Year of the Great Resignation or the Great Promotion?
Welcome to 2022! The year of the “great resignation”. Is it “great” though? Will it happen across all sectors and roles? And if it does, what do we do?
If it does happen (still searching Amazon for that crystal ball!), how can you stem the tide of leavers? In the lurching ship that was 2021 (and indeed 2020), you may well have already considered or reviewed your benefits, flexibility and perks to retain key employees, but have you thought about internal hiring, offering development opportunities and what to do if your current staff want more than benefits?
In larger organisations, an average of ten internal candidates apply for every open position (accordingly to the Harvard Business Review). Internal candidates who are not successful are twice as likely to leave the company in comparison to their peers who chose not to apply for a role internally. This rate is less for those actually interviewed for the position but still significantly higher than their non-applying counterparts. Being declined for an internal role is a hard pill to swallow and can afford that decrease the engagement and motivation within their company? The thoughts of certainty take the “great” out of the “great resignation”.
Indeed, we all feel like we need an even keel in 2022 and demotivation, low engagement and consequently high turnover of staff (especially the goodies) is unsettling and costly. Costs of recruitment are high, and hiring is truly challenging at the moment!
Key factors to consider when deciding whether to promote
internally or hire externally:
1. Utilising job descriptions to evaluate candidates
An accurate job description is a perfect tool for assessing a candidate’s skills. You simply cannot effectively evaluate anyone for a role (let alone an internal candidate) unless you measure them against what the requirements of that role is!
Your business can change so much in six months (even more so in the last 18 months!), recycling a job description from the time you last hired for a role may misrepresent the company’s current needs. What additional challenges are there within the role that did not exist before, what areas are you focusing on, which areas have “fallen off” or are no longer relevant?
It is key to remember that you should be evaluating candidates on their potential to perform the role's requirements rather than what they have done before. This is even more relevant for internal candidates who already understand the culture, business and internal systems. Instead, discuss their motivation, how their passions align with the role, and how have they developed themselves outside of their current role remit.
Top tip: hiring for potential is hiring for the future
and, in our mind, is always a winning concept!
2. To train fresh talent or to develop internal talent?
What are your business plans? Are you planning changes this year? Are you focusing on a culture change, considering a new arm to the business, or needing a unique skill set to assist in your growth or change?
Significant change and a new required skill set or experience sometimes suggest it can be helpful to look externally, gauge the market, see what superstars are out there BUT make sure you consider costs of taking on a specific candidate (internal or external). It’s important to weigh up the training time of a new person on internal processes and systems and the all-important “how we do things around here” vs time/money to train and mentor an internal candidate into the role.
3. Management skills
Do not underestimate the importance of a role that requires managing a team. An internal candidate without experience can be a risk or take time to be “fully productive”. Managers are certainly made, not born. The hierarchical shift from a “colleague” to a “manager” may also disrupt the relationships dynamics of a team. Managers are responsible for ensuring a business operates smoothly, staff are engaged and may also have a voice in the hiring process, so it's imperative to keep this in mind when recruiting. It is clear from a myriad of research undertaken that employees leave managers, rather than businesses. So it's important to make sure you trust your managers with this mammoth responsibility.
Ask yourself: Are you prepared to invest in developing the
internal candidate into a leader and what does managerial success look
like in this role?
(Hint: you probably already know what failure looks like!)
4. Communicating difficult declines to internal candidates
If you have internal applicants for a role it’s important to communicate with them throughout the entire recruitment process. You certainly are under no obligation to ask for internal applicants (although we would always recommend you do), and you don’t need to interview an internal candidate if their skills are not even slightly aligned with the role. But even if you view them immediately unsuitable for the role, you must tell them this and, most importantly, why. It may be a difficult conversation but it’s important that their application is not a demotivator to them in their current role. You can easily change the focus of the conversation and use it as an opportunity to discuss their development (which they so clearly desire). “You are not right for this role but let’s talk about how to get you here in the future and where you want to be”. What a positive opening for a discussion around development! You never know, they may be your future CEO if nurtured appropriately, and you can harness their passion for your business!
5. Be selfless, not selfish
In my opinion, the worst reason for not giving an internal candidate a role is that it is “easier” if they stay in their current role:
It’s too hard to recruit for their current role.
They are great at their current role and I don’t want to “upset the apple cart”.
Their manager will be angry at me for “poaching” them.
It will cost me more to hire an external candidate into their current role (as they may be underpaid for that role).
Consider what would cost you more: recruiting for their role and paying more for an incumbent or losing a valuable person as you have restricted their growth? Trust me, just like a tree, if they want to grow, they will – it just may be outside of your garden (and could be within one of your competitors)!
6. Cultural Fit
In my view, cultural fit is the hardest thing to gauge at an interview. Cultural fit has a direct correlation to the success of candidates – specifically in relation to how they will confirm or adapt (naturally) to the values and collective behaviours of the business. I won’t wade into “group think” and how dangerous too much cultural homogeneity can be but, suffice to say, it’s usually what businesses try to evaluate when recruiting, and it can certainly be tricky. If I think about situations where new employees “fail”, it is so often related to the fact that they are not a great “fit” or that they never feel they really “gel” with the business. The gift that is an internal candidate is that you already know they “fit”, they understand the nuances of your business and the quirks of their colleagues. They get it, and you know they get it, and that is valuable!
If 2022 is the year of the “great resignation”, make sure you focus on your best people – especially those who show their commitment to the business (and their courageousness) in applying for internal roles. Do not underestimate how nerve-wracking it can be for an employee to put their hand up and indicate they want more. Make sure you communicate with them, consider them carefully and that you are confident you can assess any candidates against the requirements of the role.
