Understanding Internal Mobility in Hiring - ApplicantStack

Promoting from within the company harnesses the talent you already have at your fingertips. It saves on the hiring budget and shows your employees you have faith in their abilities, boosting morale. Find out more about internal mobility and how it can benefit your organization.

What Is Internal Mobility?

Internal mobility is when employees move to new jobs within the company where they already work. This can take the form of promotions, lateral moves, interim assignments, or temporary project work. Companies with a well-established internal mobility program give employees opportunities to set career goals and work towards them together.

Benefits of Internal Mobility

There are many benefits of opting for promoting from within rather than searching elsewhere to fill open roles.

Saves hiring dollars

The Society for Human Resource Management estimates the average cost of a new hire is $4,700. That number will fluctuate based on the size of the business, but the point stands: it costs money to hire a new employee. Hiring from within eliminates costs like job posting, resume screening, interviewing multiple candidates, onboarding, setting up a new office space, and assigning technology.

Empowers employees

Employees who feel respected in their career ambitions are more likely to be motivated to succeed in their current role. They will want to prove they are worth future promotions and pay raises. “Internal mobility programs can remove any confusion around professional growth,” says Casey Lynch, “highlighting potential career paths for each and every individual. This helps employees:

• ​Take control of their unique career journey
• ​Visualize their future at your company
• ​Build out an action plan that will help them achieve their goals
• ​Feel empowered to grow their careers without leaving”

Boosts retention

For the employer, employee motivation boosts retention numbers, leading to a more stable and unified workforce. Pew research from 2021 found that 63 percent of employees left their jobs because of a lack of advancement opportunities. Feeling disrespected at work accounted for 57 percent of those surveyed, and it seems possible that the two statistics go hand in hand. Those numbers represent a huge turnover, and even a portion of that at your company can feel monumental.

Retention is important not just for the metrics on paper, but for the real-life morale and engagement it fosters. A revolving-door company means employees must constantly adapt to changing teams, frustrated managers, dropped work tasks, and playing catch-up. Especially for client- or customer-facing businesses, constant disruption can be detrimental to continuing relationships.

Strengthens soft skills

A LinkedIn study showed that internal movers are more likely to develop some valuable soft skills:

• ​Diversity and inclusion: 49 percent more likely
• ​Emotional intelligence: 27 percent more likely
• ​Change management: 21 percent more likely
• ​Stakeholder engagement: 14 percent more likely
• ​Agile project management: 12 percent more likely

Internal movers have skills that “revolve around collaboration, inclusion, and adaptability — the abilities to connect with coworkers, make everyone feel included, and drive change on an organizational scale.”

Institutional knowledge

Long-term employees know the business’s history, practices, policies, culture, and have relationships with colleagues and clients. This connection can be invaluable when transferring to leadership roles where they can pass it on to new hires.

How to Create an Internal Mobility Program

The best internal mobility initiatives are clear, organized, and accessible to the employees. Here are some suggestions to create a robust program:

• ​Skills training: Capable and enthusiastic employees who are primed for internal promotion may be lacking specific skills for a new role. In addition to on-the-job training, enroll them in training courses that provide upskilling for the next level. You could find external courses or create an in-house training program.
• ​Regular performance reviews: Performance reviews can act as a soft interview for internal promotion. Cater the questions to find out which employees are prepared for a change or those who are candidates for the future. In addition to the current organizational chart, managers can create a future org chart that keeps potential employee promotions in the forefront.
• ​Incentivize employees: Involve employees in conversations about the potential you see. Help them set personal and professional goals that support these efforts. Set realistic benchmarks together that show you care about their career advancement, and follow up at regular intervals. Be creative about the path – sometimes the moves may be lateral or temporary to truly assess the right fit.
• ​Set up mentoring programs: Successful mentorship, says Amanda Schneiders, “offers the opportunity for human connection for the purpose of learning, building new skills and creating empathetic relationships between colleagues.” Formal mentor programs provide opportunities for skills training, networking, support and encouragement, and advice for future career opportunities. When the mentor/mentee relationship exists within the company, it can help set up the path for internal mobility. Mentors will be ideally positioned to see the broader picture of what the company will need in the future and guide their mentees to fill those roles.
• ​Shift between departments: All internal mobility moves don’t need to happen within departments. In fact, some employees may show aptitude for a completely different role than they were hired to do. This kind of move can be a pleasant surprise for everyone, and boost the employee’s confidence and commitment to the company.
• ​Use AI tools for analysis: AI tools can be an unbiased way to consider prime candidates for internal mobility moves. These tools analyze historical data based on user-set metrics that can show readiness for advancement. Objective data along with observable patterns can give a more complete picture when choosing employees to move up.

Internal mobility can be a powerful tool in hiring. With institutional knowledge and a demonstrated commitment to your company, current employees are valuable assets to take on new roles.