University of Wisconsin–Madison
Human Resources

Internal Recruitment Process and Justification

Overview

Internal recruitment provides an alternative to the standard recruitment process and a potential growth opportunity to the university's currently-existing workforce. While the procedural recruitment steps (application collection, applicant review and screening, interview and selection, reference check and offer negotiation) remain the same, the main difference between an internal and standard recruitment is the eligible applicant pool. It is recommended that schools, colleges, and divisions use this strategy thoughtfully.

Acceptable Use Cases

The majority of a school/college/division's recruitment efforts should be open to the general public. There are some instances where internal recruitment is appropriate, including but not limited to: 

  • If there is a business/operational need where it would be significantly more advantageous to recruit solely from within the University of Wisconsin-Madison workforce
  • If the unit budget cannot fund a new FTE and the school/college/division must hire from within without back-filling
  • If the school/college/division has a "Limited" position vacancy which requires a concurrent Faculty or Clinical/CHS track appointment

Contact your Talent Acquisition Specialist when considering an internal recruitment.

Eligible pools

Internal recruitment opportunities are open to current Universities of Wisconsin employees regardless of campus location, job title and/or employment classification. The hiring unit may decide to limit the applicant pool to only employees within the University of Wisconsin-Madison population, or their specific school/college/division. 

Justification Criteria

Hiring managers and the primary recruiter must answer the following questions regarding an internal recruitment: 

  1. What are the job posting title, official title, and responsibilities for the position?
  2. Is there a unique skill set required for this position that can only be found within the university's or the school's/college's/division's workforce?
    1. In considering this question, we encourage that hiring managers and the primary recruiter think beyond general familiarity with university structure/policy.
    2. By default, internal recruitment opportunities are open to current Universities of Wisconsin employees. Should you wish to limit the applicant pool to UW-Madison employees or employees within your specific college/school/division, that reasoning should be explained here.
  3. Why would recruiting from the currently-existing University workforce provide a significant advantage, or be critical to the success, for this position?
    1. If the position is being framed as a promotional opportunity, consider what transferable skills are applicable.
    2. If the desire is to only recruit from the current school/college/division workforce, then the justification should explain why that decision was made. 
  4. What efforts will be taken to ensure the applicant pool is as robust as possible?
    1. Think beyond posting on the internal jobs site. For example, consider targeted communication to employees in certain job titles/categories.
Enter the Internal Recruitment Job Requisition in Workday
Step 1: Determine Scope By default, all internal recruitment opportunities are open to all current Universities of Wisconsin employees. The Primary Recruiter should consult with the hiring manager to determine whether they wish to limit the applicant pool to UW-Madison employees, or those within their specific school/college/division. This will need to be detailed in both the justification request and in the application instructions on the job posting.
Step 2:  Obtain Approval Answers to the questions in the Justification Criteria section above should be sent to both Talent Acquisition and the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity and Compliance Programs. They will collaborate to review and approve the request, working with the original requester if there is a need for updates/clarification. 
Step 3: Create the Job Requisition

Follow the steps in the Create Job Requisition process, making note of these key decision points on the following tabs:

Recruiting Information

  • Recruiting Instruction: Post Internally Only

Job

  • Justification: Include the date you received approval. Include the JTAP form number and the date you received Criticality or Functionality approval, if required. See Justification to Advance Position, Online Form. It is not necessary to provide a copy of the Criticality or Functionality approval email. 
  • Job Description: It's recommended to have some kind of language here about the scope of the applicant pool. For example: "This internal recruitment is open to current employees of [UW-Madison or College/School/Division]"
  • Job Qualifications and Additional Details for Job Posting: Under the heading "How to Apply", it is also recommended to have language about the scope of the applicant pool. This should be consistent with what was listed in the Job Description, such as "For this internal recruitment, we are considering current employees of [UW-Madison or College/School/Division]"
  • Questionnaires: Select "Internal Candidate Baseline Questionnaire (no salary question)" for Internal Career Site - Primary. If another questionnaire is required, please put that selection into Internal Career Site - Secondary.

Attachments

  • Upload documentation showing approval for the internal recruitment. Ideally, this will be a PDF of the email chain that starts with the initial request and ends with the appropriate team giving their approval. The attachments are visible to anyone in the workflow approval process. 
Step  4: Post the Job

Once the Job Requisition is complete and the Primary Recruiter receives the inbox task to post the job, they will be prompted to select which site to post to. They should select Internal and click the checkbox to preview the Job Posting, to make sure everything looks as expected.

Internal recruitment opportunities are required to post for a minimum of seven calendar days. In Workday, this means you should select seven days +1 for the End Date. (Since the Job Posting will come down at 12:00 AM on the date entered as the deadline.) This deadline can be extended as needed. 

Post Job TimelineThere is no need to select Primary Posting since that drives whether the posting will be scraped to external job boards. (e.g. LinkedIn, Indeed)

Additional Resources

Questions?

Contact Talent Acquisition

Updated: Jul. 11, 2025
Source URL: https://hr.wisc.edu/hr-professionals/recruitment/internal-recruitment-process-and-justification/

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