Talent Management Processes

Driving Selective Retention Through Internal Mobility Systems

by Taleo Research

All organizations strive to run at full capacity. As a metaphor, we can view being 100 percent staffed like filling a bucket to its maximum capacity. The first tendency is to optimize the filling procedure, i.e. the talent acquisition process for new, external hires. Just as the development of running water was a major improvement for filling buckets; the same may be said of the advent of electronic recruiting for hiring. However, if we know that the bucket has a hole—or our company has major retention issues—optimizing acquisition procedures only fixes half of the problem. Additionally, as a consequence of high turnover, you need to bring more people in. That has been a very expensive leakage for organizations (more information on the impact of turnover on profit margins is in the report, Internal Mobility).

This article focuses on how the technology that helps you be more efficient at “filling the bucket” can be used to address the retention issue, based on a state-of-the-art internal mobility platform.

Selective Retention

An optimized corporate internal mobility process leverages the existing employee base, producing powerful results that directly and positively impact corporate goals, including:

  • greater employee satisfaction and retention,
  • opportunity cost savings,
  • lower staffing costs,
  • streamlined information flow,
  • limited competitive intelligence leakage,
  • and better financial returns.

First, though, let’s address one issue: not all turnover is bad. Selective retention is the key. Some of the recent studies that we covered on our blog (www.taleo.com/blog ) discuss the optimum level of retention. At any rate, the key here is that you do not want to retain all individuals, but you want to make sure you have the procedures in place to retain the highest value employees.

Benefits of Electronic Recruiting

Talent acquisition technology that has been applied to new external hires has similar benefits and efficacy for internal redeployment. The use of a web browser interface for an internal job posting site, for example, provides 24x7x365 access. This ubiquity provides employees with the ability to easily shop for opportunities, and increases the flow of talent supply for the corporation.

Talent management automationtechnology that powers an internal careers site leverages the tremendous efficiency of self-serve processes. It can consist of a database of employee profiles, and include job posting functions, a skills library, and workforce planning modules.

Corporations can create a library of organizational skills, competency models and standardized job templates, and create profile questions that are unique to the internal audience. Self-service web-based talent management solutions empower employees to create and update personal profiles and apply for career opportunities. Today’s technology enables organizations to power internal mobility programs with standard skills defined in a structured data format, effective automated matching of talent to task, and efficient self-serve solutions.

With this system, an employee skills inventory database maintains profiles of employees, their skills and abilities, for use in matching to internal opportunities. It may also be used for skills gap analysis and training. With a skills inventory database based on a robust technology platform, organizations can benefit from being able to mine a transparent internal labor pool and profit from a clear understanding of the human capital it controls .

Having a skills inventory database allows an organization to:

  • Allocate resources optimally
  • Re-deploy or lay off employees as needed
  • Engage in strategic workforce planning

“Push technology” (automatically matching the skills of internal employees to a requisition) makes opportunity/skill matches fast, and internal sourcing efficient for both employee and employer. The digital format for both postings and applications also drives speed into the process, a critical component of capturing quality talent.

Monitor the Results

An internal mobility initiative gives employees greater access to opportunities for growth and career progression, consequently reducing the rate of turnover. Perhaps the best benefit of all for management is the ability to monitor the results. For instance, with the Taleo application, you can see the internal rate of applications, the internal hire rate, and the referral level, among other metrics. Those are great indicators of the success of your initiative to retain individuals. Reporting and customized scorecards can provide timely visibility into the results.

The best measure of all is probably the ability through the Taleo application to evaluate your attractiveness as an employer of choice, so that you know if the select employees you are striving to retain see your company as the place to stay. Well-designed internal mobility programs powered by efficient, automated technology platforms will positively impact retention and your corporate goals.