Written by Sometimes, the right person to occupy a particular job can be the employee within the organization. This is called the internal source of recruitment
To formally define it, internal recruitment is a type of recruitment where applicants applying for various roles in the organization are currently employed by the same organization.
It is a form of recruitment where those filling vacant job positions are people who are existing employees.
Internal recruitment means filling vacancies through current employees of an organization.
Types of Internal Recruitment
1. Promotion: This is perhaps the most-known source of recruitment.
Promotion is the process of upgrading an employee to a position of higher rank, responsibility, authority, and prestige within the organization.
It is a vertical move in rank and responsibility, in which an employee moves up the corporate ladder into a higher-level role.
For instance, an assistant manager can be promoted to the position of a manager, or a manager can be promoted to a director.
Promotion is a common form of recruitment used by numerous organizations to fill higher-level job positions.
This method of recruitment is effective in retaining, motivating, and enhancing the job satisfaction of employees.
It is important to note that promotion does not always result in a pay raise.
A dry promotion is a promotion that does not come with a pay increase.
In dry promotion, an individual is promoted into a position that carries comes more responsibility, status, and authority. However, there is no corresponding increase in salary.
2. Transfers: This type of internal recruitment involve shifting a person from one job to another that is similar.
It involves moving an employee from one job to another job, one department to another, or from one branch to another branch in the organization.
In a transfer, a worker is shifted to a different job within the organization, but the rank and compensation of the new job are generally equal to the previous job.
For instance, an employee in the marketing department can be transferred to the sales department.
As an important form of recruitment, transfer has many benefits.
First, it allows the organization to address the grievances of dissatisfied employees who may be unhappy with their current jobs.
Secondly, transfers can be used for employee training. For example, If the organization wants to improve employee skills, they can transfer employees across different departments to broaden their knowledge and experience.
Thirdly, employee transfers can also be used to avoid employee termination.
Instead of dismissing an employee due to poor performance, a manager may transfer that employee to another department to give them a second chance. This can help retain employees within the organization, rather than losing them completely.
Finally, employee transfers may be used to fill a shortage of personnel in a particular department.
For example, If one department has surplus personnel, and another has a personnel shortage, some personnel from the department with surplus personnel may be transferred to the department with a shortage of personnel.
3. Demotion: Demotion is a process of downgrading an employee to a position that carries lower responsibilities, status, and sometimes lower compensation compared to their current position.
Employees who have consistently performed poorly or failed to meet the performance standards of their existing job may be demoted to help the employee attain their full potential and to avoid the risk of termination.
Demotion usually serves as a source of recruitment for lower positions in the organization.
For instance, an employee who is demoted from a managerial position due to poor performance can be recruited for a lower-level role, such as a coordinator or an assistant, that better suits their skill set.
4. Internal Job Postings: This is a job posting/advertisement that is only open to internal candidates for consideration.
An internal job posting is a job posting/advertisement that is exclusively available to current employees within an organization.
Companies can post job vacancies on internal job boards, or circulate job postings to employees via email or other communication channels.
When a job is opened internally, external candidates who may have slipped through the racks in the recruitment process will not be selected for the job.
5. Employee referral: This is one of the most cost-effective sources of recruiting employees.
As the name seems to suggest, employee referral is a form of recruitment in which the organization recruits employees through the reference of current employees.
It is a form of recruitment in which a company encourages its existing employees to refer their friends, colleagues, or network for open job positions.
In most cases, the company offers incentives to employees who successfully refer a candidate who is hired.
Advantages of Internal Recruitment
1. Encourage employee commitment and loyalty: Internal recruitment creates employees’ loyalty and engagement by assuring employees that they would be preferred over outsiders should vacancies arise.
When an organization promotes or hires from within, existing employees are encouraged to commit and stay loyal to the company because they know that they have opportunities for career advancement or promotion.
2. Saves time and energy: In internal recruitment, those recruited already have an idea of how the organization works.
It saves time and energy because individuals recruited already have prior knowledge of the operation, processes, and culture of the organization
So, the time and energy that would have been expended on orienting, training, and developing new recruits are saved by recruiting internally.
Aside from that, the company saves money by not having to pay for job postings, agency fees, and other forms of advertising that are common with external recruitment.
3. Encourages hard work: Internal recruitment provides additional motivation to work hard.
Since internal recruitment provides opportunities for advancement in the organization, it encourages employees to work hard and perform well to earn these opportunities
For instance, if employees are aware of the organization’s “promotion programs”, they will work diligently to win this promotion.
4. Reduces the possibility of selection errors: Internal recruitment reduces the chances of error in selection since the organization already has a good understanding of the candidate’s core competencies and work experience.
Additionally, the likelihood of maladjustment is lower since the candidate is already familiar with the company’s work environment.
In fact, most companies use internal recruitment to fill high-profile positions because it is a reliable form of recruitment as basic information about the candidate is already known.
5. Improves overall employee morale: Internal recruitment boosts employee morale because they know that they will be recruited to fill high-level positions within the company when vacancies arise.
It offers employees the opportunity for career advancement within the organization.
Disadvantages Of Internal Recruitment
1. Discourages fresh blood: It usually discourages new blood from being injected into the organization as the recruitment process is usually limited to internal employees.
When recruitment is restricted to internal candidates, there may be a tendency to keep the status quo and not consider outside perspectives and innovations that could benefit the company
2. Result in inbreeding: Internal recruitment may lead to “inbreeding” within an organization, whereby the organization continues to recruit existing employees who do things the same way they have always done them, resulting in a lack of creative expression for corporate improvement.
When internal recruitment is continuously used, employees may become complacent and comfortable doing things the way they have always done them without considering new and innovative ideas from external sources, leading to stagnation in the organization’s operations.
3. Unsuitable for small organizations: Internal recruitment may not be the best option for small organizations due to the limited pool of candidates available from which to choose.
With fewer employees, the chances of finding the right person for a particular role may be more challenging.
In addition, internal recruitment is not also suitable for new organizations because such organizations may need to recruit new people to fill their vacant positions.
Also, no organization can fill all their vacant positions through internal recruitment solely.
At some point in time, an organization may need to turn to external recruitment to bring in new perspectives and experiences.
4. Possibility of hiring incompetent personnel: Because seniority is a major determinant of most internal recruitment methods, this type of recruitment may result in the hiring of inefficient and unqualified employees.
5. Demotivates employees: Employees may get demotivated if there are not promoted as when due.
When employees works hard and contributes positively to the organization, they expect recognition in the form of a promotion or other incentives.
However, if these promotions do not come, then the employee may start to feel undervalued and unappreciated, leading to frustration and demotivation.
6. Possibility of internal conflict: Internal recruitment can create opportunities for employees to advance within the organization, but it can also lead to internal conflict if there are perceived inequalities in the recruitment and selection process.
When employees feel that the recruitment process was not done fairly, and some employees were given preferential treatment, resentment, internal conflict and animosity can develop, leading to negative work environment.
7. Create vacancies: Internal recruitment also creates vacancies in the organization. For example, if someone is promoted or transferred, then the position from which he is promoted or transferred becomes vacant.
8. Internal recruitment is not appropriate for all job openings: Internal recruitment is not always appropriate for all job openings, particularly those that require creative thinking and innovation.
In such cases, an organization may need to recruit external candidates who have different perspectives, skills, and experiences to infuse new ideas and approaches into the organization.
