Gartner for HR

Advancing Internal
Mobility to Fill Skills
Gaps and Engage Talent
Advancing Internal Mobility to Fill Skills Gaps
and Engage Talent
Published 16 June 2022 - ID G00772445 - 7 min read
By Analyst(s): Human Resources Research Team
Initiatives: Employee Experience; Recruiting

The current talent market is increasing the demand for

organizations to develop an effective internal recruiting strategy.
HR leaders can use these resources to help implement and revise
internal mobility strategies that optimize talent outcomes.

Analysis
Organizations are facing increasing pressure for talent in a tight labor market. As a result,
HR leaders are seeing bidding wars for external candidates, with significant compensation
increases, signing bonuses and additional incentives used as lures. As external talent
becomes harder and more expensive to recruit — and as current employees feel
increasingly dissatisfied in their roles — HR leaders must shift their focus internally to
retain talent.

Internal mobility benefits both employers and employees. Research shows a lack of future
career opportunities is the top driver of employee attrition, ranking even above
compensation. 1 Improving internal mobility can therefore combat attrition by providing
employees with better opportunities. It can also help solve organizations’ critical skills
shortages by making better use of employee capabilities and allowing employees to
develop new competencies through various experiences.

Personal growth opportunities, such as the new roles available through internal talent
transfers, can increase employee intent to stay by 6.4% and average performance by
6.2%. 2 Yet, only 17% of employees said they were encouraged to move internally by their
organizations. In addition, only 25% of employees reported that their most recent
applications were for a different position within the organization in which they are already
employed. 3

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HR leaders continue to face tactical challenges when trying to implement a successful
internal mobility strategy. The result is that 41% of employees who were considering new
positions looked externally first, and only 51% of employees report being aware of internal
job openings. 3 Creating a strong and clear internal mobility strategy can help
organizations maximize their recruiting budgets, improve employee performance and help
mitigate high turnover.

Figure 1: Benefits of an Effective Internal Mobility Strategy

Build an Effective Internal Mobility Strategy

1. Identify and Plan to Address Challenges

A competitive labor market can increase employee turnover, leaving organizations
with gaps in high-demand skill sets. HR leaders must therefore assess the long-term
effectiveness of their existing internal mobility processes. Identifying opportunities
for improvement allows HR leaders to create an internal mobility process that is more
sustainable and successful.

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Recommended Resources Available to Gartner Clients

Toolkit: Taking Immediate Action to Boost Internal Mobility — HR leaders can use the
resources in this toolkit to take immediate action on internal mobility: assessing the
current state to identify strengths and needs, expanding current infrastructure, and
enabling employees and managers to participate in the internal labor market.

Measuring Internal Mobility — To assess which initiatives enhance internal mobility, HR

leaders should track the relevant metrics. Learn which metrics HR teams should be
tracking, what each can reveal and how to calculate them.

Quick Answer: Benchmarking Internal Versus External Candidate Cost per Hire — Compare
your internal and external cost per hire to our benchmarks from recruiting leaders, and
make the case for internal recruiting at your organization.

Internal Mobility Strategy Template — Use this template for talent management leaders to
build a clear, concise internal mobility strategy that aligns internal mobility initiatives with
the organization’s strategic talent goals.

2. Embed Internal Mobility Into Talent Management Processes

After identifying opportunity areas, HR leaders should leverage existing organizational
talent processes to further build their internal mobility strategies. Building internal
mobility into existing talent processes helps HR leaders increase the usability and
engagement of the internal mobility process for managers and employees.

Recommended Resources Available to Gartner Clients

Using the Talent Management Ecosystem to Drive Internal Mobility — This article provides
practical steps to HR leaders for creating an internal mobility strategy unique to their
organizations. A successful strategy must draw on the entire talent management
ecosystem and align closely with the organization’s larger business objectives.

Leveraging Skills Adjacencies to Address Skills Gaps — HR leaders increasingly struggle

to quickly find and develop talent with the most in-demand skills due to ongoing business
disruption and rapidly evolving needs. HR leaders can expand their options by identifying
skills adjacencies that help employees build and apply skills faster.

Talent Consultants (Bridgestone) — Few organizations have designated roles supporting

internal mobility. HR leaders can learn how Bridgestone established a new talent
consultant role to facilitate the internal movement of talent across business functions to
improve employee retention and prevent critical talent shortages.

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Outreach Protocols and Eligibility Requirements for Internal Recruiting — HR leaders
looking to improve internal sourcing must ensure their recruiters are not constrained by
overly restrictive policies and protocols. Access this data to benchmark your internal
mobility policies against those of your peers.

3. Engage Employees Through Internal Mobility

While aligning an organization’s internal mobility strategy with its talent needs is a crucial
step, the effectiveness of the internal mobility processes depends on employee
engagement. HR leaders should prioritize conversations about employees’ career goals
and effectively communicate about the internal mobility process to increase employees’
engagement with the process and improve talent outcomes.

Recommended Resources Available to Gartner Clients

6 Strategies to Accelerate the Retention Impact of Internal Mobility Now — Barriers to
internal mobility contribute to employees’ perception that it is easier to achieve
professional growth outside the organization, which is a key driver of attrition. HR leaders
can take six actions today to reduce barriers to internal mobility and help retain growth-
oriented employees.

Career Conversations Guide — HR leaders should give this tool to managers to help them
prepare for career development conversations with employees and provide ongoing
support for employee career goals.

How to Effectively Communicate Internal Mobility Opportunities to Employees to Drive

Retention — Organizations can waste their efforts to retain employees through internal
mobility opportunities if they fail to communicate the offerings effectively. This research
helps HR leaders craft a timely message tailored to employee needs and identify the best
channel for communication.

Case Study: People-First Career Coaching (S&P Global) — S&P Global recognizes that
people are hesitant to share their true personal development goals in traditional
professional development conversations. HR leaders can see how the company provides
colleagues with objective career coaches to help them meet their personal and
professional aspirations.

4. Build Support for Internal Mobility

Addressing common barriers to internal mobility can help HR leaders build a broader
culture that normalizes mobility. HR leaders can tackle inequities in the labor market and
lack of management support to improve perceptions of the internal mobility process and
see greater employee engagement.

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Recommended Resources Available to Gartner Clients

 Creating a Culture of Talent Mobility — Talent mobility can help attract and retain
employees, but cultural barriers — such as the branding of departing employees as
“defectors” and managers’ tendencies to consider their own candidates first — keep those
opportunities out of reach. Access this webinar replay to learn how to create a culture
that supports talent mobility by changing processes throughout the talent management
life cycle, including talent acquisition, coaching and career planning processes.

Preventing Talent Hoarding — Talent hoarding (preventing or discouraging employees

from pursuing internal opportunities) is a barrier to career development, cost optimization
and agility. Learn how HR leaders responsible for internal sourcing can mitigate the
impacts of talent hoarding.

How to Make the Internal Labor Market More Equitable — Organizations are losing high-
quality employees and candidates to the “Great Resignation” at troublingly high rates. To
retain talent in this environment, HR leaders should focus on putting equity at the center
of their internal labor markets.

5. Plan for Successful Internal Transfers

HR leaders need to not only build strong internal mobility infrastructure but also ensure
employees have a successful experience with internal transfers. HR leaders can facilitate
positive employee experiences as well as increase internal fill rate success by
implementing strategies that focus on gradual and structured transitions.

Recommended Resources Available to Gartner Clients

5 Principles for Facilitating Effective Internal Talent Transfers — Many organizations use
internal mobility to address talent shortages. HR leaders should use this research to
understand best practices for facilitating talent transfers without risking further attrition.

Case Study: Minimize Disruption From Talent Mobility and Redeployment (TDECU) —
HR leaders often use internal mobility to prevent layoffs and costly external hiring, but
mobility is disruptive to managers and employees. Learn how TDECU minimized concerns
about mobility by transferring employees based on tasks, rather than roles, and using
mobility as a chance for career growth.

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Evidence
1
2017 Gartner Global Labor Market Survey (n = 84,711).

2
2021 Gartner EVP Employee Survey: This survey was conducted in December 2020 and
includes responses from 5,000 employees from six regions and 23 industries on their
experiences of and expectations for their organizations’ EVP and employee experience.
The survey was designed and developed by Gartner’s HR research team.

3
2021 Gartner Candidate Panel Survey: This survey was conducted from May 2021
through June 2021. A total of 3,000 candidates from 10 countries, 24 industries and 21
functions were polled on their experiences and behaviors during the hiring process.

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Gartner, Inc. | G00772445 Page 6 of 6

Actionable, objective insight
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