5.2 Recruitment Plan – Internal and External

Recruitment Plan

HR Managers need to develop Recruitment Plans that attract and retain highly qualified talent.  They need to project the future needs of the employer, and identify skills, characteristics, experience and education requirements.  HR Managers need to decide the method for hiring, whether internal or external to the company.  The Recruitment Plan needs to include the selection criteria for jobs (interviews and what type of interviews, decide what and if assessments are required before hiring, and reference checks).  As well, the Recruitment Plan includes an Orientation and Training Plan for new employees. Or, existing employees if and when they are moving to a new position. Lastly, a Retention Plan is included in the Recruitment Plan to ensure the highly skilled talent remains happy and satisfied in their positions over long periods of time.

When devising a recruiting plan, an important element to consider is whether the pool of candidates will be sourced internally, externally, or both. Each of these options have consequences for how recruiting will be conducted. Note that, for some organizations, there is really no choice but to go internal (e.g., military) or external (e.g., small business).

Internal Recruitment

Assuming the job analysis and job description are ready, an organization may decide to look at internal candidates’ qualifications first. Internal candidates are people who are already working for the company. If an internal candidate meets the qualifications, this person might be encouraged to apply for the job, and the job opening may not be published. Many organizations have formal job posting procedures and job bidding systems in place for internal candidates. For example, job postings may be sent to an internal email distribution list or posted on a website so all current employees have access to them.

External Recruitment

The alternative to internal recruitment is external recruitment. For example, for a high-level executive position, it may be decided to hire an outside head-hunting firm to help recruit the right person. For an entry-level position, advertising on social networking websites might be the best strategy. When recruiting externally, an understanding of the labour market is essential. For example, the pandemic had a drastic effect on unemployment rates in Canada in just a few months (see graph below). From a general recruiting perspective, this means that the available talent doubled in that period. Of course, the need for talent also shifted dramatically and, in general, most companies were not hiring as many employees (which causes the high unemployment numbers). However, recruiting strategy requires a finer-grained analysis of general unemployment numbers because there are vast variations in the availability of specific talent in the labour market. For example, the pandemic has led to an important shortage of workers in healthcare and agricultural industries but an abundance of workers in other areas (e.g., hospitality).

Advantages and Disadvantages of Each Approach

In sum, both approaches to recruitment are valid, each one providing distinct advantages to the organization. The selection of one or both approaches depends on the situation (e.g., labour market, availability of internal talent, budget, etc.) and the objectives of the company. Here is a summary of advantages and disadvantages of each approach.

“5.2 Recruitment Plan” from Human Resources Management – 3rd Edition by Debra Patterson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.