Why is it so much easier to get an external promotion at a different company rather than internal promotion

It's a known phenomenon yet companies keep doing it.

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/why-external-hires-get-paid-more-and-perform-worse-than-internal-staff/

I think once you've been somewhere for a while a lot of employers stop 'seeing' you and you just become part of the furniture.

I've been at my current company too long and this has definitely happened to me. I am reliable, knowledgeable, highly capable and good at thinking on my feet, but people have stopped seeing that because it's just 'me', where a new employer would be impressed. I'm also seeing this with a colleague who's been around too long.

Ive always thought its companys wanting fresh blood and new ideas coming in.

Because Managers usually pick people they like with the gift of the gab rather than people who can do the job . I’ve seen this time and time again . A lot of these popular promoted people are brilliant delegators and can get others to basically do their job for them . They are excellent finger pointers and deflectors too . Management think they are great and won’t hear a word against them .

Can you not negotiate a better package with an new employer on the strength of your current benefits? This is what a man would do in similar circumstances. Once they have offered you the position is the time to argue for a package which suits you. Remind them that younger/newer people don't have you experience and skills

Companies say they want new blood but often the new people are inferior to the ones they have. There was a lot of resentment in my former profession when people who had qualified by an internal route. worked their way up and knew the job thoroughly were leapfrogged by new graduates. Some of the new people were semi literate by my standards. I was in local government and I could see where things were going. I left to get a degree and never came back.

Get the new job offer, then tell your existing employer and ask them to match it. If they don’t, leave.

I once literally doubled my pay doing this.

Because most people they want to retain will not want to take the risk of leaving and losing accrued benefits and a known employer, so the cost isn’t just paying you more, it’s paying all the people more when actually only one or two will be brave enough to make the leap.

They want external talent to come and shake up the current company culture. There may be no obvious performance issues, but people start clicqueing, moaning about things, find their ways of doing things. Someone external can (not always but the hope is) break that up a bit. As to pay - you only really have the opportunity to negotiate at the stage you’re hired / promoted so they will always be able to come in higher, especially if they bring in external experience and or education in that field. An internal candidate will be able to perform that role based on what they’ve learnt along the way but won’t have all the trimmings.

Exactly this.

If you're promoting from within, it can negatively impact a culture of continuous improvement (which every organisation should have) if you're not continually bringing new people in who can look at everything through a fresh lens.

It also works both ways. For those with ambition, it is far better to switch companies so that you gain exposure to new cultures, systems, personalities, products etc than to look at the same walls, with the same people in the same culture and the same company. Not moving is a big contributer to 'burn out' as you start to resent going to work without realising that you have just never changed anything and burn out is just boredom and lack of challenge leading to frustration. (Huge problem in the NHS!).

If you’re good at the job you currently do lots of employers won’t want to risk someone doing your job and being rubbish at it, so they won’t promote you into another job

This. And anyone who moves a lot internally is probably being dumped onto a new team until someone bites the bullet of preformace measures.

A well-managed company defines clear career paths and opportunities for motivated people, and seeks to retain them. I feel as if a lot of U.K. companies are managed around cost and ego rather than long-term strategy and people retention…

Hiring an external person saves the never ending chain of promoting the person underneath then having to repeat that all the way down to the bottom rung of the ladder.

It can end up taking months and you have a ton of people in new jobs they all need trained up in.

I don’t really get it particularly when using a recruitment agency can cost ££££ for an external hire.

Because they’ve got you already.

I once had this explicitly explained to me by a very pissed off line manager - I’d gone for an internal promotion she wanted me to have, her boss went for a shiny new external candidate, & when LM said ‘but Corvus would be perfect for this role’, she was told ‘ah yes but this way we keep Corvus & get the new blood too’.

I left & went somewhere where I was the shiny new hire. The new appointment caused havoc & was gone within 3 months. They had to re-hire for both the promoted role & my original role.

…oops.

But yes, they will keep doing it!

If they promote you internally then they have to recruit to fill your role, then train that person in their new role as well as you in your new role.

I'm seeing this a lot in my current workplace. I'm not affected personally, but it's pretty terrible to see.

I also think a lot of managers are selfish and don't want to upset the apple cart, especially when it comes to supportive and back office roles. They want their shit to get done and know you'll do it.