Accelerate February 2015 | Page 22

Mobility I) Purpose Clarity Clearly articulate the goals of the overall structure, policy, and process of a talent management initiative and tie them directly to business targets and financial impacts. To improve employee engagement, provide growth opportunities for employees (to help increase their satisfaction and engagement), lower costs with faster fills, improve the retention rates of top performers, and build organisational readiness with leadership capability to fill positions internally. II) Policy Guidelines Organisations need to translate the business purpose of talent management initiatives (such as talent mobility) into business policies to establish consistent and simple guidelines for hiring managers and employees. These policies can then determine how departments are organised to deliver the services, how and when the initiatives can apply, and any connection between internal mobility and other HR initiatives. Having such a policy in place can go far toward alleviating the concerns of the greatest source of resistance to internal talent mobility programmes, such as alleviating hiring managers’ worries about losing top people. III) Process Design Business policies concerning internal mobility are put into practice through processes that inform employees of internal opportunities, provide managers with visibility into the talent profiles of suitable candidates, and manage the internal talent acquisition processes. Many organisations use intranet sites to post opportunities and receive applications from employees. With intranet sites, a communications plan should promote the selfservice process of accessing opportunities for employees. Hiring managers and recruiters should also have the selfservice capability to proactively search for candidates internally, tapping the internal talent community to source highquality candidates. IV) Platform Capability In addition to building extensive bench strength for the organisation, visibility into succession planning and promotion opportunities creates another impetus for talent to stay. As a strategic component of talent strategy, In addition to building extensive bench strength for the organisation, visibility into succession planning and promotion opportunities creates another impetus for talent to stay. 22 February 2015 talent management technology can provide a platform for linking internal mobility with both performance management and succession planning. The platform also consists of a database of employee talent profiles, and includes job posting functions, a skills library and workforce planning modules. V) Performance Measures The policies and procedures that an organisation employs to fulfil its talent mobility goals produce data that can be captured to track performance and reveal how well internal mobility initiatives are actually performing. Tracking the percentage of internally filled positions is typical. Data on total turnover and turnover costs also serve as important indicators of a talent mobility programme’s performance for continuous improvement. Results from Talent Mobility Based on well-optimised technology and processes, a clearly communicated talent mobility initiative should receive strong enterprise-wide support that bestows a number of distinct advantages for an organisation. • Cost avoidance Internal mobility initiatives help corporations avoid costs by increasing retention. Offering employees the opportunity for growth within the company can cut down on one of the leading causes of turnover.