Recruitment strategies are constantly shifting with the job market, and it’s important to be able to adapt to these changes in order to snag top hires. Before jumping into trends and specialized ways of hiring great talent, it’s important to understand the fundamental hiring types and how they play off of one another. 

There are two basic types of recruitment: Internal and External. In this piece, we’ll be going over a few of the most important different subcategories of Internal and External hiring, and diving into how they’re incorporated into modern hiring plans.

External Recruitment

External recruitment involves sourcing outside of your organization and hiring candidates based on their abilities and company fit. Traditionally their application is reviewed, and after an interview, they’ll be onboarded and hired. This isn’t always the case, but for the most part, External Recruitment follows this standard process. There are a number of types of External Recruitment, and each has its merits.

Job Board Advertisements

Usually the preferred method of External Recruitment, this method sees recruiters posting advertisements to job aggregators and replying to applications. For large hiring efforts this method is usually the most effective, reaching the largest number of individuals and building a sizable talent pool.

Direct Recruitment

Certainly the oldest type of recruitment, direct recruitment eliminates middlemen and has recruiters communicate directly with applicants. Talking directly to talent brings a certain humanity back into recruitment, allowing your employees to communicate why they enjoy working for your company. Job fairs, visits to institutions, and remote contact with individuals are all popular types of direct recruitment. 

Direct recruitment is an effective way to attract younger candidates, those unfamiliar or daunted by an impersonal hiring process. Being approached directly by an organization can put them at ease and make them more responsive.

Employee Referrals

While job aggregate advertisements are an effective way of mass recruiting, employee referrals yield great small-scale results. According to a recent Forbes report, referrals provide over 88% of employers with superior candidates—the best of the best. 

Your current employees can be your best source for new talent, having a referral system in place that incentivizes quality referrals is a must.

What Role Does External Hiring Play?

The different types of external hiring are used to both build your organization’s talent pool, as well as its connections. If your employee diversity metrics aren’t where they need to be, External Recruitment efforts can target individuals or groups that would shore up your workforce.

Internal Recruitment

Recruiting internally, as the name would suggest, involves moving team members and other already established connections into different jobs. While External Recruitment generally requires extensive sourcing, internal recruitment works with resources already available to your organization.

Promotion

While many organizations shy away from promotions in favor of other types of recruitment, promotion plays an irreplaceable role in nearly every company. If team members don’t feel as if there’s any room for growth in their current position, they’ll often leave for greener pastures. 

Promotion rewards employees for going above and beyond. It gives your org the benefits of a higher-level employee who knows its inner workings and can communicate effectively with your current team.

Previous Candidates/Applicants

If a candidate or applicant doesn’t quite make the cut, it’s important to keep their information on hand in a system. When another position opens up, your database of previous applicants acts as a talent pool full of qualified candidates. Reaching out could provide the hire that you’re looking for without much expenditure on your organization’s end.

Temporary to Permanent Hire

Temp workers are an underutilized resource that more employers should be taking advantage of. Part-time employees, interns, freelancers, and traditional temporary workers all gain valuable experience working for your organization, but many recruiters are told not to hire them full-time to save on benefits. 

Hiring these temporary workers can improve your overall quality-of-hire, and give your temp team members the incentive of full-time work. 

What Role Does Internal Hiring Play?

Internal hiring is often less favored by companies than external recruiting, but having an internal hiring plan is essential to a healthy employee-employer relationship. Giving your employees room to grow, and the option to shift their duties if they have the skills can increase employee satisfaction.

Hiring internally rather than externally often requires less resource expenditure per hire, and is more likely to produce excellent employees due to existing knowledge of organizational operations. 

Takeaway

When it comes to the types of recruitment, implementing a good mix of both is crucial to building and maintaining a strong recruitment strategy. Finding top external talent is a great way to bring new skills and ideas into your organization, while internally sourcing is excellent for capitalizing on your existing top talent and demonstrating there is room to grow within.

For an extra boost, be sure to leverage the right tools in your recruiting—no matter which type you’re employing. Pandologic’s suite of AI recruitment tools can help with a variety of processes, widen your bandwidth, and deliver the results you’re after.