According to a PwC interview, only 30% of CEOs say they have the talent they need to fulfill their future growth ambitions.
The talent gap is huge and as positions go unfilled, organizations very often tend to turn to external hiring to find their rare gems. However, this means overlooking the talent available within existing teams that have the skills or could be upskilled for the job and are looking to move on professionally. And lack of career progression is one of the first reasons why employees leave. Hence why enhancing employee development through internal mobility in your company is crucial to increase loyalty and retention.
We’ve mapped out the three first essential steps to implementing a successful internal mobility process.
1. Strategic workforce planning and skills mapping
Your strategic workforce plan is the first thing to have figured out to understand how to help with employee development in a way to also steer the success of your company. Start by mapping out skills in your organization to have a clear overview of available skills and the levels of each employee and team. For a smooth process, you can ask employees to self-assess on a regular basis to keep the mapping up to date. Measure both hard and soft skills, from technical knowledge to language proficiency to team spirit or management abilities for example.
Having this mapped out will help quantify mid- and long-term talent gaps to anticipate and plan accordingly. Those gaps complement your current skills inventory for each job and mapping them against future needs regularly to keep track. This will allow you to assess what kind of upskilling each employee needs and set reachable targets and KPIs to make sure you are going in the right direction. To collect the employee data, different tools exist, from custom internal or external tools to company social media, among others.
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2. Launch targeted upskilling programs and new ways of learning
Once you have your teams’ skillsets pinpointed, you can start putting in place your learning plans to bridge potential gaps. How you train your teams is up to you and you should collaborate with managers to find what will work best for each team also depending on the size of your company.
You can develop an internal Academy for instance with online courses, invite speakers on different topics, gamify learning with internal challenges or business games etc. You can make your own tailored training solutions or choose from the many off-the-shelf solutions that exist on the market.
3. Establish a learning culture
As mentioned above, professional development is a priority for workers nowadays. Chances are many of your current colleagues are already willing to learn. This is an opportunity for the company to develop and advertise a learning culture to boost participation and motivation.
Think long term. Developing talent could become a main advantage your company offers to stay attractive throughout the years and for all generations. Promoting a learning culture starts with leadership teams and putting in place the right incentives to motivate employees to learn.
HR’s role is of course crucial in establishing this culture of learning and upskilling through active communication and education with employees and managers and putting in place the right processes.
What internal mobility processes do you have in place? Or are you planning to implement an internal mobility strategy?
