External recruitment vs internal recruitment

External recruitment

It is often associated only with the commissioning of recruitment to a HR consulting company, although in fact it is all activities undertaken by HR specialists in order to find the best candidates. External recruitment gives you the opportunity to reach: a wide range of diverse candidates or extremely gifted people who have extraordinary qualifications. It brings great effects in the case of recruitment, e.g. for positions requiring certain specialist knowledge or for managerial positions for which it is difficult to find the right person among the employed staff. A new employee usually brings a fresh look at certain processes taking place in the company (e.g. he can use solutions that he used in previous workplaces, improve the processes of performing certain activities). Moreover, thanks to external recruitment, the employer has the opportunity to build his position on the labor market. And the title of a reliable employer will surely attract the attention of the best.

We start external recruitment with its detailed planning. Prepare a precise description of the position and expectations towards the candidates. The most frequently used method is an interview. Knowledge and psychological tests can provide additional information about the candidates; Assessment Center giving the opportunity to observe the behavior of candidates in various situations (we can check the ability to work in a group, whether the candidate shows the qualities of a leader, can he cope with the pressure of time and exposure, etc.).

Disadvantages:

- external recruitment can be costly and time-consuming (you have to prepare an advertisement, bear the costs of its publication, review dozens of CVs, thoroughly prepare for and conduct job interviews; in the end: make a decision to hire only the information that we can obtain during recruitment)

- the risk of dissatisfaction and conflicts among the company's employees caused by the promotion of an external person and failure to take into account the expectations of employees

- problems with the new person's adaptation to the new conditions or the lack of acceptance of the new team member, which may lead to a reduction in the work efficiency of the entire group

- costs related to an incorrect recruitment decision (here the costs are borne by the candidate: if he does not find himself in the new circumstances and is dismissed, it may affect his self-assessment, faith in his own abilities and competences; on the other hand, the employer will have to bear the costs of re-recruitment).

Internal recruitment

If we decide to use this method, we should first edit the content of the recruitment announcement, which should contain such elements as: name of the position, scope of duties, description of expectations towards candidates. You can add information on the place in the structure of the organization and reporting, and if the company has a transparent salary grid, we can provide the amount of remuneration. The next step is to inform employees about the recruitment. For this purpose, you can use the internal computer communication system or place an advertisement on information boards. An interesting idea is also to place an advertisement in the employee bulletin. Information about the vacancy is public and all employees have access to it. In large companies, it is possible to narrow down the target group of recipients of the message to administration employees, a selected department, or send an offer to a few selected people who have the potential already diagnosed by the HR department. Then we conduct an interview with employees who volunteered to participate in our recruitment.

The advantage of internal recruitment is good knowledge of the candidates. If the company has a system of periodic appraisals (and additionally the HR department is responsible for planning employee career paths), we have excellent knowledge of the candidate's competences, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, etc. In such a situation, it is enough to examine the candidate's motivation to change. Sometimes it happens that we come across seemingly motivated candidates for whom a change over time would affect their performance. From here, it is just a step away from frustration and looking for a new job due to the excess of responsibilities that he cannot cope with. Therefore, it is very important to analyze with the candidate his current position in the company and assess whether he is actually ready for such a "revolution".

Internal recruitment builds morale among employees: they get a signal that they are valuable to the company, that the employer appreciates their competences and focuses on their development. From the employee's perspective, transferring him / her to another department is perceived as a horizontal promotion, which gives him the opportunity to acquire new competences and develop in new areas. Provided that such a shift is consistent with his expectations and interests. And a promotion to a higher position is even an ennoblement. It is important to properly diagnose the managerial competences of such a person and their mental resilience during the vertical promotion. A person who becomes a supervisor may be removed or harassed by the group in which they worked.

Disadvantages:

- limiting the inflow of new talent to the company (as a consequence, it may stop the company's development)

- weakening of the team or department in which the candidate recruited in internal recruitment functioned (especially in the case when the group loses several talented people - smaller companies should take into account this risk).