How To Assess Your Internal Hiring Strategy

Struggling to make your internal hiring strategy work? Maybe it’s time to stop being complacent and act. 

Finding the right talent is an evergreen challenge. It's like acquiring a new client. The struggle is incomprehensible on several levels. For instance, there is a shortage of qualified, experienced hires, but many times, even qualified or experienced hires are less skilled than expected. There could be a mismatch of employee-employer expectations. Most managers feel fresh graduates need the right attitude to thrive in a company. They must become more adept with complex thinking, collaboration, and teamwork.

The workforce has gone through a massive transformation. Today's workers seek career paths, organizational support (flexibility, work-life balance), equal participation, open communication, and more asynchronous working methods. The job market has picked up after the pandemic. There are opportunities and intense competition. For these reasons, employers have been forced to rethink their talent acquisition and retention strategy.  Internal mobility has gained momentum. It has become a part of nearly every C-suite discussion table.

The idea of internal hiring is not novel for employers, but its execution has gone through several iterations in the last couple of years. These iterations have stemmed from pertinent questions like – Are we doing it right? Is our internal hiring strategy working correctly? Has it effectively reduced employee turnover? If not, what’s driving our workers to look outside? Where are we going wrong?  

Let’s understand the dilemma around ‘internal recruitment’– how to ensure if you are heading in the right direction? 

1. Make internal mobility part of the system 

In our blog on staffing shortages, we discussed that instead of viewing internal hiring as a separate function, it should be considered part of the system, and every leader at the top should root for it. Leaders should not shy away from: 

• Identifying workers with exemplary potential 

• Creating lucrative internal positions  

• Establishing a relationship of trust, so workers apply fearlessly 

• Having conversations around career progression 

• Promoting mentoring culture and helping workers achieve their goals. 

Internal recruitment should be embedded in every organization’s HR strategy. When companies focus on the learning and development of their workers, provide them with opportunities to grow, encourage them to diversify, and up-skill them timely, workers seldom look outside. 

2. Think from an eagle’s point of view

One of the significant reasons why the internal talent pipeline doesn’t work and fails to bring down employee turnover is that employers are too focused on tiny details and completely miss the bigger picture. That is why before putting your internal talent mobility into action, it’s essential to evaluate it on the following parameters –  

• Is your internal recruitment strategy aligned with your business goals? 
• Do you have the right parameters to measure your internal mobility strategy? 
• Is there enough transparency for your workers to access the internal job postings?
• Is your middle-level management supportive of the internal movement of their best performers?
• Have you groomed your managers to train workers around skills required to advance in the company? Do they support open communication?
• Are your managers and workers fully aware of the skills and competence needed to move up the internal talent pipeline?
• Does your organization believe in empowering workers? Do you have mentoring culture? 

3. Talent mobility metrics to consider for effective outcome 

Associating performance indicators with your strategy is a highly effective way to determine if you are heading in the right direction and ticking all the boxes. One of the most important KPIs to consider here is the ‘percentage of vacancies filled by internal candidates.’ This metric alone speaks volumes about how successful is your internal talent pipeline. But be mindful of the following: 

• If 50% of the vacancies are being filled internally – are the profiles coming through diverse? Are they coming from different departments or just one department?  
• Are workers sticking around after moving to a new role? Are they excited? Is there any change in employee turnover? 
• Where are your internal references coming from? Middle management or lower management?  

4. Empowering HR leaders to go an extra mile 

In high-performing organizations, talent management sits at the heart of every discussion. HR leaders know precisely what talent, skills, and competence will be needed to reach a specific outcome and how to scout that talent internally. But for a successful turnaround, HR leaders cannot work alone. They require support from the top and should work with the managers to identify the need, create opportunities, and find potential candidates internally to apply for those opportunities. Job postings alone may not be sufficient. They need to nudge promising workers to look beyond, aspire for more, and be aware of their potential. And those workers who are voluntarily coming forward should not be discouraged. They should be thoroughly assessed along with others on set parameters and given a fair chance to apply.  

The role of HR is that of a catalyst. HR leaders should be empowered to go the extra mile if they want their internal hiring strategy to work effectively. 

4. Infusing DEI into your organization’s internal recruitment strategy 

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) allow workers equal access to growth opportunities and resources and equal rights to thrive within the organization. Though DEI and internal talent mobility are not directly linked, the former plays a crucial role in successfully implementing the latter. Integrating DEI with internal hiring presents a unique opportunity to support workers of different races, ethnicity, nationality, gender identity, LGBTQ+ status, socioeconomic strata, abilities, religions, and ages. It enables them to build local networks, engage in more inclusive conversations. DEI opens up a pathway to cross-cultural experiences, brings diverse perspectives to the table, and promotes fresh thinking, ideas, skills, and equitable outcomes. The framework enriches the very fabric of a company and presents a significant opportunity for businesses to stand out by providing a compelling proposition for attracting and retaining talent. Majority of the workers today consider DEI as an important parameter to stick around in a company.  

When planning to infuse DEI into your internal talent pipeline, keep in mind the following: 

• Is your internal recruitment strategy designed to promote transparency, objectivity, and equity? 
• Do you have fair and equitable criteria for internal movement? 
• Are you using technology or tools to identify and mitigate unconscious bias? 
• Is your internal hiring process adept at meet the demands of a diverse workforce? 
  

Conclusion 

If you want your internal hiring strategy to work, your effort must go up. The intent to nurture and empower workers and help them prosper is essential. Employers must find ways to establish a diverse, inclusive, and growth-oriented system. Reinventing the wheel won’t work. Make internal mobility a priority. HR leaders should work with other departments to plan, strategize and take more concerted action in building an effective system.  

If you don’t want to lose your talented workforce to competitors and are looking for ways to establish a steady and reliable internal talent pipeline, our professionals at Premier Staffing Solution can help you get started.