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UK organisations are currently walking a precarious tightrope in today’s talent market; balancing the need to recruit skilled and engaged talent with the requirement to contain cost and remain flexible with an uncertain economic future ahead.
The additional challenge of contending with minimising talent losses, brought on by the changing attitudes to employment we’re seeing as we come out of the pandemic, makes it an interesting time to be an HR professional.
In Q1 of this year, we conducted a survey into how UK organisations are approaching talent mobility. We wanted to understand what current strategies are being used, and how UK firms plan to address their challenges over the remainder of this year. The results offer some useful insights into how organisations across the UK are managing the flow of talent.
The biggest shift in what organisations are currently doing to meet their resourcing demands, and what they intend to do in the coming months, is the reduction in dependence on contractors and the desire to promote more internal mobility.
This isn’t purely based on cost; it’s a desire to have better cultural fit and have employees engaged over the long term.
However, the desire to increase internal mobility seems hampered by a lack of investment in the process. Nearly two thirds of organisations don’t currently have a redeployment programme in place. And, of those that do, only 11 per cent say it’s highly effective.
The survey report also sheds some light on why effective redeployment efforts might be failing. One of the fundamental components of a good redeployment programme is knowing who can do what. Our survey found that only one in three organisations estimates it has accurate skills data on more than 60 percent of the workforce.
Without a clear picture of the skills and capabilities at your disposal amongst your existing employees, it’s very difficult to redeploy people successfully. If you also don’t have insight into their aspirations and career goals, it becomes even harder to retain and engage them with new opportunities internally.
Our report provides a response to both these challenges with a guide to three key actions you can take to create a culture of internal mobility.
It’s clear that in 2022 and beyond, organisations need to find new ways of being more resilient and adaptable in flexing resources according to business need. The employee experience, and being able to offer clear career paths that keep people engaged, are already competitive differentiators in the war to attract – and retain – talent.
Promoting more internal mobility can also drive other people priorities, such as inclusion. When under-represented groups in your workforce can see a diverse range of career paths on offer in your organisation, they are more likely to stay. They can, in turn, act as ambassadors, both internally and externally, to highlight the development and successful career journeys you offer.
While the intensity of current talent challenges can seem overwhelming at times, these challenges can be overcome with innovative approaches and new ideas. You can download the full survey report, which includes some practical suggestions on tackling these issues, by clicking the button below.
