Internal and External recruitment

Recruiting employees can be a somewhat precarious process. With the exorbitant cost of hiring and training an employee with job and soft skills matching the job description, making a mistake in this arena can substantially harm net profit for the entire year. One major consideration in recruitment is whether to hire externally or promote from within your organization. There are advantages to either method of filling openings.

Internal Recruitment
An internal recruitment strategy is characterized by promoting employees from within an organization to fill upcoming positions. Many firms use such devices as job posting boards, email flashes, intranet posts and fliers to advise existing employees of positions they may vie for. This recruitment may be in the form of creating and shuffling temporary teams to fill certain tasks or may be permanent changes. Internal recruitment may be primarily horizontal or it may be for promotions in which the promoted employee's former position may not be filled.

External Recruitment
An external recruitment strategy is one which a human resources department will systematically search the employee pool outside its own employees to fill positions. Many firms will use advertisements in newspapers, job search websites, job fairs and referrals from current employees to fill positions. Some companies will utilize a temporary employee agency to fill positions that can be completed quickly and with less company-specific skill required to complete the desired task. Other firms will use headhunters or hiring consultants to seek, screen and deliver employees for a fee.

Advantages of Internal Recruitment
Internal recruitment has some natural advantages. You do not have to "reinvent the wheel" with an internal recruit. He will likely understand your business model, your culture and your processes before assuming the new position. The resulting outcome is that he will assimilate into the new position faster than a new employee who will need to be trained on the many formalities of your firm from benefits to where your fire exits are before he can begin job-specific training. These employees take longer to find, longer to train, more money to prepare for the job and may not fully integrate into your culture after all of the training process. Often, the opportunity to advance provides a strong motivation in a firm that employs a strong internal recruitment strategy.

Advantages of External Recruitment
External recruitment also has some substantial advantages. Unlike internal recruits, you are getting an inflow of often completely new ideas with an employee who has not been exposed or overexposed to your corporate culture. An outside prospect often yields new ideas. She may bring information or methodologies from her former employer that can be integrated into your best practices. Internal job pools may cause problems with a larger company's diversity mix, and lead to problems with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in terms of promoting a diverse workplace. External job recruiting allows for rebalancing in this realm if needed. External recruiting may lead to team stability, as teams may remain intact when hiring externally.