Career Mobility and Internal Recruiting

Career Mobility and Internal Recruiting

In this issue of the Career Mobility Newsletter, we will explore the value of an internal recruiting process which is the second element of my Career Mobility model below:

Internal Recruiting Definition

According to this blog from eddy.com, the online HR Encyclopedia:

"Internal recruitment is the process of filling a new job opening or backfilling a vacancy with someone who is already in your workforce."

Eddy.com suggests that if your company needs to go in a new direction, you might want to look externally to find candidates.?Otherwise, if you are growing, or if someone needs to be replaced, then recruiting internally may be a better fit.?This is because current employees already know the company culture, needs, and goals. There are several different ways to recruit internally:

·??????Promotions

·??????Transfers

·??????Reorganizations

·??????Role changes or lateral moves

Internal Recruiting Challenges

According to Vizier’s website, the solution to talent sourcing is to hire from within.?In the middle of the 20th century, corporations filled almost 90% of their vacancies through promotions and lateral moves. Today the percentage is about a third.?Why??

"It may feel like more effort to hire and train someone internally (which will likely be a role change), as opposed to getting someone from the outside who may have done the exact job."

Sometimes the root cause is the lack of an established procedure for hiring internally.?Without a clear path to find internal candidates, recruiters return to the same external process.?Managers may also be reluctant to “steal” employees from another department. Vizier’s 2021 Stop the Exit report found that employees at companies with high internal mobility stay almost twice as long on average (5.4 years) vs. 2.9 years with the least internal mobility.

Vizier also points to the need to convince recruiters to look inward first. One way to promote internal mobility is to tie recruiter bonuses to how many internal candidates they source.?Another technique is to ensure internal referral bonuses are robust.?The other challenge is to convince employees to apply.?

Internal Recruiting Strategies

In this Forbes article, Lisa Shuster, the Chief People Officer for iHire, writes that their 2023 Hiring & Job Search Outlook Report shows that 49.5% of U.S. employers plan to hire from within or promote current employees to fill roles in 2023. The study also found that 67.0% of candidates surveyed plan to search for a new job this year with a majority already on the hunt. Many (64.7%) said they are “looking right now” for a job with another 9.5% planning to start their search immediately. This justifies the top two concerns of employers in the study, which are talent shortages (74.1%) and the Great Resignation (50.8%), suggesting many of the same challenges employers faced in 2022.

A Structural blog offers three key reasons why a talent acquisition strategy should start with internal recruitment:

1.??????Talent acquisition and hiring externally costs 170% more

2.??????Between 40%-60% of external hires are not successful vs. 25% of internal hires

3.??????Results in higher retention while developing more high performers and improving culture

This SmartRecruiters.com blog states that the responsibility for internal recruiting should be shared among the HR department, managers, and employees.?

"Internal recruitment starts with an organization’s commitment to a talent-sharing mindset that creates continuous development opportunities for employees across roles, projects, or gigs within their current jobs."

In 2021, a SmartRecruiters study including over 200 global Talent Acquisition professionals found that only about 50% of employers had any dedicated strategy or standardized process for internal recruiting.?Register to watch SmartRecruiters' on-demand webinar on “Transforming Your Internal Recruiting Strategy”.

Bersin’s High-Impact Talent Acquisition research reveals that high-performing companies with mature Talent Acquisition functions seek talent resources in a variety of ways.?This list includes some of the most effective internal sourcing strategies.?

The first is fostering a culture of internal mobility.?Research shows that 75% of high-performing organizations prioritize internal mobility vs. 37% of low-performing organizations.?Bersin suggests several calls to action for this strategy:

·??????Identify an executive sponsor, provide clarity around the value, and promote with the goal of employee growth and creating engaging worker experiences.

·??????Encourage employees to discuss career aspirations with their peers and leaders and engage in conversations about preferred skills and experiences needed

·??????Enable a simplified internal application process

The second sourcing strategy is to cultivate an internal talent pool. Research shows that 62% of every four high-performing talent acquisition teams regularly tap internal talent pools, compared to only 13% of low-performing teams.?Calls for action include:

·??????Encourage recruiters and hiring managers to collaborate regarding the people, positions, and profiles of success on teams

·??????Ensure your ATS technology gives recruiters access to internal applications and that the workflows place unique identifiers on employee applications

·??????Encourage recruiters to engage with internal applicants as standard practice to understand their motivations even if they don’t proceed to an interview.

The third sourcing strategy is to integrate the talent acquisition function into the HR suite to better understand talent.?This is because talent acquisition has historically focused on external sources of?talent. Following is the percentage of high-performing organizations integrating talent acquisition professionals with other HR functions vs. low-performing organizations:

Career Management – 78% of high-performing organizations vs. 18% of low-performing organizations

Talent Management – 52% of high-performing organizations vs. 31% of low-performing organizations

Learning & Development – 49% of high-performing organizations vs. 24% of low-performing organizations

Calls to action include:

·??????Incorporate talent acquisition in career development conversations on internal mobility

·??????Encourage recruiters to build strong relationships with the business to develop an understanding of the talent that will satisfy current and future roles

·??????Leverage technology to facilitate information sharing across HR functions (talent, performance, learning, and career)

Internal Recruiting Successes

In 2021, SmartRecruiters launched its Internal Recruiting Awards.?Talent acquisition teams from across the globe submitted entries that highlight how they are transforming their companies with their internal recruiting programs. Here are highlights from two of the three winners:

AdventHealth, a North American healthcare provider with 80,000 employees in nine states started an Internal Mobility Program to offer services to guide employees through the application and selection process.?They provide ongoing and personal support for every internal candidate to be in a role that best suits their interests and skills. In addition to these communication initiatives, employees can ask for resume reviews, interview tips, and other career advancement questions. ?AdventHealth is highly regarded within the recruitment industry, see their Internal Recruitment website.

Amentum, a global technology, and engineering service provider with 80,000 employees, brought their talent acquisition and talent management team together to create Talent Hub. Their platform is a place where employees can store their aspirations, skills, and experiences as well as receive job matches. Their hub enables proactive sourcing by making skills searchable for internal recruiters.?All profiles are blinded out and sources are anonymous to remove bias and protect confidentiality. Since launch, current employees are now their top source of hires.

Salesforce

In this LinkedIn Talent blog, Richard Liddington, then director of international internal recruitment at Salesforce, shares how they built an effective internal recruiting program. There is a team of 50 members dedicated to developing current talent and internal recruiting which is separate from external recruiting.?Salesforce built the program on its five pillars of internal recruiting:?consistency, compliance, transparency, equality, and retention.

There are three requirements for internal movement:?time-in-seat (18-24 months), performance (high marks), and support from their manager. ?They expect their managers to have 1:1 meetings, quarterly?check-ins, and career conversations to understand their direct reports’ goals.?Their internal recruiters are also part recruiter and part career coach, not just filling requisitions but looking to future roles.?If internal candidates are unsuccessful, hiring managers tell them why in partnership with their current managers.?

Salesforce also has a team of internal recruiters who focus solely on employees from underrepresented groups.?This “Talent Partners” team serves as career coaches, helping them understand career paths, building a network of career sponsors, and identifying opportunities aligned with their goals. At Salesforce, the best bosses build reputations by developing their top talent and exporting them to bigger roles.

Internal Recruiting Tools

LinkedIn announced new tools in October 2022, to promote the hiring of internal candidates.?On LinkedIn Recruiter, the company created a spotlight for internal candidates.?On the LinkedIn Learning Hub, they give employees an option to set career goals, assess their skills, and follow day-to-day role guides for positions of interest.?Also, they are sharing open jobs from members’ current employers in the LinkedIn Jobs tab.?I know because I’ve seen them.

Some other internal recruiting tool providers include:

·??????Fuel 50

·??????Lever

·??????Greenhouse

·??????SmartRecruiters

·??????iCIMS

We will cover technologies in more detail as the seventh model element later in this newsletter series.

Questions for You

·??????What internal recruiting shifts have you seen or experienced?

·??????What steps did the organization take?

·??????What was the outcome?

Please share your thoughts or experiences with readers related to internal recruiting in the comments section below.

Our next issue will focus on the “Auditing Current Skills” element of my Career Mobility model.