Talent Mobility: A Holistic Approach to Managing Your Workforce
The way we work is changing. Economic, social and demographic shifts are continually impacting business goals and talent requirements. Is your workforce prepared and ready to meet evolving needs?
The Issue
Your business is fluid, growing and transforming to meet the demands of the market. Is your workforce in step, ready to move into new roles as needs change? Pressures are mounting for a new hyper-efficient workforce comprised of just-in-time employees who are skilled and ready for whatever happens next. But how does an organization mobilize its talent so that it always has the right people with the right skills in the right place? How does it close skill gaps and align the workforce with business needs? How does it develop a more flexible and adaptable workforce?
The Implications
Without insight into talent needs, without development opportunities to prepare employees, and without the ability to effectively deploy that talent based on business needs, companies face significant challenges as they strive to remain competitive and grow, including loss of productivity, missed business opportunities, weak leadership pipelines, and an inability to meet financial targets.
What to Do About It
Organizations with a focus on talent mobility demonstrate key behaviors within three areas that we define as understand, develop and deploy. Our research shows that these organizations – characterized as “Committed Talent Mobilizers” – are significantly more likely to report growth in revenue.
- Understand. Gain insight into current talent, with understanding of unique skills, strengths and development needs
- Develop. Prepare managers to conduct career discussions, provide adequate tools for career planning and development
- Deploy. Effectively mobilize talent, ensuring employees are well-informed about career options and deploying them into internal or external roles, based on business needs
In order to effectively execute a talent mobility strategy, organizations must invest in and prepare managers to have effective developmental career conversations. Managers are in the best position to know their people, their strengths and their development needs – and play a critical role in coaching and developing talent. But the ability to truly mobilize your workforce can only be fully realized when managers have a mobility mindset that supports the movement of talent. And while employees are encouraged to take responsibility for actively managing their careers, organizations support the process by keeping employees informed about career options and rewarding sustained high performance with opportunities.
When prepared, equipped and connected, employees have more choices. They’re ready to jump quickly into new roles, internally or externally. Whether you are growing talent from within or bringing in new talent, whether you are adding roles or eliminating them, talent mobility is an enabler of your talent strategy as you provide career opportunities that are aligned with your business needs.
To learn more about our talent mobility research, click here to download a complimentary copy.
Kristen Leverone is a Senior Vice President and Global Practice Leader of Talent Development at Lee Hecht Harrison. She is a business management professional with over 15 years of experience in employee engagement and change management, and project management. In her practice lead role, she leads LHH’s strategic client engagements, develops new products and services, and provides thought leadership in the areas of employee engagement and change management to the market. Additionally, she consults with LHH clients on the talent mobility process and develops and implements solutions to help organizations develop, engage, retain and redeploy their workforce to drive business results.