OPEN POSITION

mrsbowden

Begining Wednesday, I will advertise, externally and internally for an Executive Assistant position.

I am very confident we will have many interal candidates apply, some of which i could see getting up set or taking the process or decisions personal. I have never had internal candidates apply or be interested in positions I have posted since I started here and I am not really sure how to handle them...b/c as we know employees that work with you and feel like your friend expect to kind of get the inside scoop...salary...who are we considering and probably feel as if they have more of a chance of getting the position than anyone else.

Please, understand I work for an organization, that does not like to make waves of any kind with employees if at all avoidable.

How should I handle these internal applicants? any words of wisdom of situations I may face and how I should handle them? Thanks again to all in advance x:-)

marc

We require all internal applications for open positions to first go through HR to determine two things:
1. Is the EE in good standing?
2. Does the EE meet the job requirements?

Upon meeting these criteria, the eligible EEs applications are forwarded to the person doing the interviewing and hiring. If that is you, then the ball is in your court to proceed.

We usually have an interview committee, two or three staff that interface with the open position on a regular basis and who have an idea of the day-to-day tasks and an idea of what kind of "fit" they are looking for. The hiring manager gets all input and makes a final decision.

We usually run the internal process parallel with outside recruiting. It is the responsibility of the hiring manager to fill the job with the best candidate available, but we will give preference to an internal candidate if all else is equal, which it seldom is.

If you think internal staff are expecting favoritism, set them all straight up front. That cannot happen, anymore than you could look the other way with respect to performance issues if your friendly coworkers are not meeting job expectations. The loyalty here is to the company first. It is an entity that has no voice other than the voices of its leadership people.

AJ SPHR

To add to what Marc posted, be very clear about your job requirements. We have recently recruited for executive assistant, looking for specific software experience and experience in supporting president of the company. We had an internal candidate - we interviewed her but ultimately went to the outside because of our specific requirements. In this kind of position, there is not an ability to "train" someone because this position often works alone due to confidentiality and relationship with the chief officers of the company. The internal candidate understood the reasons why she was not selected because we were clear on job requirements.

Good luck.