Lateral Hiring Confusion: What Does It Really Mean and Who Does It Include?

Hi All,

What is the exact definition of lateral hiring? At which level or experience range does it encompass? This is a very common term in recruitment. However, when suddenly asked about it in detail, I got confused. Please help me out with your views.

Thanks & Regards.

Hi Deepa,

I came across a very simple definition of lateral hiring - "professionals with several years of experience who move to a new company and assume a job at a level similar to the one they left."

It depends on the flexibility of the job description. If a candidate with non-relevant experience can fit into the position, then there are no issues. Most companies follow lateral hiring to maintain their standards.

Dear cite.hr,

I would highly appreciate it if you could elaborate more on the topic of "Lateral Hiring." I am still unclear with my doubts.

Thanks in anticipation.

Lateral hiring is mostly done for higher-level positions. It involves acquiring talent from other firms, such as partners and associates, who have similar experiences or expertise in relevant areas related to the business we operate.

I am still trying to get a more exact definition of lateral hiring! I will post it whenever I come across it.

Regards, Cite.hr

Lateral placements refer to when a company recruits someone at levels above the entry level (or the level offered to individuals with no work experience) based on the person's work experience.

For example, a company X hires students from XYZ MBA college at the Assistant Manager level (with no work experience). However, it offers the position of Manager to a student with, let's say, 3 years of work experience. This situation is known as a lateral placement in recruitment.

Hope you find this information useful.

Thanks, Mahesh...

But which definition is correct - Is lateral hiring for "higher-level positions" or "levels above the entry level"? There has been confusion among recruiters from different industries. Please clarify. Cite.hr your views, please.

Lateral recruitment refers to the process of hiring an individual who holds a similar designation, role, and responsibilities as the position being offered, typically without a significant increase in salary. In most cases, lateral recruitment involves transitioning to a different department or section within the same company while maintaining the same level of hierarchy and similar role and responsibilities.

Please let me know if you need any further assistance or clarification.

But how would a person be moved to another department/section of the same company? Is switching to another department equivalent to switching to another job profile? Please clarify for me.

Hi Jaspreet,

There are companies that practice such kind of lateral hiring to promote job enrichment or job rotation in order to motivate interest in work and avoid monotony.

Now, I'm completely cleared with my doubts, and very rightly, you pointed out that it's a transfer but not a promotion. Thanks a ton, Bhandvi. Take care.

Hi all,

Hey, I got your point. You mean to say that lateral hiring means when a particular company fills up positions above the entry level (which can also be at higher levels) through its own manpower (as Mahesh explained above) or peer group firms with similar experience but offering them higher perks/salary.

Is that correct, guys?

Regards,
Sandip Gajjar

Lateral Hiring

Recruitment of experienced people.
Its not the entry level recruitment of freshers and
because you are talking about experienced hand it has couple of challenges also.
* Salary expectation is high
*Cycle time
*Cost
Eg
Mumbai January 19, 2009 TCS to freeze lateral hiring
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country's largest IT services provider, has plans to freeze its lateral hiring, or recruitment of experienced hands. The company, which expects to take a final call on its hiring strategy next month, also says the next year's salary hike would be in single digit per cent range.
Lateral hiring is also associated often with company mergers. So the other challenge that you face is that the culture of both the organization should be looked into.
Hope this helps
Thanu :)

Lateral Recruitment

Lateral Recruitment is mostly done for higher-level positions. It involves acquiring talent from other firms, such as partners and associates, with similar experiences or expertise in areas relevant to the hiring organization's business. In other words, “The professionals with several years of experience who move to a new company and assume a job at a level similar to the one they left.” This cannot be considered a generic definition; however, it depends on the flexibility of the Job Description. If a candidate with non-relevant experience can fit into the position, then this definition stands correct for most Lateral Recruitments. It is a sort of hiring the potentials of the candidates without any additional or only notional increase in salary.

On the other hand, lateral recruitment is also processed for non-experienced candidates. This means when a company recruits someone at levels above the entry-level (or the level being offered to people with no work experience) owing to the work experience of the person.

For example, a company X hires students from XYZ MBA college at the level of Assistant Manager (for no work experience). However, it offers a post of Manager to a student with, say, 3 years of work experience. This will be called lateral placement in recruitment.

Regards,
Ashish Shrungarpure

If lateral hiring means hiring higher-level talent, then what is the difference between executive hiring and lateral hiring? Can anyone help me with the answer?