The Best Ways To Encourage Internal Mobility for Your Employees

A little bit of staff rearrangement, or internal mobility, can be significantly beneficial for a company and add to the growth and development of the firm, especially with recent emphasis on skill-up schemes as opposed to rehiring, enhancing the career paths and development opportunities within the organization.

As a result, many businesses are encouraged to boost internal talent mobility, leading to workers' movement from one role to another within the firm—internal mobility enhances career advancement and leverages existing skills. Internal mobility refers to the internal move of employees—either vertically or horizontally—within the same enterprise, often through internal mobility programs designed to maximize employee retention and talent management.

It is usually to promote internal talent mobility and encourage organizational development, especially when existing workers have to develop new skills and engage in leadership development. The movement of workers generally concerns job descriptions and responsibilities of employees within the organization, aligning business needs with internal talent through career mobility.

This article will discuss best ways to encourage internal mobility for your employees, support internal mobility and promote internal talent mobility for your employees, enhancing career development and meeting business needs.

What is internal mobility?

Internal mobility is the vertical or lateral movement of existing workers within the same organization. Employees change job descriptions and internal moves from one position to another to perform different responsibilities, contributing to long-term success and career advancement.

There are usually several factors behind internal mobility, ranging from company internal candidates to external recruits, all playing roles in mobility in your organization. Some of the elements range from company interior selections to external problems affecting the company, necessitating lateral moves and career paths adjustments.

A typical example is the COVID-19 pandemic as it affected various businesses—causing employees to race within the company to fill in the gap, a process supported by internal talent pool and succession planning.

Similarly, many organizations lost plenty of workers, which also necessitated increased internal movement, emphasizing the importance of internal opportunities and new roles. And many companies have had to hold off on new hires while trying to hold onto existing employees, focusing on employee retention through development programs.

An illustration of internal mobility

Let's unpack this term of "internal mobility" for a moment. When you create a new role or new team, you are most likely looking for a specific skill set or qualities (like a marketing exec or finance manager), leveraging internal candidates.

However, you may already have an employee with identical skill sets, qualifications, or experience for that role who is interested in shifting to a new position. Alternatively, a new hire may be a fantastic fit for the post but also have the skills required for another. They could transfer within to a new position or department and yet contribute significantly to the team.

So, just because the new hire was hired as a marketing manager doesn't imply they don't want to upskill or move to a different area as they spend more time with your company. In situations like these, an internal mobility strategy is not only beneficial but also required.

Why does internal mobility happen?

Essentially, it is some form of cushioning effect in the workplace. It also serves as an organizational defense mechanism to deal with sudden changes that adversely affect the company. Internal movement within the internal mobility program happens to expose the latent skillset and top talent that other employees alike in different departments might have.

In this regard, the company benefits from a wide array of talents while saving upon hiring. Also, it encourages competition among workers, especially the junior staff who desire to scale up the hierarchical ladder of the company.

Benefits of internal mobility

Both the enterprise and existing workers benefit a thing or two from this mobility. Here are a few things your organization stands to gain from encouraging internal mobility.

Engagement

It boosts employee engagement, promoting internal mobility that creates opportunities for career path advancement and skill acquisition across cross-functional teams. As a result, a worker moving up to occupy a particular position will need more skills.

In the same vein, the company must provide employees with advanced learning programs and development opportunities in their current job or when preparing for a new position. Such periodic skill-up schemes essentially keep workers engaged and invested in the company.

Company reputation

Nobody likes to work in an establishment that has a reputation for continuous new hires. People view steady hiring as an inability to maintain existing workers, a perception challenging for most companies and pushing them to rethink internal talent strategies.

As a result, it becomes something that can ruin the importance of the company. Therefore internal mobility boosts the reputation of the company as one that encourages long-term commitment. It goes a long way to make your company a more attractive employer.

Collaboration

Maintaining a reshuffling of existing workers creates room for cross-collaboration. The reason is that workers have to rotate internally among themselves, sharing ideas and information. Therefore, it strengthens the team commitment of the workers, leading to more internal organizational coordination and encouraging them to spend time on part-time projects with potential successors.

Cross-collaboration thrives in an agile environment where individuals can attempt various jobs, take on different projects, acquire and test new skills, and shift both vertically and laterally. Furthermore, it enables your staff to fill skill gaps for which you would otherwise have to hire externally and invest substantial time and money.

How to encourage internal mobility for your employees

Understanding the benefits of interior mobility gives rise to the question of methodology. In other words, how can you encourage internal mobility in your company? Here are a few pointers to help you out.

Invest in your workers

Many people will consider working long-term in an establishment that they believe has their best interest at heart. It means that a company that creates opportunities for workers to skill up will retain plenty of workers. The reason is that, besides just having a job, most people in the corporate space want to build careers.

A 2021 LinkedIn report revealed that approximately 84% of workers would stay with an organization if they perceived a chance for professional development. That means that people will care more about the jobs if they feel the company is interested in investing in them. How are you preparing your team's movers and shakers for their next pivot?

You have two alternatives on how to go with this.

By establishing consistency and setting expectations, a structured mentoring process can help set the framework for how your program will run. You can, for example, match mentors with employees and set boundaries for how meetings will take place.

Take and keep records of available employee skillsets.

It is one thing to have lots of new employees and another thing to give a clear account of their skills. That essentially is the hallmark of the managerial process. Therefore, taking and keeping records of employee skills gives you explicit knowledge of the kind of workers you have.

Setup and encourage collaboration among workers

Encouraging collaboration among managers not only gives you a chance to mix and match skill sets together. It also helps you build team synergy based on the personality and skill set of your staff. And by implication, sharpen the internal coordination of your enterprise from the inside out.

Paystubsnow: a handy tool for enhancing business productivity

While your company enjoys the benefits of encouraging internal mobility, a little bit of automation in the business process extends company productivity. Therefore you can utilize online paystub generator like Paystubsnow to generate online paystubs and online invoices and to drive your business forward. Other services and products available on paystubsnow are 1099 forms and W-2 forms.