Even with data siloes, it might be a more viable option than you think. Key Takeaways Steward a cultural shift to partner with key stakeholders in HR and Development Review your tech stack and consider investing in data transferability Automate your plan as much as possible to take advantage of emerging talent It seems intuitive to promote existing leaders from your company into C-Suite roles. After all, they already know the culture and have the industry knowledge necessary to do great work. But in-house executive recruiting leaders will be the first to say it’s not as simple as it seems. They find that a lack of transparency between internal teams and siloed data often gets in the way of promoting from within, despite an earnest desire to do so. In this post, we’ll explain why that dynamic exists for many organizations and share a few ideas from the community to help. Executive Search Lives on an Island Having an in-house executive talent function is still relatively new for many companies. If you’re among those leading the charge, you now find yourself building teams and processes in a new business unit that has yet to be fully integrated with the existing talent, HR, and business development cohorts.Likely, you have a separate budget. The scope of your work is vastly different from general recruitment for non-executive roles. You also inherited an existing tech stack typically comprised of an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to move non-executive candidates through a hiring process and a Human Capital Management System (HCM) that handles important processes such as payroll and internal talent management. Unfortunately, you and your executive recruiters can’t leverage these tools because they fail to support the long-term, high-touch approach required to hire for leadership roles. So, you either purchase executive-specific software like Thrive TRM or keep important candidate and relationship information in other places like spreadsheets. While this dynamic is extremely common, it does not foster the collaborative environment needed for internal leadership recruiting. Unlock The Data Potential Within Your Organization At every community event, we hear the same refrain, “I wish I had access to that data,” about the information contained within an organization’s ATS or HCM system. This includes things like: Employee skills and experiences Internal employees’ job preferences and interests Recent promotions or certifications Executive search leaders want to see this information to: Identify whether or not to add an employee to their leadership network Compare internal and external candidates effectively Validate they have scoped the entire talent landscape Collaborate on succession planning initiatives If the data you need is housed within an ATS or HCM software, gaining access is the first hurdle. There are legal constraints regarding how companies can collect, use, and share employee information, so be sure to consult with the appropriate team administrator to determine whether you can gain access. Explain why you need the data, and how it will be used. Be sure to investigate whether any special handling is required due to privacy protections. Depending on the subscription agreement, a request for a user license may denied due to plan limitations, or permissions may be limited to view-only. If you can’t access the information directly, you’ll need to find an ally on a team with access who is willing to export the data to you. Once you have the data in hand, some cleanup may be required before you and your team can leverage it for executive search work. In addition to transferring the data, there is also an important transparency component required to truly make promoting internal hires to leadership roles a company-wide initiative. Why Partnering With Stakeholders Outside of Executive Search is Key Executive search leaders should make it a priority to partner with stakeholders from HR, talent management, and business development to boost transparency around their need for internal talent data. After all, when employees have a clear path to leadership roles, the whole organization wins by building a stronger culture and saving costs on recruiting external hires. As with any cross-collaborative initiative, it’s best to start by understanding existing practices for handling internal candidate career pathing and development, as these can vary widely. For example, some companies prefer to have a formal intake process for internal promotions while others rely on more relaxed learning calls to gauge who is interested in future leadership roles.Knowing this helps you make stronger recommendations for areas where talent roles overlap, such as succession planning. For example, if you have an informal approach, and a high-performer is identified as a potential candidate for a senior role, do you need to communicate that to their manager early on? Or should you wait until they’ve gone through a few interviews or skills assessments with your executive recruiters first? Will the executive search team backfill the position if they are selected? What happens if the candidate doesn’t receive the promotion? Who delivers the feedback about why they were not selected?These are all areas that need to be negotiated based on existing practices and the goals of your specific in-house executive talent team.The other key piece to promoting a culture of transparency is sharing the success stories about when internal hires are promoted to leadership roles. If stakeholders feel they contributed to advancing an employee’s career path, stewarding cultural values, or saving the company money to be reinvested elsewhere, they will be more inclined to continue collaborating in the future. Conclusion Promoting internal candidates to executive roles involves navigating data silos and building cross-functional partnerships. In-house executive talent leaders who take proactive steps to identify the existing data available to them across their tech stack and build strong relationships with internal stakeholders in HR, talent management, and business development functions will be in a stronger position to maximize their internal talent pool.