Internal Job Postings - The Intention and The Reality

Seeding a new team with some seasoned resources or providing a career path for the employees. The mechanism of hiring talent from within the company for new roles is a critical cog in the wheel of talent mobility.

While it seems to be a perfect win-win solution for the employer and the employee, it looks like the receipt for the “happily ever after” tale. However, the realities on the ground tend to be different if not well planned and well executed.

From a people practices standpoint, an IJP is an opportunity to drive further employee engagement and a critical aspect of the Performance Management System within an organization. Rewarding the employee with new opportunities for learning and growth.

What we have observed?

1.      In most organizations, IJP applications are invited from all the eligible candidates, based on their level of the current post they are holding. No matter in whichever domain you might be working right now. For example, if you are working in a health insurance related operations in an ITES company you would be eligible to apply for a role related to servicing an Ecommerce client. Eventually in most of the cases, it is found that such a candidate is not selected because his/her expertise is in a different domain.

What do we recommend?

1.      Reduce the applicant pool- The organization can save a lot of heart burn by having a clear criteria for application and define the non negotiables for the role. If people from different domains can’t be considered, then the IJP should be kept limited to the specific teams where the required skill exists within the company. There is no point in inviting applications from all the processes and all the locations. In an effort to look democratic you would end up pissing off a large section of your workforce. It would also save a lot of time, effort and consequently costs for the organization to have a more streamlined application process.

2.      Think through your internal hiring strategy- The other thing that seems to be missing is context. We understand that for mid management and leadership roles you would want to open it up across the organization, but what are the bets that a junior associate doing customer services at Bangalore would actually be selected for a role in Seattle within the same company. Hence, time to do away with the “One size fit all” approach.

3.      Transparency and Communication- While we spoke with employer trying to be democratic, in most cases it is perceived as a façade by employees due to lack of transparency. This has a lot to do with communication within the organization, the HR department along with the senior leaders need to over-communicate about the entire process and it should not be a one time activity. The applicants need to be informed timely about the progress of their candidature and also the overall process. This would keep anxiety and speculation at bay.

After all, you don’t want a tool which ideally is to be used for employee motivation becoming reason for the organization losing its top talent.

Hope this helps people who are looking to devise an effective internal hiring process.