Finding Internal Candidates

In a perfect world, the employer will adhere to formal internal-recruitment policies and procedures. These typically rely heavily on job posting and on the firm’s skills inventories. Job posting means publicizing the open job to employees (usually by literally posting it on company intranets or bulletin boards). These postings list the job’s attributes, like qualifications, supervisor, work schedule, and pay rate.

Qualifications skills inventories may reveal to the company’s recruiters those employees who have the right background for the open job. Ideally, the employer’s internal-recruitment system therefore matches the best inside candidate with the job. In practice, this doesn’t always happen. For better or worse, internal politics and having the right connections may well lead to placements that seem (and indeed may be) unfair and suboptimal.

Rehiring someone who left has pros and cons. Former employees are known quantities and are already familiar with how you do things. On the other hand, employees who you let go may return with negative attitudes. Inquire (before rehiring) about what they did during the layoff and how they feel about returning. After a probationary period, credit them with the years of service they had accumulated before they left.