Internal mobility has long been considered unstrategic. Yet, in an increasingly complex labour market, loyal people with cross-functional skills, a deep understanding of the organization, and motivation to grow even through internal experiences represent a valuable resource in human capital management strategy.
According to some of the most relevant HR trend observers (HBR, Gartner, Deloitte, and others), human capital management (HCM), and specifically the management of internal mobility, will thus rise to a “strategic” lever for 2024.
Indeed, this lever allows companies to enhance the value of people already working in the organization, motivate and retain them, improve the company’s reputation and attractiveness as an employer, and grow and increase inter-disciplinary skills and connections.
As part of a recent project conducted by an Italian company, part of a large international group, we were called upon to accompany the redesign of the internal mobility process.
It was an opportunity for us to conduct a small survey to assess the state of the art of some companies with operational headquarters in Italy and to capture similarities and differences in their approaches to the topic. In this “light benchmark,” we involved 13 companies.
Human capital management and internal mobility: how it works in the companies involved
Most companies have adopted a “Job Posting” internal mobility system, but we also have situations where it has been abandoned or never introduced, and plans are being made to introduce it.
However, the “Job Posting” internal mobility system is not the only system for managing internal movements of human capital. Alongside it are career paths and individual development plans, management actions, and, to a minority extent, a “free” Marketplace not governed by HR, Project Job Posting solutions, Job Shadowing, etc.
Only 20 per cent of cases is Job Posting supported by a digital platform, and in the vast majority of cases, positions posted in internal job postings are the same as those posted externally.
The complete majority tendency is to interview all internal job applicants anyway, evaluating on a case-by-case basis whether the interview is “HR only” (if the person does not have the required skills) or also with the Hiring Manager (also a specialized interview).
The practice of informing the manager is very uneven, as different needs must be balanced at this point. Slightly, the option prevails whereby the resource must inform the manager at the time of application. In the other options, the manager is notified by HR or the resource as the process proceeds (shortlist, final choice).
Much emphasis is placed on managing Feedback, which is returned to the people who applied, mostly step by step as the process progresses or (as a minority choice) at the end of the process.
The release timing is agreed upon among managers, with or without HR support, depending on the situation’s sensitivity.
Satisfaction with the internal job posting process is high on average for employees, intermediate for HR, and lower for managers.
How to improve human capital management: practical tips
During this track, a number of improvement tips were highlighted.
Organizational culture: The level of “trust” of the organization toward its employees and vice versa is considered an important enabling factor. A managerial culture with greater managers’ willingness to let go of resources is also important.
Even more, it is necessary to have leaders who sponsor internal corporate mobility and supportive managers who can coach the resources involved in the mobility journey. Finally, offering people opportunities for involvement in projects and/or visibility opportunities is useful to increase their potential for internal mobility.
Process: It is recommended that clear and transparent internal mobility processes for all stakeholders be implemented, with particular attention to open positions and the process’s constraints. International integration should be emphasized to seize an opportunity of undoubted value.
Tools: It is suggested that interviews be made more structured as a lever to assess internal candidates and that more objective potential assessment tools be adopted where provided.
Digital: To be effectively managed, a digital platform should support the internal mobility process.
Looking at the evolution of the tool, we share some considerations:
- the adoption of a coordinated set of internal growth and development levers makes it possible to enhance the value of people, increase their motivation and increase the attractiveness of the company
- through tools such as internal job posting, interpreted as a tool not only for management but also for development, the concept of growth and development goes “beyond” the traditional approaches that prioritize valuing only “Talents”
- the tool of internal job posting also makes it possible to capture people’s motivation for growth and represents an opportunity to discover (too often still!) skills that people have developed but are not known within the organization
- skill mapping and skill management systems will be able to help make this type of process more streamlined and transparent
- not all the “nodes” in this process are solved, but through appropriate internal sponsorship of the process, reinforcement of the enabling managerial culture, and supporting digital tools, it can become a key element in attracting, valuing, and growing people.
Optimizing internal mobility processes through Design Thinking
To tackle the project of revising the Internal Mobility process, we worked by adopting the methodology of Design Thinking.
Specifically, we drew on this evidence and on what emerged in the listening phase through focus groups and interviews, including the voices of employees, managers, and leaders of different ages and generations, different professional families, and perspectives from different organizational levels.
Several pain points emerged, and we agreed to focus on some of these, with higher priority, as defined by the focus group participants, managers, and senior managers from different areas of the organization.
We conducted a co-design phase with them, enhancing what was optimistic about the existing process that had already been consolidated, partly as a result of strong initial sponsorship, and also identifying some improvement actions to address the “pain points” that had emerged related to managerial culture, transparency of the process and rules of engagement, the timing of the release, and introducing a more “skill based” approach to enable greater robustness to the feedback process as well.
The company implemented the improvement actions and set a goal to measure their benefit 12 months after introduction and use this period to consolidate any further improvements.
Reflections on corporate mobility management processes
This project was also an opportunity for us at HRI to explore a topic of growing strategic importance. Involving not only different voices in the organization but also the external network of companies that have chosen to factor their practices together to get an aggregated view in return has left each with insights for improvement.
Listening to multiple voices and the logic of sharing information, practices, and cues for improvement even in the professional network “outside” the walls of the company are, in our opinion, in complex and volatile contexts, practical strategies for making agile decisions.
We have less and less confidence in so-called “best practices,” which are reliable in a stable and established context but not suitable for a historical moment such as the one we are living through. This is especially true of the labour market, which represents one of the areas with greater unknowns in its future evolutions.
We will also have much to say on this topic in future articles.
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