10 steps to an efficient internal recruitment process

When you want to recruit new talent, there are several solutions you can use to find the right profile. You have the option of choosing external recruitment or hiring internally. With the last option, you value and promote your best employees while improving your employer brand. In addition, you save time and reduce expenses as well the process delay. So, do you want to set up an effective internal recruitment procedure within your company? Here are 10 steps you can take to make your project a success.

Determine the profile you are looking for

The first step in an effective internal recruitment procedure is the determination of the desired profile. It is important that you define your human resources needs as well as the profile of the ideal candidate for the position to be filled. You must therefore establish a persona by identifying the professional skills and qualities required, as well as the software and tools to master.

Create a job description

The second step in an effective internal recruitment process is to write a job description. This is an HR document that is used to describe the characteristics of the position to be filled. In other words, you must clearly and accurately present elements such as:

• The job title;
• The status or professional classification of the employee (manager, worker, ETAM);
• Missions and responsibilities;
• Professional skills, technical knowledge and human skills required;
• Working conditions (atmosphere, rhythm, location, etc.);
• Social benefits;
• The position of the new recruit in the hierarchy;
• Remuneration, etc.

The job description should be as complete as possible to provide candidates with all the necessary information. If you already have one, consider updating it.

Write an attractive job offer

Just like with external recruitment, writing a job offer is one of the main steps in the internal recruitment process. Once you have determined your needs, you must now express them in a recruitment advertisement. It should inform the candidates about the workplace, benefits, company culture, etc. All you have to do is highlight details such as missions, team, skills, etc. To successfully complete this phase of the internal recruitment process, you must include the following information in your job posting:

• The job title;
• The missions;
• The profile sought (soft skills, know-how, diplomas, etc.);
• Salary and hourly volume;
• The place of work;
• The type of employment contract;
• The date of taking up the post;
• Social benefits;
• The steps of the internal recruitment procedure, etc.

You will have noticed that it is a question of repeating the elements that you had put in your job description.

Communicate about recruitment within your company

Whether for internal or external recruitment, it is essential to advertise the job offer to find talent that meets your criteria. But the communication strategy differs from one system to another. For an internal recruitment method, you don’t need to use great means to make your ad visible.

The dissemination of the job offer in an internal recruitment procedure must be done to your employees. To do this, you must use all the internal communication channels available in the company:

• The corporate site;
• The internal newsletter;
• The intranet;
• Billboards located in offices and in common areas for employees;
• The company’s internal instant messaging (Slack, Discord, Teams, etc.);
• Word of mouth (the intervention of recruiters in the premises), etc.

You will take advantage of the interest of internal communication in the company and the employer brand to give maximum visibility to your job offer.

Get information about potential candidates

After the advertisement of the job offer, you have certainly received applications from your employees who are interested in the position to be filled. The next step in the internal recruitment process is to sort through their CVs and cover letters. However, to have more concrete information, you can contact the supervisor of each applicant.

It is also possible to ask for the opinion of other employees via a trusted platform of employee reviews. This way, you will know what they think of each candidate. Employee reviews will also help you make good decisions for the optimization of your internal recruitment process. In addition, they will show readers that you value the opinions of your teams, which will help improve your employer brand.

Prepare an interview grid

The job interview is a crucial step in the internal recruitment process. However, before meeting with applicants, you should prepare yourself so that each interview takes place in optimal conditions. It is therefore necessary to establish a questionnaire that you will use to interview the candidates. Each of the questions on this list must be related to the position (soft skills, motivations, skills, experiences, etc.). This means that you should avoid personal or embarrassing questions.

Your interview grid must include:

• The name and surname of the applicant to be interviewed;
• The questions you intend to ask (they may vary depending on the progress of the internal recruitment process, but they must be almost identical for all candidates);
• Evaluation of the employee’s responses as well as your comments.

With such a grid, you guarantee your employees fair treatment, which allows you to fight against the bad atmosphere at work. Using the list of questions, you will identify and rank the strengths of each candidate.

Organize job interviews

After preparing the grid, you can organize your job interviews. For this, you need to:

• Plan all the details of the appointment (location, equipment, etc.);
• Inform applicants of the date and time of the meeting so that they can prepare;
• Find several impartial recruiters for interviews to confront points of view when evaluating candidates.

During appointments, you should make sure to be as objective as possible and use the same tools to evaluate your employees.

Assess candidates’ skills

To succeed in your internal recruitment process, you must assess the professional skills of each candidate thoroughly and impartially. This step allows you to ensure that the employee you choose has all the required skills. Indeed, although it is an internal recruitment procedure, not all your employees are necessarily qualified for the position. Thanks to the evaluation, you avoid any casting mistakes. Similarly, you will be able to better guide the training that the selected employee will have to follow after taking up the position.

Like professional skills, soft skills must also be checked. You must control the applicant’s situational awareness, ability to improvise and adapt, leadership, etc.

Choosing the ideal candidate for the position

Once you have completed all the previous steps, you can now proceed to choose the employee who best matches the criteria of the job offer. For this decisive step in the internal recruitment process, you must demonstrate impartiality and objectivity.

As soon as you have determined the right candidate for the position to be filled, you need to start preparing for their entry into the position. Unlike the external recruitment system, you will not need to make large expenses in order to successfully onboard a new employee. This is one of the advantages of internal recruitment in companies.

However, you can arrange a meeting between the successful applicant and their new team. This facilitates their integration and gives you insight about their adaptability. The candidate must also be made to sign an employment contract or a promise of employment.

Inform rejected candidates

Regarding the candidates you have refused, it is crucial to warn them and explain the reasons for your decision. Be transparent and honest in this phase of the internal recruitment process. In this way, you give the employees concerned the opportunity to improve for other jobs.

It is advisable to give your negative feedback during an interview so that applicants can ask questions. You can also take the opportunity to measure the effectiveness of your internal recruitment procedure by conducting a satisfaction survey. To do this, you can use a sample employee satisfaction survey. Ask your candidates what you need to correct in the future and the phases of the application process when they felt uncomfortable. You will have all the necessary information to improve the candidate experience.

The importance of employee satisfaction surveys in companies also lies in the fact that they make it possible to know how the relationship between the company and rejected candidates will evolve. If they did not enjoy the experience, they may create a bad atmosphere at work or even resign from their current positions.

You must imperatively accompany your rejected candidates for the maintenance of a good social climate within your company. This will allow you to retain your staff and attract talent. You will find more details in this article on “How to attract and retain employees?“. Finally, you must make every effort to succeed in your next internal recruitment procedure by correcting your mistakes.