Interviewing internal candidates is different than interviewing external candidates. Internal interviews are not just efforts to fill positions, but also part of professional development for your organization.
Obviously, we want to prefer internal candidates for any role. Hiring too often externally sends a message that development pathways can be blocked by external hires. But internal promotions are also preferred when the economy is soft, to help with retention and development.
Yes, internal candidates go through the same interview process. That makes sure that whatever the outcome, the organization is satisfied with the hire. But because internal promotions are part of the internal succession planning and development processes, there are additional steps and subtleties that must be considered.
When we interview internal candidates, we’re not only trying to fill a business/hiring need. Internal candidates are also taking part in the succession planning and professional development processes that all well-managed organizations rely on for the development of future leaders. The second most important responsibility of executives, after growing organizational results, is to develop future leaders. Promoting internal candidates plays an enormous part in that development.
This means we have additional responsibilities for internal candidates above and beyond the hiring process we develop for external hires. One of those responsibilities is robust feedback about the internal candidate’s performance during the interview process. Whether the internal candidate gets the promotion or not, we owe them candid feedback about their performance. This is something we don’t owe to external candidates. Here’s how to do it.
This cast is the first in a series of the intersection between the hiring process, the succession planning system, and the performance management systems. We start, interestingly, with what happens last in the overall process, the feedback we owe them.
Source: Manager-tools.com | Published: 2025-03-31 14:00:00
