We tend to talk a lot about talent acquisition and how to hire top talent, but what about retaining them? How do we hold on to the good ones?

We’ll get straight to the point - it’s all about internal mobility.

What’s internal mobility? Basically, it’s when employees are able to progress in their career or switch to an entirely different pathway, while remaining in the same company. Things like promotions, mentorships, job swaps and demotions are all types of internal mobility.

The stats show that when employees hit their two-year mark with a company, they are much more likely to stay on if they’ve had the opportunity to make a move internally (or at least can see the potential to do so).

If you want to retain your top talent then internal mobility should be a part of your organisational strategy, alongside career and talent mobility. It’s all about giving your employees access to opportunities that can not only make them a more capable and engaged employee, but help your organisation become more resilient and agile.

It’s not just about putting something in place and hoping for the best, you need to let your employees know and provide them ongoing education and clear development plans and paths that will allow them to make the most of their time with you.

So how can you create a culture of internal mobility in your organisation and build a successful program that will not only get your employees excited, but will actually work? Let’s dive into that shall we.

Is it really that important?

Absolutely! Why else would we write a whole article about it?

Since the pandemic that shall not be named (Covid), we’ve seen “The Great Resignation” and the rise of ‘quiet quitting’ - employees are re-thinking and re-evaluating what they value and what’s important to them more than ever before, and their careers are typically the first thing on the list. If you want them to see working for your organisation as valuable to them, then you need to make it valuable - internal mobility can help there.

Internal mobility gives employees something to keep them engaged with their work. If they can see the potential to grow themselves, their skills and their career while working for your organisation, then there’s no need for them to look elsewhere to find it.

There’s also a few flow-on effects for your organisation too.

It gives you the chance to fill any critical skill gaps you have by simply teaching the employees you already have. Upskilling your current talent is much easier (and cost effective) than going through the tedious hiring process (we love a strong ROI).

It can also improve your company’s overall culture and reputation. When you’re upskilling current employees, you know they already fit your company culture. This can cut down your turnover rate, which is always something jobseekers are looking for.

Common barriers & challenges

Unfortunately it’s not as easy as just diving straight in and getting things set up. You need to ensure your business is capable of supporting an internal mobility program.

First thing to look at is your HR department. Do you have adequate staff and are they represented at C-level? Are your policies and procedures functioning maturely and not purely focused on survival?

Next, are the various units of your business working together or are they siloed and separate? Can they operate cross-functionally? If you want to give your employees the opportunity to potentially expand their career into new areas of the business, each sector needs the ability to function together to allow such transitions.

Another major hurdle to overcome is changing negative mentality. The idea of giving employees a chance to advance themselves can leave some fearing they’ll lose their best people, that keeping them in their current role or at their current level will stop them from thinking they could go elsewhere (though we know that actually the opposite is true). There can also be concerns that implementing internal mobility will cause serious disruptions to teams and make more work for managers as they’re left back-filing positions people leave behind. Sure, this might be true, but better to be back-filling then trying to find talent to fill those more advanced roles.

Then there’s the challenges that can arise once something is actually put in place, like a lack of transparency and communication. If your employees don’t know about it, how can they use it? Even before launch, you need to ensure you provide adequate information to your employees about what it is, how it works and the benefits it can have for them. Team managers need to be showcasing this as a development opportunity for their teams. This means your managers also need to have a good understanding of the process and the overall strategy behind it.

How do I know it’s working?

Alright, so you’ve put in the work and managed to get some internal mobility set up, yay! Now, how do you keep track of things and actually understand if it’s working?

The best way to do this is to keep track of the results - we’ve got two suggestions on how you can do this.

Develop a company-wide skills database. Think about what skills your business needs right now and what skills you might need in the future and compile them into a database. Later on, once your employees have had some time to utilise this new opportunity, go back to your database and look at which of those skills you’ve been able to add to your business as a result. If there’s some you still haven’t managed to tick off, it might be time to reevaluate and think about what you can do to complete those lists.

Employee Pulse Surveys. One of the best ways to know what your people think about this new initiative is to, well, ask them. See what they think is working and not working, where any improvements could be made and see what teams are actually engaged with it.

How do I get people excited about it?

For your internal mobility program to find success, your key audiences need to be excited about it. We’re talking about hiring managers and (most importantly) your employees. Just putting something together and throwing it out there isn’t usually the most effective way to get people to want to engage with it. So what should you do?

One way is to create an employee directory that links with an internal careers portal. This allows your employees to not know what internal opportunities are on offer and allows your hiring managers to easily connect with potential candidates.

You’ll also want to develop a culture of growth within your organisation. Everyone in your business needs to understand all the great benefits that your new internal mobility program has to offer. Why should they spend time looking at it? What can they get out of it? Help them understand why they should be excited.

Let’s go up a level to the big bosses - your CEOs, CFOs and other important C people, why should they be excited about it? By making sure your programs are measurable, you can show them the results that speak to them. What kind of savings have you made on hiring the past year? How have employee performance reviews improved? Let them see that the time, money and resources for this program is well worth it.

What results should I expect?

We’ve talked about how to implement, how to measure and how to get people excited, so to finish, let’s look at what actual results you should expect to see if you’ve managed to nail all of the above.

• Fill vacant roles faster - with current employees ready and waiting with their new and improved skills, you no longer have to wait for external applicants with the necessary requirements to come along and apply - you already have the perfect candidate. With this increased lateral growth and bridge in skills gaps, don’t be surprised when someone from the marketing department takes on that role in IT.
• Greater retention and improved engagement of existing employees - with something to work towards, a way to improve themselves and just something other than their daily grind to focus on, your existing employees are going to be more excited about coming to work every day.
• Increased talent attraction - when people outside your company see that you’re offering this opportunity, they’re going to want to come work for you. Make sure your internal mobility program features heavily in your Employee Value Proposition and you’ll have people banging down the door wanting to come in.
• Create a culture of continuous improvement - people love to learn. With your new and improved internal talent mobility, your best people will happily stay on board for the long haul.

Ready to give it a go?

Developing internal mobility isn’t just about creating internal talent pools (it’s much more than that). It’s about helping the culture of your company, developing an ability and excitement for growth. If you not only want to attract the best talent, but hold on to them, giving them the opportunity and encouragement to drive their own career with you is key.

Don’t believe us? Go on, give it a try (and don’t blame us when we say we told you so).