A little bit of staff rearrangement can be pretty beneficial for a company and add to the growth and development of the firm, especially with recent emphasis on skill-up schemes as opposed to rehiring. As a result, many businesses are encouraged to help workers skill up, leading to workers’ movement from one position to another within the firm-internal mobility.
Internal mobility refers to the movement of workers- either vertically or horizontally within the same enterprise. It is usually to encourage organizational development, especially when existing workers have to pick up new skills. The movement of workers Is generally concerning job descriptions and responsibilities of workers within the organization.
What is internal mobility?
Internal mobility is the vertical or lateral movement of existing workers within the same organization. Workers change job descriptions and move from one position to the other to perform different tasks. There are usually a couple of factors behind internal mobility. Some of the elements range from company interior selections or external problems affecting the company. A typical example is a COVID-19 pandemic as it affected various businesses.- causing workers to race within the company to fill in the gap. Similarly, many companies lost plenty of workers, which also necessitated increased internal movement. And many firms have had to hold off on new hires while trying to hold onto existing workers.
An illustration of internal mobility
Let’s unpack this term of “internal mobility” for a moment.
When you hire for a new or open position, you are most likely looking for a specific skill set or qualities (like a marketing exec or finance manager). However, you may already have an employee with identical skill sets, qualifications, or experience for that role who is interested in shifting to a new position.
Alternatively, a new hire may be a fantastic fit for the post but also have the skills required for another. They could transfer within to a new position or department and yet contribute significantly to the team. So, just because the new hire was hired as a marketing manager doesn’t imply they don’t want to upskill or move to a different area as they spend more time with your company.
In situations like these, an internal mobility strategy is not only beneficial but also required.
Why does internal mobility happen?
Essentially, it is some form of cushioning effect in the workplace. It also serves as an organizational defense mechanism to deal with sudden changes that adversely affect the company. Internal movement happens to expose latent skillset that other workers within the company might have. In this regard, the company benefits from a wide array of talents while saving upon hiring. Also, it encourages competition among workers, especially the junior staff who desire to scale up the hierarchical ladder of the company.
Benefits of internal mobility
Both the enterprise and existing workers benefit a thing or two from this mobility. Here are a few things your organization stands to gain from encouraging internal mobility.
Engagement
It boosts employee engagement in the sense that mobility within the company creates room for more skill acquisition. As a result, a worker moving up to occupy a particular position will need more skills. In the same vein, the company has to provide advanced skill acquisition avenues for the worker. Such periodic skill-up schemes essentially keep workers engaged and invested in the company.
It’s difficult to keep employees interested and invested in their work and your firm, especially when it comes to career growth. However, there is a penalty to poor employee engagement as an employer.
Gallup estimates that:
- Cost of an actively disengaged employee is up to 18% of their annual compensation.
- Disengagement can cost businesses millions of dollars (up to $60 million each year).
- Replacing an employee might cost up to twice their income.
Employees who are engaged are not only well-paid; they are also team members who are encouraged in their development and advancement. You must be willing to invest in people in order to keep them invested in your organization, to boost internal mobility.
Company reputation
Nobody likes to work in an establishment that has a reputation for continuous new hires. People view steady hiring as an inability to maintain existing workers. As a result, it becomes something that can ruin the importance of the company. Therefore internal mobility boosts the reputation of the company as one that encourages long-term commitment. It goes a long way to make your company a more attractive employer.
Collaboration
Maintaining a reshuffling of existing workers creates room for cross-collaboration. The reason is that workers have to rotate internally among themselves, sharing ideas and information. Therefore, it strengthens the team commitment of the workers, leading to more internal organizational coordination.
Cross-collaboration thrives in an agile environment where individuals can attempt various jobs, take on different projects, acquire and test new skills, and shift both vertically and laterally. Furthermore, it enables your staff to fill skill gaps for which you would otherwise have to hire externally and invest substantial time and money.
But that’s not the only advantage of promoting collaboration through internal mobility; according to LinkedIn, when organizations hire from within, employees remain 41% longer.
How to encourage internal mobility for your employees
Understanding the benefits of interior mobility gives rise to the question of methodology. In other words, how can you encourage internal mobility in your company? Here are a few pointers to help you out.
Invest in your workers
Many people will consider working long-term in an establishment that they believe has their best interest at heart. It means that a company that creates opportunities for workers to skill up will retain plenty of workers. The reason is that, besides just having a job, most people in the corporate space want to build careers.
A 2021 LinkedIn report revealed that approximately 84% of workers would stay with an organization if they perceived a chance for professional development. That means that people will care more about the jobs if they feel the company is interested in investing in them.
How are you preparing your team’s movers and shakers for their next pivot? Are they prepared to act on cue when the moment comes?
Your staff may require some teaching before taking the stage. Mentorships can aid in this progress by allowing employees to share critical information. Mentors can provide knowledge that cannot be fully taught in a classroom, such as how to avoid common rookie mistakes and how to overcome organizational difficulties.
They can help guide employees toward professional improvement, whether through a formal program with assigned mentors or informal relationships that allow for more flexibility. Mentors can help guide employees toward professional improvement so they’re rehearsed and ready to take on their next role.
You have two alternatives on how to go with this.
By establishing consistency and setting expectations, a structured mentoring process can help set the framework for how your program will run. You can, for example, match mentors with employees and set boundaries for how meetings will take place.
You might also have a more informal program that develops mentorship ties. For example, an employee interested in going into leadership may wish to meet with a director on a regular basis to gain insight into how she makes difficult business decisions.
Take and keep records of available employee skillsets.
It is one thing to have lots of employees and another thing to give a clear account of their skills. That essentially is the hallmark of the managerial process. Therefore, taking and keeping records of employee skills gives you explicit knowledge of the kind of workers you have. It also, in a way, makes you accountable for your staff, especially if you are human resource personnel. That way, you can quickly move workers from one position to another according to their skills. And consequently, bring out the best in your workers, which reflects on the firm’s productivity.
Setup and encourage collaboration among workers
Encouraging collaboration among workers not only gives you a chance to mix and match skill sets together. It also helps you build team synergy based on the personality and skill set of your staff. And by implication, sharpen the internal coordination of your enterprise from the inside out. The reason is that some workers blend well together, while others do not. And internal mobility is one way to understand the professional ties at work within your firm so that you can make the best of it.
Paystubsnow: a handy tool for enhancing business productivity
While your company enjoys the benefits of encouraging internal mobility, a little bit of automation in the business process extends company productivity. Therefore you can utilize online paystub generator like Paystubsnow to generate online paystubs and online invoices and to drive your business forward. Other services and products available on paystubsnow are 1099 forms and W-2 forms.
FAQS:
What is the importance of the internal mobility of employees?
It allows employees the freedom of professional and occupational development, which leads to talent expression. Thereby allowing them to increase their professional competence to match the dynamism of the workplace.
What is internal mobility?
It is what moves existing workers from one position and project to the other within the same enterprise. And encourages professionalism and productivity within an existing firm.
What are the types of internal mobility?
The focus of this type of movement within the workplace is for roles and projects. Therefore we can have mobility based on roles, where workers reshuffle to take on different roles within the company. Additionally, we can also have movement based on projects, where workers can either have various projects added to their usual work or removed from their routine work.
