Creating more Talent Mobility

As I speak with talent and career development professionals from large companies all over the world, one of the most common and hottest topics that come up is talent mobility.?

This is essentially the ability for employees to move around and take on different positions or even careers within one organization.?

This is a hot topic for a few reasons.?

First, the great resignation has changed things for a lot of organizations this year. Attrition was up and employees realized they had more power to move around and try to find a career they loved.?

Second, this has caused organizations to realize that employees want to be able to moev around and try different things in their careers. It’s becoming less and less common for employees to take on a job and career in one function and stay there for 40+ years (whether they move up the ladder or not). Many people want more variety in their careers and want to try different things, and if they can’t find those options in their own company, they will obviously start to look elsewhere.?

Third, companies are running into challenges with not enough promotions being available for their ambitious employees who want to move up and are starting to rethink the idea of the “career ladder”. Instead, organizations are promoting the idea of the career “rock wall” or jungle gym.?

So companies want to encourage employees to think differently about their careers. To take ownership and to look for different ways to find fullment in their work. This leads to the obvious idea of looking for lateral or other moves that could provide more challenge, growth, learning, and value to everyone involved.?

My friend and fellow author, Julie Winkle Giulioni , wrote a great book about this subject called Promotions are so Yesterday, which is all about redefining career development so that employees can thrive.?

So what can we do??

Well, as I’ve talked about in the past, I believe there are three key pillars to successful career development and these are the same pillars that will support better talent mobility. I will also give you a bonus that is probably the most essential.?

Organizations

First, organizations need to provide the tools, resources, and pathways for employees to be successful. And company leaders need to establish a culture that encourages and promotes mobility. Otherwise, it’s not likely to happen.?

Some organizations I work with have built or bought software platforms to support mobility. These will often show different career roadmaps and what skills or experience might be needed to acquire different roles in the organization. Others are focused on making sure they promote and fill roles from within before going outside, therefore recruiters are encouraged to look for and contact qualified employees inside the organization before reaching out to potential hires from outside the organization. This one seems like such an obvious solution and yet very few organizations are doing it.?

I recently interviewed my friend Julianne Miles, SPHR from 美商宏鹰国际货运 about how she and her team are working to transform the culture to one that is focused on “growth from within” and therefore prioritize filling roles with existing employees before going outside (that episode will be coming out tomorrow on the Talent Development Hot Seat podcast).

The company also needs to make sure it’s easy to find and apply for jobs internally or it probably won’t happen. Ideally, it’s much easier than it is for an outsider to apply, though that is not always the case.?

Leaders

Next, we need leaders and managers to set the tone by supporting their people in achieving more in their careers. I truly believe a leader’s job is to empower and enable their employees to be successful and if every manager focused on that and led with a service mindset, we’d have a lot more engagement and talent mobility as well.?

But caring about people is not enough. Leaders can support more talent mobility by having regular career conversations with their employees and asking them what they want to try or accomplish in their careers as well as how they can help.?

This also means managers have to stop hoarding talent. They have to trust that by helping their employees move into other roles, they will be rewarded with other great employees who want to join their team. And that it’s better to have an employee leave their team but stay with the company instead of leaving altogether (which is what usually happens when the manager tries to hold them back).?

Talent mobility can also be greatly improved if managers go above and behind and start looking out for potential opportunities for their employees to move into other roles.?

When managers are having regular career conversations with employees and are open to supporting them in trying different things and pursuing other roles (and employees can come to their manager without fear of repercussions), we end up with a lot more talent mobility.?

Employees

Finally, we need employees to own their careers. This means that even though they do need help from the organization and their manager, they still take full responsibility for their careers and focus their energy on what they can control.?

In an ideal world, employees take time for self-reflection to think about where they want to go and what they want to do. If they are feeling a little complacent or stagnant in their careers, they can start to ask themselves why and try to get to the root of the issue. Is it about the actual job, or maybe their manager or team or work setup or something else? Providing a coach to employees can often help accelerate this process.?

Once employees have reflected and built more self-awareness, they can start to set a clear vision for where they want to go and then have a conversation with their manager to put a plan in place. That conversation is critical and it’s not happening often. But with supportive managers and employees who are not only clear on where they want to go but also proactive in requesting these meetings, they will start to happen a lot more often.?

When employees take ownership and get clarity on where they want to go, and they are supported by service-minded managers and organizations that support talent mobility, everybody wins!?

Where to start

Almost every organization I work with or speak with is trying to create more talent mobility and trying to figure out where to start. I personally don’t think it matters that much. All three areas are equally important. But I do know that without the mindset piece (leaders supporting their employees and employees taking ownership), the platform and tools won’t matter.?

And if you are going to invest in buying or creating a platform for mobility, make sure your employees and leaders know how to use it and feel empowered to do so. Otherwise, it will be a waste.?

Therefore creating that culture of mobility and teaching employees to own their careers as well as managers how to support their people in owning their careers is critical.?

If you want help teaching employees to own their careers and managers how to support them, reach out and let’s see if it makes sense for us to work together.?

I will have more great content and podcast episodes coming in the future on how to improve talent development and mobility so make sure you subscribe.