How to Strengthen Employee Engagement and Retention by Implementing Internal Mobility Strategies

13 of March, 2023

Employee engagement and retention are major factors in the success of any business. By providing employees with opportunities to grow and advance within their organization, businesses can increase employee engagement and retention and create a more positive work environment.

Internal mobility strategies offer employees the chance to move up in their current organization by applying their existing skills and knowledge in new and exciting roles.

Implementing internal mobility initiatives can help to strengthen employee engagement and retention by providing employees with opportunities to grow and develop. This practices will also be helping to reduce turnover and create a more positive and productive workplace, which you can verify using work climate surveys.

What is internal mobility?

Internal mobility is the movement of employees from one position or location to another within an organization. Internal is distinct from external mobility, which is the movement of employees between organizations.

IMPs (Internal Mobility Programs) have become increasingly common in organizations as they seek to retain their talented employees, while also ensuring they are able to meet the changing needs of their business.

Increasingly, more organizations are implementing IMPs because they recognize the benefits of promoting internal mobility, as opposed to relying primarily on external hiring to fill their talent gaps.

This strategy can take many forms, including promotions, lateral moves, job rotations, transfers between departments, and reassignments. Whatever the type of mobility, the goal is to provide employees with opportunities to grow and advance within their organization.

Benefits of implementing internal mobility strategies

There are many benefits to implementing internal mobility strategies, including improved employee engagement, reduced turnover, and enhanced organizational agility.

• Improved employee engagement – When employees feel like they need to leave their organization in order to advance their careers, they are more likely to become disengaged and start looking for a new job. Promoting from within can help to keep your best employees engaged and happy at work.
• Reduced turnover – By providing employees with opportunities to advance within their organization, you can help to reduce turnover, which can be costly to an organization. A survey of HR leaders found that they expect turnover to rise to 15.6% next year, up from 13.9% this year.
• Enhanced organizational agility – IMPs can help you to address skill gaps and shortages, while also providing employees with opportunities to develop their skills and move into new roles and responsibilities. Agility is one of the six key components of organizational transformation.

Identifying opportunities for internal mobility

Before you can implement any IMP, you need to carefully identify the areas and positions where you have opportunities for advancement. Internal mobility can be highly beneficial for organizations, but only where there is a match between the skills of the employee and the requirements of the position.

Make sure that you carefully identify opportunities for internal mobility, and that you have the right skills and abilities within your organization. It can be helpful to create a list of positions that are currently open, along with the skills and abilities needed for each of these positions.

Additionally, make a list of the skills and abilities of your current employees. This can help you to identify where there are potential opportunities for internal mobility.

Supportive actions for successful internal mobility

When promoting employees internally, it is important to make sure that they feel supported and recognized for their achievements. Take the time to recognize employees and provide positive feedback, especially when promoting them to new roles.

• Keep the communication open – Employees may not always know what opportunities they have available to them. Take the time to talk to your employees about the opportunities you have identified, and encourage them to apply for the positions that they feel they are best suited for.
• Keep performance appraisals fair – Performance appraisals provide a great opportunity to talk to employees about their skills and abilities, and identify where there may be opportunities for them to move up within the organization. Make sure that you are conducting fair and accurate performance appraisals, and are not overlooking potential internal mobility opportunities because of a bias or preference.

Building an effective internal mobility program

In addition to identifying and promoting employees for specific opportunities, you should also consider how you will implement an IMP. When creating an IMP, it can be helpful to consider the following questions: What are the goals and objectives of the program? What types of positions should be included in the program? What types of employees will be considered for the positions? How will candidates be selected for the positions? How will employees be promoted?

Goals and objectives

Before you can build an effective internal mobility program, you must first understand the goals and objectives of the program. What are you hoping to achieve with this program? What type of employees do you want? How will you measure success?

Types of positions

Consider which positions you want to include in your internal mobility program. Focus on promoting employees to positions where there are currently skill gaps or shortages, or for critical positions that need to be filled immediately.

Types of employees

Next, consider the types of employees you want to promote through the program. Do you have a list of employees with the right skills and abilities for the positions you want to fill? Do you have a list of employees who you feel could benefit from additional training and development?

How will employees be promoted?

Some promotions are immediate and occur without any additional training or preparation. However, in some cases, an employee will require additional training or education before they can assume their new role.

Building a successful internal mobility program is a never ending journey

The key to a successful internal mobility program is continual communication and engagement between employees and managers. As your organization and business continues to evolve, you will need to keep your internal mobility program fresh and flexible.

Continue to promote from within, and keep your eyes open for potential opportunities to promote employees. When someone does an exceptional job on a project or in their day-to-day responsibilities, take the time to recognize the success and discuss potential opportunities for promotion with them.

Measuring the impact of internal mobility

It is important to carefully track and measure the success of your internal mobility program. You can use metrics such as employee engagement, turnover rates, and rates of promotion to measure the impact of your internal mobility program.

When measuring the impact of your internal mobility program, make sure that you look at the data over time. This will allow you to account for any other factors that may be impacting these metrics, such as economic factors or changes in hiring practices.

Strategies for overcoming common challenges

Challenges that organizations face when implementing internal mobility programs include lack of clarity around roles, lack of support from leadership, and lack of communication between employees. To overcome these common challenges, follow these best practices.

• Clarify roles and responsibilities – Make sure that everyone understands their roles and responsibilities within your organization. This can help to reduce any confusion or uncertainty around promotion and advancement opportunities. Support from leadership – Employees want to know that they have the support and recognition from leadership that they deserve. Provide positive feedback where it is necessary, and recognize your employees for their successes. This can help to build support for your internal mobility program.
• Communication between employees – Take the time to communicate with your employees on a regular basis. Stay informed about what projects they are working on and what skills they are using. Stay informed about what employees are doing in other departments, and make an effort to communicate with employees in other departments as well.

Conclusion

IMPs can definitely help your company to stay with top employees for a long time, while developing the current workforce to always evolve professionally. There are many benefits to taking advantage of these strategies. That is why companies like Google are currently using them.

With the points we brought to discussion in this post, there might be more than enough information for you to implement within your company. Using HR software such as Sesame HR can also help you implement IMPs.

Sesame HR offers you performance management tools that can aid you in identifying talented employees that can benefit from a change of role. Try it for free for 14 days and see it for yourself.