Articles 
Many organizations are well aware of the benefits of talent mobility — improved retention rates, higher employee engagement, better performance across hiring metrics — but few understand how to create an effective mobility strategy. An internal career site alone is not enough to drive an effective mobility strategy because it relies on a passive approach. Recruiters simply wait and hope that the right candidates will apply to the right positions. A true internal mobility strategy must be proactive.
Fortunately, modern HR departments are already accustomed to using proactive sourcing practices. The same activities you would use to cultivate external candidates — building candidate profiles, filtering talent pools, reaching out with targeted messaging, and providing a personalized candidate experience — are at the core of a successful internal mobility strategy. Use the following tips to create an internal mobility program that matches your employees’ career interests to your business needs.
Implement a Proactive Internal Mobility Program
Create Candidate Profiles with the Data You Already Have
Although it may be spread across different locations, your organization has far more data available to build profiles of internal candidates than it does for external applicants. From hiring documents to compensation and benefits reports to performance reviews, each one of your employees generates an information trail that can be put to use. Avature Mobility allows recruiters to aggregate data from different systems and create rich employee profiles that can then be used to populate the internal candidate database.
Build Internal Talent Pools
Internal candidate pools are a top source of high quality candidates. After gathering internal candidate information into a database, HR can easily search and segment the employee database to look for qualified candidates. When considering current employees for new roles, recruiters may choose to filter by particular skills, time spent in the company, or other criteria relevant to the requisition. After identifying potential candidates, recruiters can initiate contact with key stakeholders including the employee’s current manager or the hiring manager, or go directly to the employee. Organizations using Avature DNA can take advantage of the targeted ads feature to present employees with opportunities that may interest them.
Make Transparent Decisions and Communicate Clearly
Ensuring a great candidate experience should always be a priority, but it takes on added importance when dealing with your organization’s own employees. Various stakeholders such as the candidate’s current manager, hiring manager, and HR all play a role in the process, so it is vital that each individual receives the right communications at the right time. Avature Mobility enables organizations to automate emails and notifications based on their own guidelines, simplifying communication between several different parties. All interactions related to a candidate can be quickly accessed from their profile in Avature, allowing HR to see exactly what has been communicated to whom and ensure that nothing slips through the cracks.
Reap the Rewards of Internal Mobility
Hire Faster and Cheaper
Eighty-six percent of respondents to a 2017 survey from Bersin by Deloitte agreed that hiring internally results in a faster process. Eighty-nine percent said that internal hiring was less expensive. Time is money, and implementing an internal mobility program can help your organization save on both.
Reduced Time-to-Productivity
Current employees don’t require any of the procedural onboarding that is necessary for new hires, but more importantly they are already integrated into the company culture and are aware of resources they can use to navigate the transition to a new role. When hiring for critical positions in an organization, waiting for a new hire to grow into the role and reach full productivity can mean delayed projects and a rocky transition period. Bersin by Deloitte’s research found that internal new hires have fifty percent faster time-to-productivity than those from outside the organization.
Increase employee engagement
A strong internal mobility program is a win-win for both the employees and the company. Employees who see greater potential for their own growth and advancement with their current employer will be more willing to invest in the organization, resulting in higher levels of engagement–one of the most difficult challenges facing modern HR departments. Moving employees into different positions within a company also fosters more and stronger connections between teams and departments.
In today’s fast-moving job market, even blue-chip companies struggle to retain top talent. Rather than waiting for employees to find greener pastures elsewhere, a proactive internal mobility strategy can produce more win-win situations by encouraging employees to see their future within their own organization.
