What are the advantages of external recruitment?

Whether you’re looking to grow your team, or replacing a colleague, the thought of recruitment can be a daunting task for any manager. You’re already busy with your daily tasks and now have to find time to create a job description, filter through applications, and interview candidates. All while ensuring the rest of the team continues to operate. 

Hiring due to an employee departure means balancing team morale while finding a new team member who will fit the team dynamic. But recruitment should be seen as an opportunity to bring new and fresh ideas into the company to help your team or business grow. 

Some businesses prefer to promote team members into senior roles, which is what we refer to as internal recruitment. Whilst others will look to hire new talent by recruiting externally. There really is no right or wrong way to hire. Typically, the complexity or urgency of a vacancy will determine which route is best to take. 

What are external and internal recruitment?

External Recruitment

The external recruitment process is the typical recruitment people think of. It involves hiring someone from your business and bringing them into your team. When you recruit externally, you can find fresh talent and new perspectives, which can be great for shaking things up and keeping your company dynamic.

Internal Recruitment

Internal recruitment means hiring someone already in your workforce. This could be transferring someone from another department, or promoting someone when you feel they are ready for more responsibility. It’s a fantastic way to reward hard work and dedication while making the most of the talent you already have on board.

What are the benefits of Internal Recruitment? 

Like external recruitment there are benefits to recruiting from within your organisation. 

Time saved hiring

Recruiting can be time consuming so often recruiting internally is the straightforward option. You already know the candidate, their skills and how they fit into your company culture. Whilst this is simpler, this provides another hole to fill by the promoted employee.

Rewards loyalty & improves morale

Everyone likes to be rewarded for their loyalty, and a promotion to a more senior position is largely the positive outcome for any employee. 

But promoting internally can also harm the larger workforce. If a staff member is promoted over others with similar or more perceived experience, it can be seen as favouritism. This can lead to relationships breaking down between management and the workforce.

Retain staff knowledge

Each year an employee works for you, they gain invaluable knowledge about how your company works and your customer base. This knowledge may be lost if the employee were to leave. 

Promoting staff can be a reward for their loyalty. It helps keep their knowledge within the business and gives them a platform to help spread their knowledge to other members. 

Cost of recruitment

Internal recruitment saves you something that all businesses want more of, time and money. Promoting a team member means you can skip advertising, agency fees, lengthy interviews and the onboarding process.

What are the advantages of external recruitment?

Access a larger talent pool

When you opt for external recruitment, you can access a vast pool of potential candidates. By casting your net wider in the talent pool, you are increasing your chances of finding the perfect candidate.

The recruitment process can also help you consider broader skills, experiences, and backgrounds that your current workforce may be missing, which is great for the ever-changing digital world. 

Gain fresh perspectives and ideas

Hiring externally brings fresh perspectives and ideas from people with experience in different industries or companies. These new viewpoints can drive innovation, improve processes, and stimulate creativity within your organisation. Hiring external talent is one of the fundamentals of continuous improvement.

Avoid internal conflicts

External recruitment can help sidestep potential conflicts or issues arising from promoting or transferring existing employees. This can prevent any feelings of resentment among team members. If you are advertising a vacancy you can still allow people from within your organisation to apply and interview for the role.

Add value to your brand

Bringing in top candidates outside your workforce is a great opportunity to shout about your brand; this works when dealing with existing and potential clients and makes you more attractive to future candidates who can see you as a place to go and make their mark. 

Should you use a recruitment agency? 

Before considering whether to use a recruiter, it’s important to understand the benefits of hiring a recruitment agency. Filling a job vacancy isn’t as simple as it used to be. Writing a job description and creating an ad is the minimum that needs to be done. This is where hiring a recruiter can take your search to the next level.

Using the right channels is more important than ever when finding potential candidates. Recruiters will go beyond the job boards to find relevant candidates across social media, social forums and personal networks. 

Finding you the right candidate

Not every skilled worker is looking for a new job. An established recruitment agency has access to a network of high-quality job candidates who aren’t actively applying for jobs. 

This can be because the candidate has approached the recruiters to apply for a listing or the recruiter has a previous relationship with the candidate from placing them in a role previously, which means that finding the right person can be faster than when going it alone.

Experts at recruitment

Recruiters are experts in finding candidates for open vacancies. As a hiring manager your job is your speciality, for a recruiter, this is what they do every day. They can help you write effective job descriptions, present you with qualified candidates, provide up to date market information such as potential recruitment challenges and advise on expected salaries. 

Keep job openings discreet

Recruiters understand the need for discretion. If you are hiring a senior staff member and want a seamless transition without others knowing, using a recruiter can be the best option. They can feel out qualified candidates before revealing your company and help the whole process transition seamlessly, from the initial search to the interview process and finally making the job offer.

Benefit from dedicated support

If your company regularly hires throughout the year, having a skilled recruiter to turn to can really take the weight of responsibility off your shoulders. 

A dedicated onsite recruitment solution affords businesses and hiring managers the ability to recruit effortlessly. By providing onsite support, your recruiter will become an extension of your business and develop a deeper understanding of your team and organisation. You can learn more about the benefits of onsite recruitment here.

Contact a recruiter at RE

For over 20 years RE Recruitment have helped businesses across the UK grow their teams. If you are looking for your next hire or need advice on attracting suitable candidates, our team are ready to help. 

It is completely free to speak with a member of our team about a vacancy and if you would like to speak to one of trained recruiters please contact us today.