Career Mobility Framework

After reviewing numerous internal Career Mobility articles and frameworks, I updated my model (below).?In this issue, I will highlight key components of the framework.?In future issues, I will dive deeper into each element.

Culture:?This often involves a mindset shift among hiring managers, managers of direct reports, recruiters, human resources, and executive leaders.?Unless leaders at the executive level believe in the value of internal mobility, the initiative is unlikely to gain traction. ?Leaders should hold their managers accountable for exporting their talent outside of their teams, including measuring, and rewarding manager efforts. Employees can also fear moving out of their comfort zone and need to be encouraged to grow potential skills to position them for future roles.

Internal Recruiting Process:?The candidate’s experience is just as important for internal applicants as it is for external applicants.?The interview process for internal mobility should be separate from that used for external candidates.?If an internal candidate is not selected, they should be provided direct and actionable feedback from the hiring manager so they can be more successful the next time they interview for an internal role. Internal recruiters should also be separate from external recruiters so they can focus on current talent.

Current Skills Audit: ?Internal mobility is only possible if managers know what each of their team members is capable of and the skills they have, even those skills they may not be using in their current role. ?It is also important to track these skills at the organizational level for future mobility.?According to Josh Bersin, looking at the workforce as people in boxes is holding organizations back. Business agility is about seeing the workforce at a skill level and bringing the skills to where they are needed to solve business problems.

Career Paths: Employees and candidates expect that organizations will have a track in place to help them develop and move vertically or laterally in the firm.?If you want to be successful at internal mobility, you need to have career paths for employees so they can upskill, try new roles or teams, and have opportunities to work on different projects as they advance in the organization.?It is also helpful to have roles assigned to some type of hierarchy structure such as Job Family Groups, Job Families, and Job Profiles.

Future Skills & Workforce Planning:?Learnit states that organizations are seeing their skill requirements rapidly evolving.?At the same time, employees are looking to expand their skill sets and explore new professional interests.?As internal mobility is about the movement of employees across roles in an organization, its foundation lies in teaching employees new skillsets (reskilling) or improving their existing skills (upskilling).?Workforce Planning is the process of analyzing, forecasting, and planning workforce supply and demand to ensure that the organization has the right people with the right skills in the right places at the right time.

Upskilling & Reskilling Resources: ?Most organizations have a learning platform such as Coursera, Degreed, LinkedIn Learning, etc. for upskilling and reskilling.?Leadership development programs are also important to reskilling in preparation for a team manager position. Career Development programs can help internal applicants master the internal mobility process.?Other resources include certification programs, on-the-job training, and stretch assignments such as projects, job shadowing, or other rotations.

Internal Marketplace:?Start by looking at your current and future needs, along with any obvious skill gaps.?Then create an internal system where opportunities for mobility, new roles, or even new projects can be shared with your employees.?Managers can collaborate on selecting the right employee(s) for each opportunity.?Gartner Peer Insights has reviews and ratings of Internal marketplaces.?Some of the top-rated four-star (out of five) providers include 365 Talents, Fuel 50, Gloat, PeopleFluent Talent Mobility, and Acendify.

Empower Managers: ?Managers can gain insights from their 1:1 meetings, performance reviews, and 360 feedback to determine which opportunities employees should pursue.?It is also a very effective way to move team members onto the right projects, offer them chances to take on leading a team, try a new role, or even shadow a role in another department.

Coaching & Mentoring:?According to Lever, mentorship may not seem like an internal mobility strategy but offering employees coaching or mentorship opportunities can better equip them for role changes, upcoming promotions, as well as leadership and development opportunities.?You could even pair a higher-level employee in another function with an employee who is interested in moving to that function so they can understand the gap between existing skills and those needed in the different functional roles.

Talent Review & Succession Process: According to PeopleFluent, organizations of all sizes can benefit from succession planning which is a focused process for keeping talent in the pipeline.?Talent Reviews can help identify employees who should be considered in succession planning. This process is not just for junior or mid-levels, it also applies to managers, directors, and people in leadership roles.?

Which of these elements are at work in your organization??Please feel free to share in the comments as I would like to learn more about your experience with internal career mobility.