Internal candidate versus external slate: run both honestly
Benchmarking an internal candidate against externals is fair. Making externals audition for a decision already made is not.
When a strong internal candidate exists for a senior role, running an external slate can sharpen the choice or waste everyone's time - and the difference is whether the process is real. Candidates can smell a coronation. Search firms remember being used as free benchmarking, and they bill the reputation to your account.
Decide what the external slate is for
Two legitimate purposes: testing whether the internal bar is high enough, and pricing the market so the bar is informed. Both require genuine openness to the external winning. If the decision is made, make it - do not run a process.
If you run both, run them identically
- Same criteria, same scorecard, same rounds
- Internal candidates get no informal advantage: no extra access, no softer panel
- The debrief compares evidence against the brief, never familiarity against strangers
The internal-candidate failure mode
Internal candidates often interview badly for internal roles: they assume their work speaks for itself. It does not. Coach them to interview as if external - evidence, numbers, a thesis for the role. And if the internal person loses, deliver the decision personally and specifically; you have just told a valued employee they were second best, and how you do that determines whether they stay.