There are several reasons why employees leave a company and move on to a competitor or start their own business. One of them is the lack of growth opportunities and career progression within a company or the lack of awareness about existing opportunities.
Yet, companies attempt to hire new faces instead of fixing the issue, which comes at a significant cost. By-products of this cycle include low employee morale, reduced productivity, and high turnover, which do not bode well for company profitability and employee branding.
One approach to solving these issues is to develop a talent mobility plan. In this blog, we explore how companies can build a robust talent mobility plan and reap its benefits.
What is Talent Mobility?
A talent mobility program is a mechanism by which companies enable the career progression of their workforce to higher ranks or to make lateral shifts within the company. This approach encourages employees to actively pursue growth opportunities within the company.
They could be considered for roles in other geographies and countries. They will also receive the necessary training and support to keep growing within the company.
The route to talent mobility requires strategic planning and execution. It promises several benefits for both employees and businesses.
5 Pillars of Improving Talent Mobility
The journey to building a robust talent mobility program is a continuous, strategic investment. Here are some important steps to cover:
1. Design Career Paths
Every employee has unique skills, interests, and potential. Recognizing talent and mapping it to a specific career progression is a key pillar of talent mobility. This journey can begin as early as the first day someone joins the company through a well-designed induction platform.
Employees’ first six months lay the foundation for their experience and performance going forward. For instance, a content marketer could someday be head of marketing, or a data scientist could lead the enterprise data management services division.
2. Regular Meetings and Performance Reviews
It’s not enough to evaluate how employees are performing during an appraisal.
Meeting with them regularly, understanding their challenges and aspirations, and reviewing their work performance, must be part of a regular practice. Team leads and mentors must also be a part of these conversations.
3. Focus on Leadership Development
Many employers have leadership aspirations, and some are natural-born leaders.
Companies must have a plan on how they would recognize and reward leadership. It must also create opportunities for employees to demonstrate leadership skills.
For instance, building a strong mentorship framework is an effective way to inspire leadership.
4. Arrange Learning and Training Sessions
In an internet economy, the markets are evolving at an accelerated pace. Technology and its applications are game changers. Hence, companies must prioritize learning and training for new knowledge acquisition, new skills, and new job roles.
Companies must invest in efficient learning management systems and make it simple and accessible for employees to learn continuously.
5. Reskill Existing Workforce
There is a trend of continuously recruiting younger, unskilled workers. However, experience also comes with premium qualities such as resilience in the face of a crisis.
Smart companies are investing in reskilling their existing workforce. This journey can also encourage employees with redundant skills to embrace completely new ones and reinvent their job profiles.
Key Benefits of Talent Mobility
While the level of attrition reduces, a talent mobility plan can yield other desirable outcomes as well:
1. Reduction in Turnover
As employees see their seniors getting promoted or delegated to more challenging roles, they will be inspired to work hard, take more initiative, and drive more ambitious outcomes.
The knowledge that their efforts will be recognized will encourage them to stay in the company for longer periods. This also translates to reduced talent acquisition costs, a sustainable workflow, and better inter-team collaboration.
2. Enhanced Employee Engagement
A well-crafted mobility program generates employee engagement via programs such as mentorship, training, reskilling, and constructive performance reviews.
Employees receive relevant and timely feedback. They engage in conversations about their career progression and begin comprehending how they can play a more invested role in the company’s success.
3. Higher Productivity
One of the top reasons for a drop in productivity is a lack of skills to take on fresh market challenges and job roles. Another reason is a lack of motivation because there is no scope to learn and grow.
The pillars of a talent mobility program address these issues head-on and equip employees with the tools and knowledge framework to raise productivity and bring their best to work.
In Conclusion
A company’s best resource is its workforce. The strength of its talent mobility plan reflects the company’s investment in growing, nurturing, and retaining its workforce.
It doesn’t matter how big or small a company is; talent mobility is one of the most successful ways to strengthen the work culture and raise productivity. It enables companies to post trustworthy leaders at the helm of the business and take it to new heights as the business scales.
