Human Resource Blog

Internal Job Postings

I have a colleague who has wanted to transfer to the HR department in our company. She has worked for our co. for 4 years. She has applied twice to entry level positions in HR and has been denied an interview twice. The reason given was no experience in HR. The Job description for both of these jobs did not specifiy experience. Are there any recourses she can take?

There is no law or even common practice that every internal candidate must be interviewed for a position.

If applicants from outside the company who have no HR experience are being interviewed (or hired) then your colleague may — we stress may — have a discrimination case. That is assuming that the reason she is being rejected is due to her race, color, religion, national ancestry, age, sex, pregnancy, disability, etc. However, our guess is that the company is receiving many applications from indivuduals who are more qualified than your colleague is. It is entirely legal to interview and hire the most qualified candidate.

It is not possible or desirable to put every job requirement on a job ad or job description for internal or external posting — so the fact that this requirement is not listed is not relevant.

Some companies have a policy of doing a *courtesy interview* of in-house candidates, even when they know the person is not qualified. However, being an internal candidate is a double-edged sword. The employee has the inside track, but the employer is also in a position to know more about the employees skills, work habits, etc. The HR Director may already know enough about your colleague to know she is not suitable for this position.

HR is a complex topic, and even entry-level employees are expected to have some training in it. Since your colleague is interested in HR, she should take some courses in it at a local college (even if she already has a degree in another field) or join SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management. SHRM has an excellent but expensive certification process for HR pros.