Internal Mobility = The Key to Your Team's Agility

A New Talent Management Strategy
After a year that saw continued employee turnover; an economy still recovering from the aftermath of COVID (and further complicated by rising inflation); and a shocking percentage of employees reporting high levels of burnout and stress, it’s no surprise that HR and recruiters are now directing their attention to new talent-retention strategies. This is where internal mobility comes in: the practice of supporting career agility by shifting employees into new roles and projects beyond their job descriptions.

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Why Internal Hiring Matters
The movement of talent within an organization both laterally and vertically is key to preparing for the future. According to the World Economic Forum’s “Future of Jobs Report 2020,” an estimated 50% of employees will need to reskill by 2025 in order to remain competitive in the labor market. At a time when workforce engagement is being cited as the most pressing challenge for CEOs to address in the upcoming year, adopting internal mobility strategies can help leaders craft an employee experience that not only keeps workers engaged in their jobs, but also set them up for growth within the company—all while improving organizational performance, productivity, and profitability. 

Traditional jobs—which have always organized people around function and department—are now giving way to more fluid, flexible ways of working by organizing people around projects, tasks, and deliverables rather than their job descriptions. Internal recruiting is effective at accelerating productivity and can save large enterprises upwards of $400 million from expenses associated with recruiting and training new hires. By harnessing the power of your internal talent marketplace, prioritizing your existing teams can unleash organizational agility unlike no other. 

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Different Types of Internal Mobility Within an Organization
Internal mobility can take on many forms, all of which can help teams become more agile and better prepared to face the ever-changing business environment. 

Role-to-Role Mobility
More commonly known as “lateral mobility,” this type of mobility emphasizes an employee’s change in position, despite little to no changes in salary or level. Although this form of movement doesn’t necessarily follow the traditional career ladder, role-to-role mobility enables employees to apply their competencies in their current role to other areas of the business. It is central to cross-functional collaboration and knowledge-sharing, which can lead to career advancement opportunities later on. 

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Transfers
Transferring refers to when workers keep the same responsibilities, but change the physical location of their work. This often occurs across departments and can be either voluntary or involuntary. 

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Upward Mobility
Upward mobility is generally what is thought of when we consider sourcing from an organization’s internal talent marketplace. Aside from the financial benefits associated with moving vertically within the company, upward mobility is a powerful incentive for boosting employee satisfaction, productivity, and morale. 

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Project-Based Mobility
In 2023, project-based mobility is expected to redefine the ways in which we work. Rather than organizing work based on task or function, this form of mobility considers the movement of people based on both current and projected capabilities. As more employees seek out upskilling opportunities to grow their portfolio of competencies, workforce agility platforms like Claira are becoming increasingly necessary to help organizations close skill gaps and obtain a broader picture of the firm’s human capital. 

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Staying Agile in the 21st Century
Internal mobility is key to keeping teams agile, especially when it comes to small businesses and startups. Studies have shown that opportunities for employees to apply their competencies across a range of projects and deliverables are critical to reducing turnover among an organization’s most qualified employees. Forbes found that successful employee retention begins with showcasing what an organization can offer its employees—and career growth via internal mobility is a key benefit that attracts and retains qualified individuals, especially among Millenials and Gen-Z individuals. With nearly 48% of workers agreeing that they would switch to a new job if it offered professional development, placing people in roles beyond their job description is more important now than ever before. 

Claira caters to all of these forms of mobility, helping businesses of every size easily visualize and implement internal mobility through its dynamic competency map. By combining machine learning and market data to analyze an employee’s strengths and weaknesses, Claira’s platform can generate a people-centric competency map that enables leaders to visualize their team’s capabilities and identify gaps and growth opportunities. These data-driven insights can also reduce bias and unconscious subjectivity that often impacts the hiring process, including nepotism and unproductive work environments. As agility shapes the future of work, organizations that invest in their internal talent marketplace will be able to meet ever-evolving business needs and outperform their competitors.