If you want to recruit internal candidates (candidates from within your own company) for a position, first consider whether you would like to attract other candidates as well, or only internal candidates.
If you only want to recruit internal candidates, it's pretty simple to track these applicants by posting an internal-only job posting (option 1, covered below).
If you want to attract both internal and external candidates, there are a couple of options you have to differentiate between whether some applicants are external vs. internal. These options are covered in option 2.
Option 1: Recruiting internal applicants only
If you want only internal candidates, we recommend creating a CareerPlug job that you mark as "Internal listing only" at the end of the job posting process.
You’ll see a pop-up that asks you to select your job posting status. Turn on the Internal Post toggle, which means this job post is sent only to your Careers Page, not to the job boards. You may wish to adjust the name of the job to reflect that it is an internal-only job posting for your reference.
Later, you can run reports on this job and identify it by the job name.
Option 2: Recruiting internal and external applicants
If you want to consider all applicants, you'll post a job as usual (without selecting the Internal Post option as described above). You have a few options to mark or differentiate and track between internal and external candidates who apply:
- Create what's called a custom source for internal candidates and share this specific link with internal candidates. When someone (i.e., an internal candidate) applies, they will appear as coming from your internal candidates source. In your reporting, the source will be tracked as whatever you name that internal source. Here's how to create a custom source. If at any time you notice an internal candidate is not marked as such, you can change the source from which they applied to your internal candidates source. Here's how to change the source from which a candidate applied.
- To track internal hires, you can also create a custom source called “Internal Hires” and edit the person's source once you have hired them to change the source from “Internal Candidate” to “Internal Hire”. (Here's how to change the source). Again, this can be tracked in your reporting.
Other ways to differentiate internal applicants:
- If your account uses brands, you create a new “Internal” brand and post internal jobs to that brand.
- If you need to restrict access for users to internal-only job postings and your account uses locations, you can create an “Internal” location and only give certain users access to that location. Then, post the internal job to that Internal location.
Recruiting internal applicants
Finally, here are some tips for recruiting applicants from within your own company:
- Make a company-wide announcement (email/listserv/however you communicate). Be sure to send the link that corresponds to your 'internal candidates' source.
- Be explicit that you're accepting internal candidates.
- Encourage managers to nominate current employees. Be careful of only using this approach, as it's more prone to favoritism and discrimination. We recommend using it along with other approaches.
- If performance/skill data is documented and available, review and reach out to directly to employees to encourage them to apply.
- Consider formal succession planning and pipeline development. This involves long-term planning: working with employees on their growth goals, providing training resources, and teeing them up for the next position.