At a time when business is practically dredging river bottoms to hire new executives, more compainies are looking for talent the old-fashioned way - by developing it in-house. 

 

It's a positive trend for everyone but the headhunters. Younger executives get a chance to shine, employers save some money, and people can actually conceive of having more of their careers within one organization, instead of thinking the only way to move up to the top is to job-hop to other companies. When top employees see that you as a company cares enough about its employees to invest in developing talent from within, they are more likley to be dedicated to your company. Not only does this help the employee to feel valued and respected it actually saves the company large sums of money in recruiting training and overall turnover costs. You will have a team of top employees who understand the culture of your organization who are dedicated to the success of the organization. Employees come to work motivated to do their best every day knowing that they could be the next in line for that step up. Hiring talent from outside often leads to poor overall company morale when your current employees are the ones helping to settle the outside talent into their roles.

 

The use of outside coaches is making it possible for senior executives to consider internal promotions that didn't make sense before. By helping new executives accentuate their strengths and develop their weaker areas, these coaches help fill the leadership gaps that used to drain company resources. Sure, employers like to talk about new blood and new ideas, but company culture and experience count for a lot too.

 

Should an organization hire from outside it should ensure that the talent is at least 25-30% better than the best internal nominee. The point is that internal candidates knowledge of the organization, its people, its products and its goals - and the fact their character is a known commodity - can compensate for an outsider's breadth of experience or stronger leadership skills. That could open thousands of new advancement opportunities for talented managers who are"almost good enough", but haven 't had the leadership experience to make them shoo-ins for promotion. Organizations are now realizing that working with excisting employees investing in their development will never leave the organization scrambling at the last minute for talent, they will have well developed talent ready to take the next step.