Are you struggling to spot and retain the talented employees for your organization? Do you feel like for some reason your internal talent pool is receding? if so, you are not alone. Talent leakage is a serious problem that affects many organizations today.
In today’s highly competitive business landscape, organizations are constantly facing challenges in identifying and retaining their top talent. Talent leakage refers to the loss of skilled and experienced employees who leave an organization for various reasons, like better opportunities, higher pay, more recognition, more flexibility, or not enjoying the fitment between individual’s skills and the role. However, when it appears that your potential workforce is calling it a quit because he/ she doesn’t enjoy anymore doing what he/ she had been doing so far, organization can consider to commission a system for internal mobility of the employees.
Internal mobility of employees means allowing and encouraging your existing staff to explore different roles, projects, departments, or locations within your organization. It involves creating a culture of learning and growth where employees can develop new skills, expand their horizons, and advance their careers.
Internal movement of employees can benefit both employers and employees in many ways:
- Can reduce hiring costs and time by filling vacancies with internal candidates who already know the organization’s culture, values, processes, and customers.
- Can increase employee engagement and retention by providing them with more opportunities for career development, recognition, and satisfaction.
- Can improve employee performance and productivity by matching them with roles that suit their strengths, interests, and goals.
- Can foster innovation and collaboration by exposing employees to different perspectives, ideas, challenges, and solutions.
- Can enhance diversity and inclusion by promoting equal access to opportunities for all employees regardless of their background, gender, or age.
In short, Internal mobility can also prevent your employees from getting uninterested about the role and organization, and resulting in silently looking out for ways to quench their thrust for newness outside. It’s like giving them a breath of fresh air, but without them having to go outside to do so.
But how do you implement internal movement of employees effectively?
Employees should be made aware of such opportunities available to them and the managers should also be oriented and trained to spot the talent cross-functions. Organization can consider processes like skill mapping, IJP, Cross training, etc. and frame proper internal mobility policies.
Skill mapping is the process of identifying the skills, knowledge, and competencies of employees in an organization. This process helps organizations understand the skills gap and identify areas where training is needed. Additionally, it helps employees understand the skills they need to develop to advance in their careers. Moreover, it helps organizations identify areas where they lack talent and develop training programs to fill those gaps.
Internal Job Posting (IJP) is a process where employees can apply for job openings within their organization. This process enables employees to explore new career opportunities and apply their existing skills and knowledge to different roles. The IJP process also allows employers to retain their top-performing employees and fill vacant positions with internal talent.
The cross-training/rotation approach is beneficial for both employees and employers. Cross-training is like teaching your employees another set of skill sets to perform job roles that are different from the role they were initially employed for. A cross trained employee would be beneficial for the organization and can come handy to manage the running of the process when designated official is not available.
Such initiatives will keep your employees engaged and motivated, as they are constantly challenged by new tasks and responsibilities. And the best part, you don’t have to pay considerable cost to hire new employees or search through the haystack for the perfect candidate as you already have a group of talented individuals in your organization who are eager to take on new challenges and expand their skill set.
