Internal hiring | A solution to recruitment issues, but employers must be more transparent

It’s no surprise that in the last few years employers have witnessed a tumultuous job market. It became evident that an important aspect of remaining powerful against competitors is having a strong workforce and talented staff with the best skills and knowledge in the field.

This became increasingly challenging as employee sentiments and attitudes towards work changed, many skilled employees retiring from work altogether. The job market, which employers had once felt they had all the power in, had shifted dramatically, and experts started to refer to what they were seeing as a ‘war for talent’ - emphasising the struggle businesses were having to adequately fill roles.

The term ‘war for talent’ isn’t a new phrase and was coined by Steven Hankin from Mckinsey & Co in 1997 to describe a ‘war’ for senior executive talent, which he said will become “a defining characteristic of their competitive landscape for decades to come". This prediction was – of course – accurate, but the war for best candidates hasn’t only been unique to those sitting around a boardroom table.

The focus so far to aid this ‘war for talent’ has been to increase perks and offerings for employees, improve employer branding, make the candidate process more appealing, or increase job role salaries. Yet, these changes don’t always guarantee a positive company-candidate fit.