Curbing job losses during times of Crisis: Talent Mobility

If there was one thing that 2020 has taught us that career rigidity is a thing of the past. With organisations trying to navigate the new world of work it important for employees to adopt agility and flexibility when approaching their careers. Many industries experienced massive profit loss and looming foreclosures of their business inventively cutting many jobs. We have seen major corporations such as Denel South Africa being one of the hardest hit as well as SABC cutting many redundant jobs.

What is Talent Mobility?

The Echelon Group, talent mobility is defined as “The practice of moving people within an organization, in hopes that new skills will be gained and sharpened through the employees’ new roles and responsibilities. The objective is to have the right talent at the right place at the right time to ensure business results and successful business outcomes. In a practical organisational level, talent mobility is the movement of internal talent to job positions where they can most effective in your organization.

Why is Talent Mobility important in these trying times?

We have seen how many employees lost their jobs they had for so many years. Having a proper talent plan in place allows employees to move within the organisation to other functions. It allows leadership development and proper succession planning without seeking external candidates. We all understand the extrinsic benefit of talent mobility however we need to recognise the psychological contract between the employer and employee. Most individuals seeks personal development and organisation that can provide that will yield a more engaged workforce which in turn will result In an organisation having a productive workforce. 

Kick starting your talent mobility programs

Think of a talent mobility program as the idea of moving talent in your organization to a lateral in-house position where they can better leverage their competencies, experience and skills towards your organizational goals. What does all this mean?

It means that with a talent mobility program, you have an idea to get your employees from their current job role (Point A) to a better job role (Point B) where they are be of more value to your organization.

As a HR professional, you have a destination in mind (the proper migration of your in-house talent) but how exactly do you get your in-house talent from Point A to Point B? It can be hard to go somewhere you’ve never seen. Especially if you don’t have a GPS or map to guide you. These are the following steps you can implement to successfully implement of your mobility plan for your internal employees.

• Leverage on their strengthens. It is important to identify what your employees key strength are, harness their capabilities whilst not losing focus on their areas of development.
• Map talent in your organisation. It is important to know who is where and exactly what they are doing. This will give you as the employer an idea of areas of development and gaps that need to be filled.
• Consistent performance reviews are critical In organisations. Talent mobility programs are dependent on data gathered through performance reviews with line leaders.
• Be careful not to move people inconsistently. It is important when you move talent across to have a strategy and objective in place to avoid employees being jack of all trades but master of none.

Talent mobility is becoming a must-have for any company looking to hire and retain top employees, and develop and align your workforce to strategic business goals. Essentially, giving employees the opportunity to develop and grow beyond the standard linear career progression.