Pre-Selections for Nurse Leader Roles

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, FAAN

One of our blog readers recently wrote about a situation where an outside candidate was hired for a leadership position that was not made available to other potential candidates in the organization. The lack of transparency of selection in some job searches can be very challenging. There are situations where you may in good faith apply for a leadership position only to later discover that there was in fact a pre-selection. The interview process may have been a facade to comply with human resource policies regarding how positions should be announced and filled. The question is whether there is a way to know this in advance of applying. I have had colleagues become very excited after interviewing with an organization but later feeling betrayed because the job search from the organization’s side was not in good faith. If it is an internal pre-selection, it is even more distressing because it can expose a lack of fairness and transparency in the selection process. There is little guidance out there in the leadership literature on this topic. As with anything else, it is helpful to do due diligence and look at the following issues

1. How long is the position posted for?

If the position that you are considering is posted for one week or less, there is a very strong chance that there is an internal candidate. This type of posting is often just done to meet a human resource requirement in an organization. The only possible exception is if the organization wants to limit the the number of outside candidates and does this with a quick turnaround.

2.What is the organization’s track record of selecting internal versus external candidates?

In a very small study on nurse leader succession planning done here in Florida, we learned that there was wide variation in the rates of internal versus external hiring. One organization reported that up to 90% of candidates selected were internal candidates yet they still externally posted positions.

3. What is the motivation for doing an external search?

Some health systems require that all positions be externally posted even if there is no intent to interview from the outside. It is always a fair question to ask during an interview about whether there are internal candidates for a position. There may be times when organizations do external searches because they want to bring diversity to their leadership team.

4. How robust was the interview process?

A telltale sign that there might be a pre-selection is a brief interview for a leadership role with many key players not involved. Generally, interviews for leadership roles are much more robust than those done for staff level positions. A colleagues recently told me that she applied for a high level nursing director position and was not interviewed by the CNO, despite her request to do so. Needless to say, she was not selected for the position and did later learn that there was a strong internal candidate.

5. Is there an interim leader already in the position who has applied for the role?

It can be very challenging to overcome the natural bias that leans toward the selection of an internal candidate who has successfully served in an interim role. If you are not currently in the organization, you are unproven. Human resource research does indicate that leadership selections internal to the organization tend to be more successful because there is already a good cultural fit.

6. Is there a new senior leader who might be interested in bringing trusted colleagues from a previous place of employment?

When there is turnover in senior leadership, internal candidates sometimes find that the new leader has a strong desire to “bring in new blood” often someone they have worked with before. When the new leader talks about “changing the culture”, it may be a telltale sign that they are looking for an external candidate.

So should you interview anyway if you find some of the above to be true. I always advise that you do interview if you are truly interested in the position. Going through the interview process will help you to hone your job search skills and reflect on things that you may be missing in your skill set. There are even more compelling reasons to interview. You may actually get the role in spite of all the signs of a pre-selection because you have been able to showcase your abilities. A second possibility is that you might get offered a different position within the organization as an outcome of a strong interview.

Without a doubt, pre-selections are challenging to deal with. But as Jeffrey Pfeffer has pointed out in his book on Power, life in organizations is not always fair and the sooner that we understand that the better. It is best to realize that leadership selections can be quite political and do what you can to deal with this phenomena.