How to Retain Your Top Talent with a Skills-Based Approach to Talent Mobility

Are you sure your top talent has a future with your brand?

The obstacle that makes answering this question hard for many organizations is that they don't have the visibility they need into their most important resource - their talent.

What's more, brands know that creating a great candidate experience is important, but fail to deliver on that promise after the hire, when it comes to employee experience and talent mobility. 

In reality,  employees feel lost. They don’t have visibility about opportunities in the organization, they lack information about what skills could help them with their growth and they don’t have access to mentors who could help them with their career development.

In our recent Beamery Talent Index , 87% of respondents emphasized that it is important to them that their employer addresses and progresses employee talent within their organization. At the same time, 57% of employees have considered leaving their job in the last 12 months due to how their employer handled issues surrounding the pandemic. Now more than ever, when top talent feels lost, companies are at risk of losing them to competitors. 

87% of Employees say it is important to them that their employer addresses and progresses employee talent within their organization.

Talent mobility -  a bridge between organizations and top talent

Talent mobility means something different to every organization and even to different stakeholders within the same organization. 

At Beamery, we think about talent mobility as every time an employee changes roles within the organization, whether that’s a promotion, moving teams, acquiring new responsibilities or learning skills that will help their development.

"Now more than ever, when top talent feels lost, companies are at risk of losing them to competitors." 

A cross company challenge, that requires everyone’s help

Although talent mobility (AKA internal mobility) is not a new concept, it is still far from being universally adopted and implemented, and best practice is often still mostly theoretical.  A Deloitte article from 2019 found a few key challenges: as a start, 46% of the survey respondents said that managers resist talent mobility. Another 70% of participants mentioned that “Talent mobility expectations, the culture around talent-sharing, and decision-making around mobility were inadequate or only fair at their organization“. 

And the sad truth is that even where there is support from managers to promote talent internally, it’s not always a real option: 49% of the survey respondents mentioned that they have few, if any, tools to identify and move people into new internal roles. All of this points to it being easier for an employee to quit and get rehired than to change position internally. And when it comes to your top talent, that means losing competitive advantage. 

"49% of organizations have few, if any, tools to identify and move people into new internal roles."

Overcoming talent mobility challenges can bring significant value to your organization 

While there are challenges, the desire to deliver talent mobility programs is spreading, and the value of these programs is clear. In the Deloitte article, 32% believed mobility is required to increase employee engagement. 

In fact, fastest growing organizations already see bottom line results from talent mobility: the fastest-growing organizations were twice as likely to have excellent talent mobility programs than organizations that were not growing at all.

"32% of businesses believe mobility is required to increase employee engagement"

Mitigating the talent mobility challenge with higher visibility and data that empowers organizations

So if the value is clear, why are some organizations still slow to adopt talent mobility programs? The short answer is that it is harder than it sounds. 

Your top talent lacks visibility and awareness of all the options available to them internally,  making it difficult for them to plan their career, find their next role and understand what skills will help them progress their career and who could mentor them inside the organization.

The Talent Acquisition team doesn’t always have all the information they need to identify potential candidates within the organization, or visibility on which skills the business needs the most.

The HR team: While they want to plan ahead, they are pressed for time and lack visibility about skills gaps in the organization. In fact, many of those who leave the organization are actually the best performers who have been lured elsewhere for additional growth and new challenges, so retaining that key talent is a particular challenge for HR.

The hiring managers: while they want to develop their team, they may lack succession planning support, making it difficult for them to meet their goals if they let top talent investigate opportunities elsewhere in the business. 

"The fastest-growing organizations were 2x as likely to have excellent talent mobility programs than organizations that were not growing at all."

Lacking an understanding of the talent (and skills) you have, and consequently the gaps your business needs to fill, can have a huge impact on your organization’s performance and growth. 

The bottom line: Not knowing what talent you lack or have in your organization is affecting your entire organization performance.

Why moving from jobs to skills could be the answer to talent mobility? 

Why are skills so powerful? By looking at skills you can compare all your talent in a fair, unbiased way for a more objective view of talent. With this data, leaders can get a snapshot of their organization's talent strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, providing a clear understanding of what skills you have, and what skills you lack.  Moreover, skills-based data about all talent delivers a holistic view of all the skills in companies’ networks, across employees, alumni, candidates and applicants.

“By looking at skills you can compare all your talent in a fair, unbiased way for a more objective view of talent”

A better understanding of your team’s skills is the first step to drive real value for your organization.