It is no secret that many companies are currently having a difficult time filling their open positions. As businesses begin to ramp up and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, companies are looking far and wide to find the right people to take over critical roles. But for most companies, there do not seem to be enough top candidates to fill these positions.
That is why internal hiring is more important than ever before. But to identify internal candidates, you need to be very familiar with your workforce. This is often overlooked because once workers are hired and onboarded, HR departments tend to focus on the next hire and existing employees are simply faceless members of “the workforce.”
To better identify top candidates who are already with your organization, you need to make full use of skills tests. While most HR teams are familiar with skills testing as part of the job search process, many overlook the continued value that these tools can provide for training and employee development.
By using employment skills testing, you can identify the best internal candidates for your open positions as well as help to guide employee development and increase the likelihood of creating an ideal Job Fit.
Advantages of Hiring from Within
The debate between external and internal candidates has gone back and forth for many years. While there is no definitive answer as to which makes a better hire, there are several advantages to hiring an internal candidate. These are some of the most common reasons HR teams promote from within:
Internal candidates can save you money. According to Eric Krell of SHRM, hiring an external candidate often means that you end up paying that person a higher salary. For investment banking firms, for instance, companies often end up paying 18-20% more for an outside hire than they would with an internal candidate.
You can hire internal candidates much faster. When done right, the hiring process can take a long time. With internal candidates, you already have a lot of information about the employee on file. So, there is less work required to train and onboard them, which reduces time-to-hire.
Hiring from within improves overall retention. One reason that many employees leave their jobs is that they do not feel that they have the opportunity to advance. Entrepreneur has noted that 29% of workers say they plan to leave their existing company to pursue opportunities with other employers.
Internal candidates are familiar with the company. Existing employees rarely require the extensive onboarding that new hires need, which means that it will take them less time to reach full performance. The company is also more familiar with the employee, which means expectations are more likely to be realistic for both sides.
Using Skills Tests to Find Internal Candidates
Skills tests are a valuable tool for employees and companies, starting with the interview process and continuing throughout the employee’s career. eSkill offers an intuitive, easy-to-use Talent Assessment PlatformTM that allows you to track employee skills and knowledge throughout their career, not just at the time of hire.
eSkill’s extensive Test Library contains more than 800 pre-prepared employment skills tests ranging from basic office skills to specialized technical assessments like coding and engineering. You can also create your own skills tests by choosing from various assessments in the Test Library questions, add your own questions or testing materials, and include simulations and video questions.
While skills tests are frequently used as part of the hiring process, they can provide you with valuable insight into your workforce. You can quickly generate professional reports for each employee, noting their strengths and weaknesses.
With in-depth analytical abilities built into the Talent Assessment PlatformTM, you can dive deeper into the results of each test, which are broken down by skill level. This allows you to look beyond the total score to see whether a candidate has a good grasp of complex knowledge that could be an asset to some of your open positions.
These reports are also useful as benchmarks for future training. When you incorporate employment skills tests into your company’s employee development program, you can use the results to guide employee training to cover any existing skills gaps or develop new skills. You can then retest your employees and compare the results to evaluate the effectiveness of your training.
Skills tests are useful for long-term planning when it comes to hiring from within. By using skills tests, you can identify certain employees who have the potential to advance within the company. You can then focus your training efforts on developing these employees to help ensure a proper Job Fit when positions become available.
Request a demo to learn how eSkill’s Talent Assessment PlatformTM can help you to find the best candidates for promotion by evaluating the skills and knowledge of your workforce.