Abstract:
Internal Recruitment is a method that an organization encourage potential employees to apply for
existing or future job openings within the current workforce, hence, it has the ability to motivate
employees and enhance their outcomes. Apparel industry is one of the major industries in Sri Lanka
in terms of revenue for the country and the operational level employees are the key workforce within
the apparel industry and their performance is very important for organizational performance. With the
empirical gap which identified by reviewing literatures, it is necessary to identify whether the internal
recruitment impacts on operational employees‟ job performance. The primary objective of the
research is identified whether Internal Recruitment impacts on the Job Performance of operational
level employees. The secondary objectives are to identify the current internal recruitment methods
mostly used by the apparel industry, identifying the relationship between internal recruitment
methods and job performance and identifying the issues and barriers faced by the apparel industry
when recruiting internally. This study used mixed approach and a structured questionnaire was used
to collect data over a conveinent sample of 108 respondents who were operational employees in the
apparel industry. Further, structured interview was conducted in order to gather qualitative data with
human resources professionals to achieve third research objective. Descriptive statistics, correlation
coefficient and regression analysis were used to analyze the quantitative data and thematic analysis
was used to analyze qualitative data. According to the findings, internal recruitment significantly and
positively impacts on operational employees‟ job performance and job promotion and
supervisor/employee referral has positive and significant relationship with operational employees‟
job performance and job transfer has negative and insignificant relationship. Further, job promotion is
the currently most used internal recruitment method in apparel industry and the influence of
interviewers‟ perspectives, lack of performance management and legal issues are the main barriers
which are the industry face when using internal recruitment policies. Therefore, the practitioners are
encouraged to follow effective internal recruitment methods like job promotion and
supervisor/employee referral to increase operational employees‟ job performance.
Keywords: Apparel Industry; Internal Recruitment; Job Performance; Operational Level Employees
