When Hiring Managers Say They Want to Look Outside, But You Have Doubts

Let’s start off with a first principle so people don’t try to crush me online: Internal mobility is one of the most powerful talent accelerators available.

Promoting from within IS GOOD.

The catch is that many hiring managers aren’t sure what they want from an external candidate perspective when they open up a position and communicate to recruiters.

And while that’s OK, it’s a variable that impacts recruiting capacity—so much so that Talent Acquisition teams should think about the best way to approach the conflict.

The conversation (and issue) goes something like this:

Recruiter: Any internal candidates?

Hiring Manager: Yes. Sharon is sure to post for the job, and it’s the next logical step for her.

Recruiter: But you want to look externally?

Hiring Manager: 100%

Recruiter: <feels soul being crushed internally, says nothing>

And that, my friends, is the scenario to think long and hard about. The hiring manager has an internal candidate who is viable but wants to see what’s available in the outside world. There’s nothing wrong with that BTW, calibration on talent from an internal/external lens is critical and part of the TA/Recruiting product.

It’s not the concept that’s the problem. It’s the inherent set of probabilities of what happens next.

As a recruiting leader or a recruiter, you have “X” capacity to deliver candidates and hires. Most of our efforts focus on the external side, because the internal side is captive—we know it’s going to be there.

But cycles get wasted when we chase external candidates when the likelihood of an internal selection is high.

My usual motto on this: “Charge it to the game.”

But dig in we must…

In my experience, there are three flavors to gauge the probability of external sourcing/recruiting yielding an external hire:

1. No known internal candidate: Highest probability your recruiting efforts will end in an external hire. You can invest your time with zero concerns, because you’re 100% accountable for this search. Good luck!
2. There are likely to be internal candidates, but the HM isn’t sure they are right for the role. Average probability your recruiting efforts will end in an external hire. Ahh, the middle. Not a great place for you to be from a capacity- management perspective, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
3. There are internal candidates, including one or two the hiring manager knows for sure can do the job, but the HM still wants to look outside. Lowest probability your recruiting efforts will end in an external hire. If you’re a recruiting superhero, this is your kryptonite. You’re going to get crushed.

I gave you the disclaimer earlier, but here it is again. Promoting from within is good. We’re exploring this so TA/Recruiting teams can make the best use of a limited resource: their time and capacity to help the business.

Most of you know this dance of looking externally as veterans of the recruiting game. So what’s a professional like you supposed to do?

As it turns out, both TA leaders and recruiters should chase the same things when asked to recruit externally when viable internals are available, including the following:

• Ask to push unscreened external profiles to HM for review. Doing a resume screen reaction layer with the HM helps all get synced up on what rises to the level of the internal candidates. It’s likely that if framed the right way, your hiring manager will balk at half the external candidates you would have screened for a variety of reasons. Lean into that assistance—come back a week after the posting goes up for that review and schedule it on the HM calendar.
• Expedite screens of the external candidates the HM likes. Once the HM points to two of the externals, do the work and don’t delay. And also agree to the item shown below.
• Push to set up formal internal interviews sooner rather than later. Modify your timeline when a viable internal exists—push the hiring manager to interview those first while you provide the expedited screen layer outlined above. If you accomplish this, the timer/clock is ticking for the HM to make a call on which way to go due to the internal pressure. If a strong internal exists, that’s going to help you get it done quicker.

How much capacity could you get back if hiring managers made decisions to hire internal candidates in half the time they do today? For recruiters doing mostly professional hires, it’s probably 10% of their total work time in many companies.

It also goes without saying that the more you formalize and expedite internal mobility, the more capacity the TA/Recruiting team gets back. But for most, informal internal mobility exists in conjunction with “shopping outside,” so process improve/tweak you must.

Every hour counts when it comes to recruiting capacity.

Be bold - don’t be afraid to ask for the things you need.