Internal mobility is reshaping the future of recruitment

Internal mobility is becoming the main talent acquisition strategy of organisations in the Asia Pacific, a new study has found.

The percentage of employees transitioning into a different role – within their current company – has risen 15% since the COVID-19 crisis hit, according to LinkedIn’s ‘Future of Recruiting’ APAC report.

The strategy taps into a company’s existing talent pool to fill positions that would have otherwise gone to an external hire. With movement restricted during the pandemic, talent leaders are taking a closer look at internal candidates and redeploying them where the business needs them the most.

Read more: The changing role of talent mobility in the 'new normal'

Talent development
Analysts predict recruiters will “hire less” as organizations focus on enhancing their people development programs and building up their current talent base.

A successful internal mobility program is often the result of collaboration. “Recruiters can unlock the full potential of internal talent in partnership with learning and development (L&D) and broader HR,” the report suggested.

Data across the Asia Pacific support this: on average, two in three talent professionals expect their L&D budgets to increase or stay the same in the coming months as employers recalibrate their recruitment strategies. If, in 2019, most organisations were looking externally to find high-calibre talent, this year they’ll be growing talent within the team.

“The future of talent acquisition lies in reskilling, rather than finding someone better in the market,” said Rajesh Ahuja, global head of talent acquisition at Infosys, who took part in the study. If you need to hire today, you need to have invested in the growth of your employees yesterday, he said.

Read more: What does talent mobility mean to HR?

Talent retention
Internal mobility, however, isn’t just designed to fill talent gaps – it also serves to boost engagement and retention. In fact, employees tend to stay on 41% longer at a company that promotes people internally, according to LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends report.

A knowledgeable and creative team member also becomes “more valuable to retain,” said Peggy Smith, former president and CEO of Worldwide ERC, a nonprofit group that supports global talent mobility.

These employees, she said, can be “part of a network of internal talent available to fluidly move in and out of projects.”

After all, it makes more sense to “create a path and a strategy for internal movement for these talented employees than it does to train them for one job and let them use that knowledge for another employer,” Smith told HRD.