Employers of all sizes have had to overcome challenges with recruiting and retaining talent in recent years. Various reports and studies have revealed recruiting to be one of the biggest business goals in the coming years.
However, organizations have struggled to attract and recruit job seekers to their organization as the candidate market has become more competitive. Small employers in particular face significant challenges when it comes to hiring talent.
We have written before about some of the strategies employers can use to help achieve their hiring goals. And while these should be taken into consideration and implemented if possible, a recent study from Gartner found another way for organizations to help achieve recruiting goals – turn to their internal labor market.
WHY SHOULD EMPLOYERS TURN TO THEIR INTERNAL LABOR MARKET?
Given the extremely competitive nature of the job market today, employers should take a close look at their internal labor pool and explore ways to develop current employees for future positions.
At their recent ReimagineHR conference, Gartner experts highlighted the value of employers looking internally to fill roles.
Businesses that use internal recruiting see a 33% increase in employee intent to stay with their employer. The experts also revealed that these activities result in a 27% increase in employee willingness to go above and beyond at work.
It was also highlighted that internal hires tend to perform better than external candidates in various aspects, including:
- Attendance
- Collaboration
- Meeting expectations
These performance improvements lead to 10% fewer regretted hiring decisions for employers, which can be a big time and resource savings.
WHAT ARE SOME POTENTIAL BARRIERS TO INTERNAL HIRING?
In addition to the data released during the ReimagineHR conference, other Gartner resources have shed light on internal hiring benefits and challenges.
Their 2018 Global Talent Monitor report showed that a lack of future career opportunities is one of (if not the top) reason employees leave an employer in most major economies.
Additionally, data from a 2017 Gartner study found that 41% of employees who left their company said that lack of career growth was their number 1 reason for doing so. This was higher than even compensation which came in at 36%.
However, Gartner said that employers are having issues trying to hire internally at a greater pace. They also found three common barriers that current employees face with their internal hiring processes:
- Visibility
- Cultural Norms
- Skills
You can check out the full summary from Gartner to learn more about these barriers, some statistics around them, and what they mean for employers.
HOW CAN EMPLOYERS IMPROVE INTERNAL RECRUITING?
Gartner also provides recommended steps and strategies employers should take when trying to make internal hiring more common within the organization.
They stress that processes, norms, and infrastructures need to be developed in order for internal recruiting to be successful.
Additionally, there are three key initiatives that employers should focus on when looking to enhance their internal recruiting strategies:
- Push the right jobs to employees
- Ease the path to participation
- Structured employee development
It’s important for organizations and business leaders who want to focus more on internal hiring to establish an impactful learning and development program that will help get employees ready for future roles within an organization.
Without a structured L&D program, employers may find it difficult to meet employee expectations around career development. This could lead to higher turnover within the organization.
LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT HELPS FOSTER AN INTERNAL LABOR MARKET
The data from Gartner further illustrates the important role learning and development programs have in modern HR. They help to build employee engagement and improvement happiness while preparing employees for future leadership roles within their organization.
Small employers, too, stand to benefit from implementing learning and development programs, which can help to create a strong internal recruiting process!
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