The competition for talents continues, but what if the answer to your recruitment problem can be found within your current employees? Finding meaningful ways to track how victoriously your company retains employees is critical to its success.
Internal mobility is an important part of a talent acquisition strategy. Not only will digging into this resource increase employee engagement, but it will also make your company more robust during a crisis. This is why your company should consider the internal mobility metrics as essential key indicators of how to build the talent acquisition strategy. 

Internal Mobility: Why Does It Matter?

Internal mobility leads to employees moving between various roles within a company. It is critical to an organization’s long-term performance and future expansion, and this is likely the time when it matters the most.

So, how can you put up an internal talent mobility strategy that works? The following are the most essential parts:

Effective Management

A successful strategy for internal mobility starts with good leadership. Effective managers do the following whenever it comes to internal mobility:

1. Identify superior talent and potential
2. Build a relationship of trust with their coworkers.
3. Consider team members’ professional goals on a regular basis and brainstorm ways to achieve them within the company.
4. Employees should be mentored in order to achieve their goals, even if it means quitting the organization.

Make internal mobility a core element of your company’s culture.

The previous section’s final point may appear as anti. To put it another way, why would a manager want to support employees, particularly the most qualified, in leaving their company? The solution is to create a business culture that makes employees desire to stay.

Effective management contributes to the creation of a work environment that shows workers and outside applicants that your organization cares about their professional success and development.

In other terms, showing your concern for employees about their career prospects is one of the most powerful ways to persuade them that staying with your company is the ideal place for them to achieve their objectives. It also sets your organization apart from the competition, making it an extremely effective retention and hiring tactic.

In another sense, a positive company culture of internal mobility helps connect your corporate goals with those of your staff.

Hold yourself accountable

Internal mobility should not be seen as a one-time tactic. It is critical to building a formal strategy to turn it into a standard procedure. When putting your strategy into action, it’s critical to evaluate your progress and make adjustments as needed. Your evaluation of your talent mobility activities should include yes answers to the questions below:

1. Is your internal mobility plan vertically linked across your entire business?
2. Do you have any internal mobility objectives that can be measured?
3. Do your staff have simple access to internal career opportunities?
4. Do you have learning and mentorship programs in place to motivate managers in your business to assist other staff members in broadening their knowledge and experiences in order to obtain the training and skills required to advance in your company?
5. Do your bosses have a good understanding of the abilities needed for internal mobility? Are they able to successfully communicate objectives to their team?
6. Is it common for your organization, particularly managers, to talk with staff about their professional growth on a regular basis?

Internal Mobility KPIs to Consider

HR professionals need the correct key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor the effectiveness of their internal mobility programs in order to boost internal mobility. Senior managers won’t be able to tell if their internal mobility strategies are making a positive impact on staff growth or engagement without the correct KPIs.

When it comes to evaluating the efficacy of internal mobility initiatives, there are 4 types of success metrics to consider:

1. The percentage of internally filled positions

If your company only has room for one KPI, this should be it. This number represents the overall effectiveness of your internal mobility programs.

• The greater the number of persons who apply for internal positions, the better. Of course, one statistic does not tell the entire story when it comes to high-performing internal mobility strategies. HR teams and corporate leaders should dive deeper into this ratio’s context. One or more of the following methods could be used to dig deeper
• When you compare this figure across departments, you’ll notice that: If your company fills 50% of its roles internally, that appears to be a good thing on the surface – but what if the majority of those internal hires come from just one department? This indicates that internal mobility may not be broadly adopted within the organization.
• Comparing the source of internal candidates: was the majority of internal candidates directed to positions by peers, or were they referred to positions by executives? Investigating this will reveal who in the organization is most encouraging of your internal mobility activities, as well as where you can make changes. If the percentage is low, consider rewarding internal referral hires with bonuses or additional vacation days.

2. Internal mobility metrics for managers

Employees should feel comfortable discussing their career ambitions with their superiors in order to make internal mobility successful at a company. Sadly managers aren’t always excellent career mentors. Each organization will evaluate this differently, but looking at a manager’s history is one approach to assess their potential to facilitate internal mobility.

Getting promoted used to be the only way to change your title or progress up the career ladder. Therefore, as organizational structures have simplified, lateral movements have become more common.

We feel that any manager’s role should include being an excellent career coach. A manager who provides excellent feedback and has a strong track record of mentoring internal transferable personnel should be appreciated.

3. Metrics related to the “nature of mobility”

We suggest dividing all internal moves into the 3 groups below and computing the percentage for each: 

• Promotion:  while such category is shrinking, it still accounts for a significant portion of employment transfers — a shift in seniority.
• Job function: as LinkedIn executive writes the average individual in today’s market could have up to 15 positions throughout their lifetime. While this may be an overestimate, the point is that your employees are unlikely to spend their entire careers in the same position.
• A shift of business unit: rather than changing job responsibilities, those who want to continue in the same position but want something new can change business units. A telecommunications salesperson, for instance, could move from selling consumer cell phone plans to selling corporate contracts. Depending on the type of your organization, you may also want to investigate geographies or other types of adjustments.

4. Diversity and inclusion ratios

As already said, it is critical to provide staff with significant possibilities for advancement, yet there are several promotions accessible. It’s crucial to guarantee your internal mobility procedures encourage equal and fair chances for all. These figures are divided into the following categories:

• Minority representation: how many internal hires are made up of minorities?
• D&I vs. ‘Nature of mobility’: What are the differences in the “nature of mobility” among various demographic groups? Are white men, for example, obtaining significantly more promotional offers?

In a summary, your diversity and inclusion metrics should work in tandem with your other HR policies. You must allocate responsibilities and manage processes for monitoring each plan deployed using all of these KPIs. Then, to guarantee that progress is being made, analyze and track the results. If you not only evaluate results but also report them to managers, employees, and other key stakeholders for maximum transparency, you will have the greatest impact.

An effective internal mobility program can be a company’s hidden weapon for employee retention, but measuring success with people initiatives, including internal mobility programs, can be difficult.

Talent Mobility Benefits

Consider the following advantages when expressing the significance of making internal talent mobility a priority throughout the firm, whether your company lacks an internal talent mobility plan or you want to strengthen the one you have.

• Lower the cost of recruitment and onboarding
• Improve employee engagement and retention  Avoid layoffs and protect your brand.
• Give opportunities to expand their skill sets.
• Ensure that your company is always agile

5 Talent Mobility Best Practices

You can’t expect to increase your talent mobility overnight. Here are 5 internal talent mobility best practices that you can use right away without going overboard:

1. Seek leadership’s approval.
2. Begin a program of internal mobility.
3. Rethink your hiring procedures.
4. Start with the DEI.
5. Emphasize the candidate’s prior experience.

You’re all set to move!

Put a plan in action for your internal movement! We believe that by using some or all of these tactics, you will see a significant boost in your hiring results. Eventually, your company will be able to fill positions more quickly and efficiently.

So, instead of looking outside, take a look inside. Encourage your workers to do so. This will assist you in winning the race for best players!

Stay with us and read more related articles:
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