Question

In terms of recruitment sources, discuss the importance of internal and external recruiting. More specifically, under what circumstances is internal recruiting preferable? When is external recruiting advantageous?

Answer 1

Recruitment simply means action taken to enlist new people for a new or existing task/job. Recruitment can take place through an external, which means from outside the organization or internally. which means from within the organization. Let us discuss when each of these sources is preferred.

Internal Recruitment is beneficial in many ways and doing it at the right time plays an important role. Internal hiring is needed when:

- You have determined that having an insider’s perspective for the role would be beneficial and timely than an external perspective.
- You have an internal job posting platform so that current employees know what types of job is available, and they have a clear understanding of the next steps in their career path at your company.
- Evaluating the internal prospects and determining that the candidate up for promotion is truly qualified and not being favored for improper reasons.

Apart from the above internal hiring is also helpful in the following ways:

- Reduce training costs: By recruiting internally you save on the costs associated with training new employees. Although training might be required in terms of operations/business specifically, you save on orientation and other training programs.

- Morale booster: An employee's morale is boosted when you are offered a job within the organization because of experience and good performance delivered by them. This improves their loyalty towards the organization as well.

- Save costs related to job postings and screening: You save costs because you do not have to invest time in interviewing candidates who might not be qualified.

- Reduce employee turnover: Unplanned turnover is mostly negative and shows that something is wrong within an organization. By hiring internally by matching the skill sets and providing them a job opportunity that they might like, you increase the chances of them staying with the organization longer.

External hiring is nothing but hiring someone from outside. This is advantageous when:

- External hiring can bring in someone who can bring in new ideas and new ways of doing things.
- You have a wider prospect to recruit so that you recruit the best workers with the most suitable skills.
- Hiring externally means you do not miss the chance to hire people with new skills and ideas.
- External hiring can be economical in terms of job training needed as they might be already trained and experienced.