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Faced with skills shortages and economic uncertainty, companies are realizing that the fastest, most resilient path forward may be found in the people they already employ. One of the most striking findings from our 2025 State of Online Recruiting Report is the surge in internal hiring, which typically involves promoting a top performer or moving someone laterally. In just one year, the proportion of employers turning to their own workforces to fill open roles jumped from 16.9 percent to 42.3 percent. That’s a 150-percent increase. Internal hiring offers the benefits of filling positions faster and more confidently, while keeping budgets lean. Rather than spending weeks or months searching for the perfect external candidate who might not work out anyway, you’re developing the people who are already invested in your success and understand your culture and processes. But there’s more to it: The sharp uptick in employers hiring from within signals that leaders across industries are rethinking how they build and sustain talent. Essentially, you’re creating career pathways that engage and retain your workforce to succeed in the future. However, you’ll need to continually invest in your workforce’s development to ensure your best employees can step into new roles equipped with the right skills and knowledge. Featured Video An Inc.com Featured Presentation Upskill and reskill Our research also showed that 27.8 percent of employers have upskilled or reskilled current employees in the past year. This is a good sign that companies aren’t just arbitrarily promoting or moving people to avoid external recruiting costs. Whether upskilling initiatives involve formal training courses, mentorships, or on-the-job learning, the goal is to enhance performance, prepare associates for future roles, and keep your business competitive in a changing market. Another trend I’m hearing from industry leaders is that upskilling and reskilling are especially valuable future-proofing strategies given the aging and retiring workforce. Training employees to assume vacant positions and take over certain tasks from retirees can be more effective than bringing in someone new to fill an experienced worker’s shoes. Once again, you’re reshaping your existing assets—your people—to meet tomorrow’s challenges. Further, upskilling and reskilling can be beneficial in instances where older employees choose to remain in the workforce or delay or phase their retirement. Empowering them to learn new skills keeps them relevant, enriches their work experience, and makes your organization more agile. Boomerangs and pipelines A closer look at our report’s data suggests that internal hiring isn’t the only talent acquisition tactic employers are embracing that involves candidates who are right under their noses. Our survey found that 30.8 percent of companies had rehired former staff, also known as “boomerang” employees, in the past year. When you bring someone back who is familiar with your company—and with whom you still have a good relationship—you can accelerate your time-to-hire. As with promoting or hiring from within, you do not have to recruit from square one. In addition, the boomerang may also return with new skills, experiences, and perspectives gained elsewhere during their hiatus, adding fresh value. Aside from boomerangs, employers are also turning to their talent pipelines to quickly fill roles, with 36.9 percent of survey respondents reporting they hired from their pipeline in the past year. If you’re unfamiliar with this term, talent pipelines are commonly made up of candidates who have previously applied for jobs with your company but didn’t quite make the cut. They might have shown potential but were more suited for another type of role or narrowly missed out on the eventual hire. Pipelining can also involve connecting with passive candidates from resume databases, networking events, alumni networks, referrals, and more; however, you’ll need to nurture those relationships to ensure your connections will eventually want to work for you. Think of your pipeline as your insurance policy—you always have a solid candidate pool ready on deck to meet future hiring needs. Play the talent long game Regardless of economic conditions, strategies like internal hiring, upskilling, and pipelining are effective ways to acquire and develop the right people. Instead of getting caught in an endless cycle of recruit-hire-replace, such approaches can help build sustainable talent ecosystems. And, if these trends continue, internal hiring and upskilling could redefine workforce development and talent management for the next decade. But at the end of the day, making workforce development, work starts with hiring the right people in the first place. Don’t just hire someone to tick a box or fill an immediate gap. Once you get top-quality talent in the door, invest in their growth and guide them to best use their strengths to further your organization’s mission—and make their work meaningful and fulfilling. Ultimately, business leaders who play the talent long game will be the ones who come out on top, no matter what the labor market brings.
