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Most organisations still take a traditional approach to hiring that defaults to filling new roles with external talent.
But they’re overlooking their top source of talent – their current workforce. Taking an intentional approach to moving existing employees to new roles, projects and gigs within your organisation – known as internal talent mobility – can help you create an agile workforce capable of seamlessly pivoting in response to rapid change.
While internal mobility has often been overlooked or underutilised, more employers are starting to recognise its benefits. The 2019 Deloitte Human Capital Trends report found that 76% of C-suite executives rate internal talent mobility as important, and 20% rate it one of their organisation’s three most urgent issues.
Whether your organisation lacks an internal talent mobility strategy or you’re looking to improve the strategy you have in place, consider the following benefits when communicating the importance of making it a priority across your company:
Reduce recruitment and onboarding costs
The 2020 LinkedIn Global Talent Trends report found that 63% of talent acquisition professionals believe internal recruiting accelerates the hiring process, while 69% believe it speeds up new hire productivity. By hiring from within – whether for an open role, project or gig work – you can bypass many of the hiring steps and costs you would otherwise incur with an external hire.
Avoid redundancies and preserve your brand
In times of change, focusing more on redeployment before making redundancies can help your organisation maintain institutional knowledge, which can provide a competitive edge, especially when the economy recovers.
Taking extra steps to facilitate internal moves before needing to make redundancies also helps protect your organisation’s employer brand and can drive positive employee satisfaction ratings on sites such as Glassdoor.
Improve employee engagement and retention
Talented employees who don’t see opportunities for growth and development with their current employer won’t hesitate to look elsewhere for work. Without career development resources and opportunities for internal talent mobility, your organisation may risk losing top talent. Conversely, by enabling internal talent mobility, your company can retain top employees and boost engagement by up to 30%, according to Deloitte.
Empower employees to grow their skill sets
Data from McKinsey projects that as many as 375 million workers – or 14% of the global workforce – will have to switch occupations or acquire new skills by 2030. You can support the long-term employability of your workforce by encouraging them to take on new roles or temporary assignments. With this approach, employees are more likely to meet their goals and close skills gaps efficiently – promoting both your success as a business and individuals’ long-term employability.
Drive ongoing agility across your organisation
While at this time last year, nobody could have predicted the widespread impact of the global pandemic, organisations with an agile approach to their workforce are better equipped to navigate disruption in any circumstance.
By taking a deliberate approach to talent mobility and enabling smooth internal transitions – whether to new roles, teams, projects, or gig work – you can support a growth mindset across your organisation that is so critical to agility.
Creating a culture of internal talent mobility
Maintaining a strong culture of internal mobility isn’t just about posting positions on an internal job site. To be a truly agile organisation, it’s important to make internal talent mobility a priority by developing a culture that encourages talent sharing across all levels and departments.
This includes setting expectations with managers that their teams are impermanent and helping them recognise the value of making talent visible and mobile throughout the organisation. Maintaining a talent sharing mindset is in everyone’s best interest.
