh the two routes across five things.
| Internal recruitment | External recruitment | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | No advert or fee | Adverts and agency fees |
| Speed | Days, no notice period | Weeks or months |
| Choice of candidates | Current employees only | Anyone who applies |
| Risk of a poor hire | Low, performance already seen | Higher, judged from an interview |
| Effect on existing staff | Motivating, some resentment | Staff can feel blocked |
Note
Four of the five rows favour the internal route for the same underlying reason: the business is choosing from people it has already trained and watched, so it is not paying to find out what it already knows.
The choice row overturns the other four, because a fast, cheap, low-risk appointment is worth nothing if the person appointed cannot do the job.
Where a business advertises an external vacancy
- Own website and social media: close to free, and it reaches people who already follow the business, which is how a firm like Gymshark reaches an audience built through fitness influencers.
- Job boards and recruitment agencies: a board puts the vacancy in front of thousands of people within a day, while an agency can approach experienced people who are not even looking, in return for a fee that often runs into thousands of pounds for one appointment.
- Local press, shop windows and word of mouth: cheap and strictly local, so they suit a delivery driver or a Saturday shop assistant rather than a specialist post.
Judging which route a business should take
- Do the skills already exist inside: if no current employee has ever run a payroll or a website, promotion cannot invent that skill, so the business has to go outside however much it costs.
- How fast, and for how much: a high-street bakery like Greggs that loses a shift supervisor before a busy weekend needs the post covered in days and will not pay an agency fee for a role it can fill from the counter.
- New thinking or continuity: a business with falling sales gains from someone who has done the job differently elsewhere, while one that is trading well gains more from a person who will keep it steady.
- Overall, promote from inside when the skill is already there and the post must be filled quickly, and recruit outside only when the business needs a skill or an outlook nobody inside has, because that gap is the one thing money spent on advertising can actually close.
Exam technique
- When the question says analyse, run the chain out: internal recruitment is faster, so the post is covered sooner, so customers are still served while the job is being filled.
- Application marks are gated on the context, so use the budget, size and existing staff of the business in the source booklet instead of a general answer.
- If you recommend promoting from within, say what the business will do about the colleagues who applied and were turned down, because that is where judgement is credited.
- Do not answer a methods question with a list of channels, since the marks come from matching one channel to the role and saying why it fits.
Self review
- Define internal recruitment.
- Why does promoting a supervisor often leave the business with a second vacancy?
- Give two things an external candidate can bring that an internal one cannot.
- Which advertising channel suits a specialist senior post, and what is the drawback?
- Give one business need that makes external recruitment the better choice than internal.
