Gone are the days when employee retention was not a headache! With emerging competitors in the market, 47% of HR professionals around the globe have stated employee retention as the biggest challenge. Most HR professionals are reevaluating their strategies to decrease employee turnover and enhance employee retention. Internal mobility is one such topic that requires attention to retain high-performing employees for the long term.
What is internal mobility?
Internal mobility can be defined as the shifting of employees into different roles at the same or higher level within the organization’s hierarchy. In the case of lateral movement, there may be a change in job title and job roles without moving up in the hierarchy. In the case of vertical movement, it usually refers to promotion into a senior job role with more responsibility, involvement, and management of the project.
While lateral movement within an organization provides more exposure to a new department, skill, and different work, vertical movement provides a step up in the level of seniority within the organization. In both cases, employees are confronted with new challenges that encourage their professional development. It also plays a significant role in leadership development that will contribute to the company’s growth in the future.
What leads to internal movement is preparing employees to adopt the movement. That’s where the opportunity for upskilling, training, and development programs play a significant role. It opens up the doors of opportunity for employees for career progression as well. Internal mobility is impossible if this step is not properly taken care of. Companies must design and encourage activities that provide them with professional development opportunities to move ahead in their career path.
Internal mobility is basically a scope for employees to grow their existing skill set or learn new skills that will help them to progress in their careers. It breaks the monotony of employees and encourages them to take on new challenges enabling their professional growth. Consequently, it provides a learning opportunity for the employees to grow in their job without switching companies. Internal mobility is one of the most important factors that can deter employees from looking for new opportunities in other organizations.
Significance of internal mobility in 2021 and beyond
In 2020, most employees were scared to lose their jobs. The tables have turned in 2021 as 40% of employees have resigned globally to look for new opportunities. Yes, it is the Great Resignation phenomenon that has been buzzing around recently.
The top reasons for such a resignation rate are new growth opportunities, a desire for more challenges, and greater flexibility. In short, most employees have realized that they are fulfilling the company’s goal while companies are not providing enough for their professional growth. This lack of opportunities has kept them stagnant during the pandemic.
Now that the pandemic situation is slowly subsiding, employees are looking for a change to join companies that will provide them with opportunities to achieve their personal and professional goals.
Companies that have already undertaken internal mobility through enough growth and development opportunities have gained a competitive edge in this landscape. It has definitely attracted the top talents to these companies while they happily retain the top performers.
Change in Factors that highlighted Internal Mobility
It is important to understand how internal mobility has played a significant contribution to the scenario of Great Resignation. Some factors that have evidently proved that internal mobility is essential for employee retention are as follows.
- Millennials and Gen Z: A major fraction of the workforce today comprises millennials and Gen Z changing the demographics of the workforce. Their work perspectives differ from the older professionals. They are swift decision-makers when it comes to their professional life. Most millennials and Gen Z workers look for a growth opportunity, and if a company lacks in providing them with those opportunities, the company cannot retain them. If we look into the statistics, today’s workforce has served companies for shorter terms than the previous generation workers. Since the perspective of the workforce has drastically changed, internal mobility opportunities are the only attempt that can retain employees for a longer-term.
- Enhanced Priority of Career Scope: According to a survey, 41% of companies that allow internal mobility have a greater employee retention rate than the companies that don’t. Most employees are switching jobs as they do not see any career advancement opportunities in their current job. Therefore, it is evident to implement internal mobility to retain top performers.
- Shift to Remote work culture: As most companies are working with virtual teams today, there are no geographical boundaries for employees. Employees can sit at their homes and work for companies located in other countries. Therefore, it has enhanced the accessibility of companies to the larger talent pool. With more options and career growth opportunities, it has become next to impossible to retain high performers without matching the standard of growth prospects. Internal mobility helps in upskilling the employees and thus it has become a major priority for employees as well as companies.
- Hiring chaos: Most HR professionals are dealing with the Great Resignation phenomenon today. Earlier, most HR professionals and companies preferred hiring new employees for existing roles. This trend was another cause that stirred mass resignation. On the other hand, internal mobility can reduce such chaos. It saves the company from spending hiring costs for the same job role again and again by preparing existing employees for that role.
In a nutshell, encouraging the personal and professional development of your employees not only leads to their career growth but also ensures better productivity of the company. Most employees are willing to stay within the organization if it provides career advancement opportunities through internal mobility.
As career growth and upskilling have become a significant factor on the priority list of employees, most companies will lose top performers if they do not implement internal mobility. Employees are reluctant to continue in their current job roles for a longer period. Even a lateral movement, if not vertical, within the organization can stir their stagnant work role giving them the challenges and scope of learning.
The Bottom Line
Internal mobility comes with lots of advantages for companies as well. It reduces hiring costs as HR professionals do not need to source candidates for internal hiring. Internal hiring also makes the onboarding process smoother and faster. Productivity is expected to improve as HR professionals already have the past performance reports of the employee. There are little to no chances of a bad hire or culture misfit, as the existing employee is already acquainted with the company work culture.
Latest posts by Raghu Nandhan (see all)
- Importance and Significance of Internal Mobility - November 24, 2021
- Delta Surge Vs. Job Market: Progress amidst Pandemic - October 3, 2021
