For external candidates, a career site provides a meaningful introduction to your organization, highlighting your employer value proposition (EVP) and the opportunities available for right-fit talent. In a similar way, your internal career site provides a valuable connection between your organization and the people within it. It gives them an opportunity to grow with your organization, become further engaged in your culture and values (and their contributions to the team), and further strengthens their resolve in staying with your organization.
Why experience matters on your internal career site
An internal career site is a great way to showcase available opportunities and encourage internal mobility. A successful internal career site is more than simply posting new job opportunities. While that’s certainly a key component to your internal career site, it’s essential to ensure a positive employee experience that enables team members to engage with opportunities and reinforce the culture and values of your organization.
Your employee experience through your internal career site matters because, done right, it can:
- Drive employee engagement and retention. An intuitive and seamless experience will encourage employees to explore and apply for internal roles, enabling them to grow in their careers and extend their tenure with your organization.
- Boosts talent mobility and skills alignment. By delivering personalized content and matching skills between your existing talent and new or recently vacant positions, you will be able to provide logical career pathways that empower team members to utilize existing and develop new skills that will allow them to flourish.
- Supports transparency and visibility into opportunities. A clear, user-friendly career site ensures all employees, regardless of location, department, or seniority, have the same visibility into available job opportunities and career paths.
The experience you provide employees through your internal career site will have a direct impact on whether employees stay and grow with your organization or leave to find opportunities elsewhere.
How to mirror an external career site, internally
Your internal career site should demonstrate to your employees that you value them and support their growth within the organization. One of the best ways to enhance the experience for your employees is to mirror the experience provided to external candidates. The following are a few best practices for internal career sites that can help your team deliver a better employee experience.
- Personalization. It’s a common practice to recommend jobs to external candidates based on their behavior, location, and other factors. Internal career sites can do the same thing for employees, recommending jobs based on their skills, job history, interests, and other factors. Personalization brings the conversation to a one-to-one level, which can help employees feel more seen and engaged in the process.
- Storytelling and branding. External career sites showcase the organization’s EVP, branding, and employee stories, helping external candidates gain a better view into what it would be like to work for the organization. This same energy can be brought internally to celebrate internal success stories, highlight career journeys, and encourage growth and mobility.
- Seamless user experience. Similar to external career sites, an internal career site should be intuitive, visually appealing, mobile-friendly, and easy to navigate. Just as external candidates want greater visibility into the hiring process, so do your internal team members. Make it easy for them to apply, and they will.
Treat your internal career site with the same care and investment you give your external one. You never know, your next great hire could already be within your existing team. The best internal sites are not just job boards; they are career growth platforms that feel inspiring, personal, and easy to use.
Could your internal mobility program use an employee experience upgrade?
From reduced recruitment spend to higher engagement and retention, internal mobility drives measurable results across your organization. And it all starts with the right foundation: a high-performing internal career site. Get your copy of Grow From Within: A Practical Guide to Building and Launching Your Internal Career Site. And when you’re ready, reach out to speak to one of our internal mobility and career site experts to drive meaningful results for your internal mobility program.
