What is internal mobility?

Internal mobility refers to the ability to move current employees into new positions at your company. Ultimately, the goal of internal mobility is to provide career change and growth opportunities to workers while reducing hiring costs.

When you focus on internal mobility, you’ll spend less time sourcing external applicants and more time evaluating people who already work for you. Based on the potential you see, you can open up job applications to people based on factors such as:

• What department they work in
• Years with the company
• Years or months since their last internal move/promotion
• Performance
• Skills and qualifications

Internal moves allow you to keep your top performers on staff, espeically those who are ready for a career move. There are various types of internal mobility:

Lateral mobility

Lateral mobility refers to a job change within a company that places an employee in a new position at the same career level. They do not typically see a change in pay, benefits or seniority. Lateral mobility is attractive to employees who want to diversify their skillset, gain new experiences or make a career change.

Vertical mobility

Vertical mobility is what most people think about when they think about internal hiring. A vertical move is when an employee gets a promotion of some sort, either to a more senior position in their department or to manage a different team with more responsibility. Vertical mobility provides opportunities for career advancement.

Internal transfers

Offering the opportunity for internal transfers where an employee stays with your company but transfers to a new location is an excellent way to maximize your existing talent.

Mobility for contractors or short-term hires

If your employees do a lot of project-based work, you can save time and money on hiring and onboarding by re-circulating the same employees to new projects as necessary. When a project wraps up, see who is interested in taking on another short-term contract or project at the company rather than ending the employment term and continuing the hiring process.

The benefits of internal moves vs. external recruitment

Creating the opportunity for internal movesnot only benefits the employees, it also benefits your business. As job seekers become more selective about the type of companies they want to work for (based on flexibility, pay, company culture etc.), it’s even more important for companies to consider ways to retain employees longer by offering career development and growth opportunities. Here are some of the benefits of opting for internal recruitment over external recruiting.

Improves employee retention rates

When you can offer employees opportunities for career development, they’re more likely to stay with your company long-term. While the average employee stays in a job for four years, you can potentially retain a top performer for longer if you’re willing to offer them new challenges and positions as they evolve in their professional life.

Creates time to coach current employees

If your company prioritizes internal mobility over external hires, you can spend less time interviewing new hires and more time honing in on your most skilled employees. Work with them to nurture their abilities over time.

94% of employees say they would stay at a job longer if their employers invested in helping them learn. Rather than letting top performers slip through the cracks due lack of feedback, identify future leaders within your business and begin coaching them to take on other positions down the line.

Ability to attract millennial and Gen Z employees

Millennial and Gen Z employees are staying in their jobs for shorter periods than any generation previously, averaging just two years and nine months for millennials and two years and three months for Gen Z. They’re switching positions more frequently in an effort to remain engaged and challenged in their work. Gen Z and millennial employees value workplace culture and work-life balance, and they want to be recognized for their contributions. They also need room to develop and grow. If you offer opportunities for internal moves, you’re more likely to attract applicants from these younger generations.

7 best practices for facilitating internal moves

Company mobility sounds like a simple concept, but it takes some planning to facilitate these moves smoothly. Here are the best practices for creating seamless internal moves within your business.

1. Prioritize internal recruitment

The first step in facilitating internal moves in your company is to actively prioritize this option over outside hires. When new positions are created or vacancies crop up, turn to your existing employees before publicly posting the job. This also means that instead of spending time sifting through applications from external applicants, your efforts can be redirected to speaking with supervisors about who on their team might be a suitable fit for a position.

2. Encourage transparency in company culture

It’s important to establish a healthy culture that celebrates the opportunity for internal moves and encourages employees to speak up when they’re ready for a new challenge.One way to achieve this is by training managers and supervisors on protocols for sensitively discussing these topics with their direct reports and escalating requests for transfers or internal moves to the appropriate person.

3. Establish career pathways for all roles

When employees know there’s a clear progression plan in place, they’re more likely to pursue future opportunities within your company rather than seeking employment elsewhere. Create a clear career pathway for every individual based on their position within the company so they know what potential promotional opportunities or lateral moves they could ask for when they’re ready. Set benchmarks (such as X number of years with the company, X number of projects managed) so each employee knows when they’ve reached a point of potential consideration for an internal move.

4. Focus on coaching and mentoring

To facilitate internal mobility, employers can develop mentorship and coaching initiatives within the company. Emphasis on identifying and supporting emerging talent in each department should be placed on department heads and supervisors.

5. Promote the big picture

While it’s easy for supervisors or managers to take it personally when someone wants to leave their department as part of an internal move, remind everyone of the big picture. Someone requesting a lateral or vertical move rather than handing in their resignation and seeking employment elsewhere is a positive action that indicates job satisfaction. Communicating this to management within your company can help cultivate a culture of support and celebration surrounding internal moves.

6. Encourage supervisors to seek employee feedback

Company mobility is not a new invention, but it might be new to your business. As you work on implementing these best practices for facilitating smooth internal moves, ask for employee feedback on your methods and encourage managers to do the same. Find out whether employees really feel comfortable coming forward to ask for a new opportunity and how supportive others around them are during this experience.

7. Have a system for advertising internal job openings

To effectively source new talent for a position from within your company, you need to make sure people are aware that the opportunity exists. Create a system for circulating internal job openings that creates equal opportunity for all employees at a certain level or within various departments. For example, send an email notification en masse with job parameters rather than let a single department head notify their team of the position.