Internal Recruitment 2025: 7 Methods & Examples

For many years, HR has relied on sourcing external candidates to fill job openings within their organization. However, we are in a different reality today than we were even 2 months ago. While hiring plans are placed on hold in the current pandemic, organizational skills gaps still exist. In this uncertain environment, many organizations are looking towards internal recruitment to address their needs.

What is Internal Recruiting?

Internal recruitment is when an organization looks to fill jobs with their current employees, sourcing talent from other teams, departments, and job functions within a company. This process is also referred to as and enables teams to proactively fill skills gaps. As talent shortages are expected to continue, HR functions are renewing their focus on this key area.

What are the benefits of internal recruitment?

LinkedIn’s 2020 Global Talent Trends found that over 70% of businesses are now focused on “internal recruiting”. Among the benefits of this approach are a faster hiring process and a faster time-to-productivity compared to external recruitments. According to the same survey, there are significant benefits to internal recruitment.

• 94% of respondents stated that internal recruitment improves the retention of their most valuable talent. Employers with active internal career management programs enjoy 41% higher staff retention rates.
• Internal recruitment also enables organizations to promote growth and is considered by Deloitte as a ‘critical talent initiative’. More than twice as many high performance organizations prioritize internal recruitment compared to low performing businesses.

Advantages of Internal Recruitment

Internal recruitment has many clear, measurable benefits. For one, internal hires get up to speed faster because they already understand the culture, the systems, and what’s expected of them.

LinkedIn’s 2020 Global Talent Trends shows that 94% of HR professionals say internal hiring improves retention.

Organizations with active internal mobility programs see 41% higher employee retention.

Deloitte found that high-performing companies are more than twice as likely to prioritize internal recruitment as lower-performing peers.

When done right, internal recruitment creates a culture of growth and engagement that drives business performance.

Internal Recruitment Disadvantages

While internal recruitment brings plenty of advantages, it has challenges. One of the most significant drawbacks is the potential for limiting fresh perspectives. Companies may miss out on new ideas, approaches, and innovations that often come with external hires by relying solely on existing employees.

Internal hiring can sometimes cause tension between team members. When multiple employees go after the same role, it can lead to disappointment, resentment, or strained relationships. Over time, a lack of external opportunities might also contribute to a stagnant company culture or skill gaps that aren’t being addressed.

Internal vs. External Recruitment

Internal and external recruitment have unique strengths—and knowing when to use each can make or break your talent strategy. Internal recruitment uses your current workforce to fill open roles faster and more affordably. It brings in people who already know the company’s culture and how things work.

Conversely, external recruitment is better suited when you need a fresh skill set, want to drive innovation, or want to expand into new markets. It opens the door to a broader talent pool and may be necessary when internal candidates don’t meet the required qualifications. The best strategy often combines both approaches, using internal recruitment as a first step and external searches when gaps persist.

7 Internal Recruitment Methods

1. Succession Planning
   Succession planning helps companies identify high-potential employees and prepare them for key roles. It also keeps things running smoothly when changes occur and ensures that someone is always ready to step up when needed.
2. Role Changes
   Employees who move into new roles across teams or departments gain fresh perspectives and new chances to grow. Lateral moves boost energy, build skills, and help people see the bigger picture of how the business operates. They also help fill internal gaps without the need for outside hires.
3. Transfers
   Transfers happen when an employee moves to a different department, office, or part of the company. They’re a good option when someone’s strengths can be used in a new area when a location change aligns with company growth or fits what the employee wants.
4. Promotions
   Promotions recognize strong performance by moving employees into higher-level roles. They’re often seen as one of the best motivators because they show that hard work is valued and growth opportunities are real.
5. Internal Mobility Programs
   Internal mobility programs give employees access to open roles across the company before those positions are offered externally. These programs often involve internal job boards, mentorship initiatives, and manager training to support seamless internal movement.
6. Cross-Training
   Cross-training shows employees how to handle tasks outside their usual jobs. It helps teams stay flexible and often brings out skills managers didn’t even know existed. It also makes it easier to shift people around when roles open up.
7. Skills Assessment and Development Plans
   Checking in on what employees are good at—and where they could grow—makes it easier to prepare them for new roles. A simple development plan can show them what to focus on while ensuring the training meets the company’s needs.

Internal Recruitment Examples

Example 1: Succession Planning at Microsoft
Microsoft strongly emphasizes leadership development and succession planning. It monitors promising employees and works with them on personalized growth plans. This simple move has helped the company stay flexible and ahead of the curve, especially given the industry’s rapid change.

Example 2: Job Rotations at ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil lets employees move around and try different jobs in the company. It’s not just for a change of pace — it helps them pick up real experience that can lead to bigger roles. Their engineering teams have done especially well with this, since cross-training makes a huge difference.

Example 3: Internal Mobility at Schneider
Schneider Electric is known for its internal mobility culture. The company pushes people to look beyond their current roles. They can apply for jobs in other departments or even different regions using an internal system. It’s a simple way to keep folks growing and staying longer.

Developing an Internal Recruitment Strategy

In order to support internal recruitment, there must be a point of reference to base the recruitment decisions on. Because how can you know someone’s potential if you don’t first understand their skills and experiences? To understand your bench strength of skills, many organizations develop a competency framework and then assess their workforce based on this framework. You can then compare the skills and competencies required for each role with the skills and competencies of any individual employee.

Succession Planning: Succession planning enables your organization to develop talent pools of internal candidates to fill prospective job openings. It doesn’t have to be limited to the C-Suite but can be applied throughout your organization. To succeed, your succession plan should ensure regular reviews of all job descriptions and skills required for those roles, together with ongoing reviews of the internal candidates shortlisted against each position.

Career Pathing: Career pathing provides a specific path for employees to identify skills and qualifications that may enable them to transition into new roles. It enables managers and HR leaders to understand the ambitions and aspirations of their talent while aligning their objectives with the goals and requirements of the company.

5 Keys to Implementing a Successful Internal Recruitment Strategy

• When developing an internal recruitment strategy for your organization, it is important to consider the following to enhance the chances of long-term success:
• Deloitte recommends identifying a member of your organization to promote internal recruitment, ensuring that that whole organization understands the benefits of value of this approach (employee growth, more engaged workers):
• Encourage a culture where employees can confidently discuss their career aspirations and skillsets with their line manager. Career pathing makes that process transparent and achievable.
• When considering internal candidates in a broader application process, ensure they are treated the same as any prospective external candidates.
• LinkedIn’s survey found that the #1 barrier to successful internal recruitment was managers who were reluctant to release talented team members to another department. This process is called talent hoarding. You are more likely to risk losing qualified employees whose career ambitions are limited in this way to another organization.
• Use technology to evaluate your internal talent pool. Dedicated succession planning or career pathing software can help to streamline and expedite both processes. Career pathing provides employees with a process to explore and outline their skills and talents that are not apparent in their current roles. That data can assist HR in their search for potential internal candidates during succession planning.

In this unprecedented period, business continuity is cited by 7 out of 10 HR leaders as their top challenge. The development of an internal recruitment process can strengthen the position of your organization to address skills gaps during a hiring freeze, talent shortage, and uncertain times.

Developing an Effective Internal Recruitment Process

An intense internal recruitment process requires more than just policy—it needs people, platforms, and practices that work together.

Make sure internal roles are visible and easy to apply for. Train hiring managers to assess internal talent fairly. Track your internal hiring metrics to uncover bottlenecks. Most importantly, celebrate internal moves to reinforce a culture of growth.

HR Tip

Make sure internal recruitment is visible. If employees don’t know about open opportunities, they can’t apply. Share available roles and success stories through newsletters, dashboards, and manager updates.

Key Takeaway

Filling a role internally does more than save time. It tells your people they matter. It helps you retain your team’s knowledge and keeps the momentum going. When the culture supports it, promoting from within becomes one of the smartest moves a company can make.

FAQ: Internal Recruiting

Q: What is internal recruitment?

A: Internal recruiting is when a company looks to fill a job opening with someone already working there. Instead of hiring from the outside, they promote, transfer, or move people around within the business.

Q: What are the advantages and disadvantages of internal recruiting?

A: One significant advantage is that it’s faster—there’s no long hiring process, and the person already knows the company. It’s also great for keeping good employees around. On the flip side, it can limit fresh ideas from outside, and not everyone will be happy if they get passed over for a role.

Q: What are internal and external recruiting?

A: Internal recruiting means filling jobs from within your existing team. External recruiting is when you look outside the company—job boards, referrals, recruiters, etc. Most companies use a mix of both, depending on what they need.

Q: Why do companies prefer internal hires?

A: It’s usually faster, cheaper, and less risky to hire from within. Internal candidates know the culture and how things work, so they can hit the ground running. It’s also a great way to reward loyalty and keep employees motivated.

Q: How do I get into internal recruiting?

A: If you’re in HR or talent development, you can start by helping build internal mobility programs or working on succession planning. If you’re not in HR, talk to your team lead about how to get involved in hiring or mentoring efforts—it’s a solid foot in the door.

Q: What is an example of internal recruitment?

A: Let’s say a marketing associate gets promoted to a senior role instead of the company hiring from outside—that’s internal recruitment. It can also be a transfer to another department or moving someone into a leadership training program.