7 Reasons NOT to IGNORE Your Internal Candidates

June of this year, our company had a referral event. When I spoke to an internal employee, I was asked why we do not have a strategy in place to recruit our own talent? The employee said he receives several calls from other recruiters expressing interest in his skill set, but very few from his own talent acquisition team. I looked at him puzzled. In my mind we did have a strategy in place to hire and promote internal employees. After thinking about it for a minute, however, I realized he may not have seen the behind the scenes’ efforts that the recruitment team has in place. I started to realize that internal employees were feeling ignored as they watch us continue to recruit outside of the company. I have always been a strong believer in hiring from within. There are undeniable benefits that come from hiring people from the iniside.

Here are 7 reasons why I believe hiring internal employees is very beneficial to your company.

1) They know your business.

2) They know your culture/values.

3) They have already proven themselves.

4) You do not need to worry about candidate not showing up on first day or backing out last minute.

5) It increases employee moral knowing they have growth opportunity

6) There is a better opportunity to keep your top producers. They will be less likely to answer the phone when a competitor calls offering the job they could be doing for you.

7) Other top producers at other companies will see growth potential in your company and will have more motivation to work for you.

It is hard for some employers to see past the initial pain of finding a replacement of the talent that has moved internally. The question you need to ask yourself is, would you rather this employee take their skills to another company, or keep producing at a high level for you but in a different role? There is always the initial thrill and excitement to a new job, but once the “rubber hits the road”, how do you keep these employees engaged and excited to come into work? There are many different answers to this question, but one important answer is that you give them the opportunity to develop their careers and skill sets. It is almost a guarantee other companies are trying to recruit your top producers, and if you are not presenting them with various growth paths, then they will be more likely to leave.

The bottom line is everyone needs to feel wanted and appreciated. I have screened thousands of candidates, and I always ask why they are leaving their current employer. The most common answer candidates give when they make a job change is that they want a bigger challenge. They do not feel their skills are being put to good use.

After you have this mindset of recruiting your own employees, the next challenge is finding the proper way to do it. It is a best practice to have certain guidelines in place, and it will be up to the employer to determine these guidelines. Employees at all levels in the company need to be on board with this strategy of growth. If you cannot get your managers to adopt this mindset, they will never make their employees feel it is okay to explore other opportunities in the company. This mindset needs to start at executive level and flow throughout the entire organization.

People will always find other reasons to leave a company, but in order to give yourself a more competitive edge in the market, you need to do everything in your power to keep your best employees.

7 Reasons NOT to IGNORE Your Internal Candidates