UK 
United States
Internal mobility is the “dynamic internal process for moving talent from role to role”. For many successful organisations it lies not only the centre of a well rounded recruitment strategy, but also at the heart of company culture itself.
Research has shown that a strong internal hiring strategy could have numerous advantages for your business. There is robust evidence which shows that retaining staff can have a positive effect on customer satisfaction, production, efficiency, sales, financial performance, error rates and absenteeism. Essentially if you want virtually any area of your business to be successful, an internal mobility strategy is crucial.
For the internal recruitment team, the benefits can be tremendous as well. Hiring internally can accelerate time to hire, reduce cost of hire, improve on-boarding time and enhance quality of hire. So, why don’t more organisations have an internal hiring strategy? And for those that do, what are the barriers to recruiting internally?
Company culture can be a huge barrier
Outdated company culture can be a huge barrier to both creating an internal hiring strategy and implementing it. Senior executives may be opposed to promoting employees they previously managed to a similar level; and mid-level managers may not want to lose their top talent to other departments. A trickle-down effect can easily put off employees from applying for internal roles. Employees don’t want to upset line or senior managers.
The second major barrier is often outdated technology. Legacy recruitment software can be difficult to integrate with internal systems, be it the intranet or the careers site. So the ATS can inadvertently deter internal applications, by preventing internal staff from seeing the vacancy in the first place.
It can also prevent recruitment teams from proactively seeking candidates from within. Legacy ATS were designed in a linear fashion- from job posting through to offer acceptance. In modern businesses, this simply doesn’t provide enough value. If the successful candidate is not added to a talent pool of internal candidates, then it can hinder any attempt by the recruitment team to recruit proactively from within.
Find a solution to suit all stakeholders
So how can an organisation begin implementing an internal mobility strategy? First and foremost, the most important change is in the mentality of senior and mid-level management towards hiring internally. Without the support of these key stakeholders, any effort by the recruitment team to proactively source candidates from within the organisation is likely to fail.
The good news is that the second step to a successful internal mobility strategy is relatively easy. A modern recruitment system can facilitate promoting internal jobs by integrating with your careers site and/or intranet. Recruitment teams can choose to advertise exclusively to internal candidates, and easily configure job postings to require permission from relevant line managers. Upon application, internal candidates are immediately added to your talent pool of internal candidates, enabling recruiters to work proactively rather than reactively.
Learn More About Internal Mobility
Download our free whitepaper: Facilitating Internal Mobility in Large Organisations. Go to www.eploy.co.uk/mobility
More Top Resources
1. Get Your Candidate Experience Checked Against Industry Benchmarks
2. [eBook] Planning Your E-Recruitment Strategy
3. [eBook] Guide to Designing the Perfect Careers Site
4. [Video] How To Check If Your Careers Site is Mobile Responsive
5. [Datasheet] Dashboards for In House Recruiters
