Searching for candidates internally or externally shouldn’t be thought of as an either/or decision; rather, companies should do both. But before hiring teams begin recruiting, they’ll need to know the differences between recruiting internally and externally, and when to utilize each approach. Searches for talent should be quick to keep pace with an employee-driven talent market. Cornerstone provides innovative software that enables organizations to engage, source, manage, review, and promote talent faster. So how can hiring teams ensure they’re making the right choice when searching internally or externally? They can implement a workforce strategy that focuses on proactively finding the right talent, putting them in the right role, and doing so at the right time.

To make this a reality, stakeholders need to use a blended approach that:

1) embraces talent acquisition - the ongoing strategic process of finding, selecting, and onboarding external talent, and

2) develops a culture of internal mobility that aligns employee and company goals

This two-pronged method effectively helps companies build a robust pipeline with the right talent, regardless of where they were sourced.

So, when should hiring teams look internally or externally, and what does it mean to the company’s bottom line? Discover how and when to do both:

Searching externally

With the intense pressure to find the best talent, it is critical that organizations have the right strategy in place. Simply posting a requisition is not effective, nor will it help attract critical talent that can move a company forward. Lack of a true talent acquisition strategy can negatively affect the quality of the talent pool and lengthens the time it takes to hire. Further, this process often excludes team members and may not lead to a candidate-friendly application experience, which hurts the company brand.

Instead, companies can take a proactive approach to finding and hiring the right talent. Strategic talent acquisition focuses on leveraging more comprehensive software solutions to better attract, engage and onboard candidates. Hiring teams will have access to candidates with more diverse backgrounds and skills, engage a larger talent pool, and infuse new ideas and perspectives, ultimately improving innovation and business productivity.

Organizations should leverage external recruiting when they are:

• Undergoing a shift in corporate strategy
• Lacking a specific skill set within the company
• Thriving and need to fill positions quickly

Searching internally

Effective succession planning requires knowing what talent you have and what talent you need. Hiring from within can create headaches among stakeholders if they lack the tools for assessing employees’ current skills and career aspirations, understanding the skills they will need to meet future business goals, and the gap that may exist between the two. Also, lacking the right training tools to help employees expand their skills and close those skills gaps makes ensuring that employees have the right skills you need to meet future goals difficult.

Internal mobility reduces hiring costs because recruiters can more quickly fill vacancies with employees that are already proven to be good culture fits; it also reduces training time because internal hires’ organizational knowledge means a faster time to productivity. Embracing a culture of internal mobility empowers employees to take a more active role in their career development, which increases engagement and boosts motivation.

Organizations should leverage internal recruiting initiatives when:

• Succession and performance management processes are consistent and transparent
• Firm- or industry-specific skills are required for the job
• A well-defined organizational culture is hard to fill with external candidates

How Cornerstone facilitates stronger internal and external recruiting

Cornerstone OnDemand offers a unified talent management solution that empowers recruiters to quickly fill vacancies with the right internal and external talent. Organizations can create branded career pages that showcase the company’s goals to attract candidates that are a great cultural fit. Hiring teams can also create talent pools of potential hires while also preparing current employees for new roles. These tools also provide an easy application process that facilitates a bigger talent pipeline. Cornerstone’s robust software means stakeholders can get a top-down view of their employees’ skills to see who is ready to move up the ladder, or across it to a position that best suits their goals and skills.

Narrow down the talent pipeline by leveraging predictive analytics to better identify future high performers and get them hired. Onboarding these new hires can make a bigger impact on business results by using new hire portals for faster document tracking and completion, and learning platforms for role-/industry-specific training. Additional tools focus on helping HR streamline the onboarding process by including automated workflows and forms management. Having a more robust solution for engaging external and internal talent enables companies to more effectively get the best talent when and where they need it most.

When to build the workforce with internal or external talent is a question that hiring teams struggle to answer, but the answer is easy: do both! The state of the organization will guide stakeholders’ decision of when to leverage each strategy, but ultimately, both approaches enable hiring teams to access the right candidates at the right time. Cornerstone provides tools that empower organizations to develop their workforce from recruiting through succession.