Hiring from within can be a boon for business - SmartBrief

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Hiring from within can be a boon for business

3 min read

Restaurant and Foodservice

This guest post is by SmartBrief‘s corporate recruiter, Elmira Shahzeidi.

Finding good managers who possess effective leadership, communication and delegation skills can play a vital role in higher productivity and lower turnover. Many organizations struggle to find the perfect balance and should consider promoting from within. The solution-minded and driven individual who you seek could be right under your nose. There are many reasons why hiring internally makes good business sense, but there also are challenges to consider.

Advantages

  • Builds company morale and sends a positive message that there is room for career advancement.
  • Shows appreciation, which helps retain top talent. Employees who feel cared for and appreciated will want to contribute more and work harder.
  • Internal candidates have already proven themselves and have showcased their skills, abilities and work ethic.
  • Current employees are already well-versed in how the business is run. They understand and fit in with the company culture and require less of a learning curve.
  • Saves the company time and money spent on recruiting and training an external candidate.

Challenges

  • The sought-after skill set may not exist within your current organization.
  • There might be hurt feelings, resentment and disappointment of current employees who did not get selected. This can discourage employees and decrease productivity or cause loss of talent.
  • It can inhibit new ideas and a fresh prospective. Although current employees understand your business, a new approach and perspective may be most beneficial, depending on the specific role and company strategy.
  • It can create a sense of false entitlement. If promoting from within becomes the norm, then current employees may feel that they are entitled to advancement and may feel resentment or not valued if they are not promoted.
  • The announcement of a new open position and interview/selection process must remain unbiased. Many companies may already have an internal candidate in mind, however, they need to make sure to give all employees a fair chance to apply and truly review their qualifications, prior to making a decision.

Hiring from within for any open position, especially management, can be a very powerful tactic. Serious consideration needs to be given to the process in which the position is announced, interviews are conducted, skills are evaluated and selections are made. More importantly, it is critical to handle the employees who were not selected for the role with care and provide them with constructive feedback. In my experience, managers across the entire company need to encourage upward movement and reassure their direct reports to grow internally. A companywide understanding needs to be established, so that both the employee and their manager do not feel awkward when wanting to pursue another internal opportunity.

SmartPulse — our weekly reader poll in Restaurant SmartBrief — tracks feedback from restaurant owners and managers about trends and issues.

Last week’s poll question: How do you find good managers?

56.25% — Promotions from within
18.75% — Job postings
11.25% — Other
7.5% — Local schools or training programs
6.25% — Social networks, such as LinkedIn

Leave a comment. Share your thoughts on hiring from within.