The law doesn’t require your client to carry out both internal and external advertisement, however, they should weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of only looking internally to fill job roles.
Clearly, advertising internally will be cheaper and quicker for your client. Rather than having to pay for placements on job boards, they can simply put a notice on the office notice board or send an email to every member of staff. As the advert will be seen quicker, the deadline to apply can also be shorter and the application process consolidated, for example, to simply sending an email to a named person. Alongside the procedural benefits, the main advantage to recruiting internally is that your client already knows the person who’s applying the role. They will already be aware of their strengths, weaknesses and skills so there should be no surprises if they are recruited to the new role.
Whilst advertising externally is more expensive and can take longer, the pool of people available for the role is wider and your client might be missing out on the best person for the job if they don’t do this. Recruiting from outside the business also creates the opportunity to bring new personalities, skills and ideas in to the company. Additionally, advertising externally removes the potential for disgruntled employees causing tension if, for example, they are not successful in their application but a colleague is.
Whilst the law doesn’t require your client to carry out both types of advertising, they may find that a mixture of the two creates the best pool of candidates for the role.
