Recruitment

Internal

Description

External

Description

Recruiting staff within the organisation

Recruiting staff outside the organisation

Examples

Organisation’s intranet

Internal email to all or selected staff

Staff noticeboard

Company newsletter

Examples

Newspaper adverts

Websites such as Monster or S1 Jobs

Job centre

Recruitment agencies

Advantages

The employee is known to the organisation and can be trusted to do a good job.

The organisation saves money on external advertisement costs.

The employee knows the organisation which saves induction training costs and time.

Employees will be more motivated as they know there is a chance of promotion.

The vacancy can be filled quickly

Disadvantages

Promoting one employee will consequentially create a vacancy in their old post.

The organisation misses out on a chance to bring in fresh, new ideas and new skills to the organisation.

Applicants are drawn from a very limited pool so the organisation may not hire the best person for the job.

Employees can resent a fellow colleague being promoted over them. This can cause conflict and relations to become strained.

Advantages

There is a wider pool of candidates to choose from.

It avoids creating a further vacancy in the organisation.

Fresh, new ideas and skills are brought into the organisation.

It avoids the jealousy and resistance that is often created by one employee being promoted over others.

Disadvantages

Such a potentially vast pool of candidates can mean it takes longer to choose suitable applicants for interview.

The organisation does not know the successful candidate, which carries a risk that they may not be suited for the job, or worse are untrustworthy.

Candidates do not know the organisation so induction training will have to be carried out, taking up production time and costing money.

Existing staff may be de-motivated as they perceive that there is no chance of internal promotion.