Promote From Within Or Recruit New Talent?

You are faced with a challenge. A vacancy has occurred on your team. An important role, critical to the success of your business. Looking around, there is no candidate expressing an interest in the role, nor can you see anyone that you think would fit the bill.

So do you immediately recruit from outside?

Or do you decide to take a good look at your organisation and re-evaluate your skills requirement?

Both choices have merit and both choices carry risks.
Avoid a knee jery reaction about how the business will manage in the next week.

Your decision needs to be formed based on whats best for the business in the long term. And your decision needs to be based on the skills and attributes required for the future rather than older skills being repeated.
Is the business currently headed in the right direction or does it need to be steered differently?

Is the business growing at the right pace or does it need an external injection?

What skills do you have within the company that are transferable?

How would the rest of the team feel if you recruit externally? Maybe the job had been coveted quietly by many for a while and maybe they would also like to apply for the role?

This is a time in the business for true leadership and clarity of vision. the decision you make will have an immediate an long lasting impact.
If you do happen to make a decision that is proven wrong, correct it immediately by making another decision – don’t protect it at a cost to the business – correct it.

The correct decision, based on what is best for the business in the long term, best for the future of the entire team and best for you financially will be easy to articulate and will make sense once properly thought out. Take the time to weigh all the options.

Generally, we encourage promotion from within. You know what you are getting. Other team members will be motivated by it, you can demand results faster and there is more commitment immediately.

University studies also suggest that employers give much easier appraisals to new joiners for up to 2 years after they join a company. That’s a long time to wait in my opinion.

Helping business owners to get the right team on the bus is part of what we do as business growth specialists. Call us now for a discussion about your business requirements.