Internal Mobility

What is internal mobility? 

According to Schreiber-Shearer (2024), internal mobility is the movement of employees (both vertically and horizontally) to new career and development opportunities within the same company. Some examples of internal mobility include promotions, new positions, mentorships, cross-functional projects, job shadowing, and job swaps. 

Internal mobility is also known as career mobility or talent mobility. Whatever you want to call it, the foundation remains the same: giving your talent the ability to pursue a broader range of opportunities to not only create more capable and engaged employees but also a more resilient organization. The best internal mobility strategies encourage people to take on new growth opportunities that align with the employee’s long-term career goals and business priorities.

Different types of internal mobility

1. Role-to-role mobility - Also known as lateral mobility, role-to-role mobility means transferring to a different position with little to no change in level or salary.
2. Upward mobility - Commonly known as a promotion, upward or vertical mobility rewards high performers, offers a hand in succession planning, and a sense of security when people in key leadership positions are close to retirement.
3. Transfers - Also known as geographical mobility, transfers usually imply staying in the same or a very similar position, but changing locations. 
4. Project based mobility - Project-based mobility is similar to transfers, but it doesn’t always involve a change in location. Team members can join colleagues from a different department for the duration of a project.

Benefits of internal mobility 

Employees want to know there are real chances for them to be promoted. They want to know their efforts are not in vain, but instead, they are observed and rewarded. Internal mobility helps with all that (Visier Team, 2023). Here are its most important benefits.

• 
  Employee retention - Having an internal mobility program is a way to directly signal to employees that they can promote or change to a different position 
• Reducing hiring costs - Hiring externally can cost a lot. Companies need to invest in attracting the right candidate, spending time with interviews and tests, and finally go through the onboarding process
• Improved engagement - Engaged employees have lower absenteeism rates and perform better. One way to increase engagement is to offer people the opportunity to continuously learn new things and use all their skills, both of which are essential to internal mobility
• Resilient workforce - When you prioritize learning and development and have employees who are ready to take on other roles easily, you create a resilient workforce that can stay productive and competitive at all times 

Getting internal mobility right - Schneider Electric

In 2019, Schneider Electric, which has 140,000 employees worldwide wanted to solve its retention problem. So the energy management company launched a talent marketplace (open talent market) that allowed employees to find internal roles. Schneider workers entered their business titles and the marketplace used AI to match those titles to new roles, gigs, and mentorships. Employees were thrilled, within 3 months around 85,000 have registered (Laura, 2023). 

"It was easier to leave Schneider and get rehired, than to find a job within the company" - Jean Pelletier (Vice President - Schneider Electric)

As part of this effort, the talent team updated the marketplace to focus on skills and created a skills management team to oversee the shifts to skills-first. This team researched transferable skills and found that, among other things, Schneider's financial analysts had 50% of the skills needed to be data analyst - which meant people could be moved across functions (Laura, 2023). 

 

Conclusion 

The goal should be progress, not perfection. Internal mobility is essential if you want to have a resilient workforce that can adapt to the unpredictable and perform well. It boosts engagement, retention, and employee satisfaction, helping people cultivate skills beyond what is strictly required for their current position. 

In summary, an internal mobility program can improve employee development and engagement, reduce turnover, and succession planning, which can benefit the company by retaining and developing its workforce.

References 

Laura, H., 2023. Linkedin.Talent Blog. [Online]
Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/business/talent/blog/learning-and-development/companies-that-are-getting-internal-mobility-right
[Accessed 06 08 2024].

Schreiber-Shearer, N., 2024. What is internal mobility and why do you need it?. Gloat.

Visier Team, 2023. Internal Mobility: A Strategic Guide for HR Leaders. Future of Work • Talent Management.