Internal Mobility: Process Design

Internal mobility —the movement of employees from one position to another within a corporation— is an efficient and cost-effective method of talent deployment, and can be a significant component of a company’s staffing strategy. Making job opportunities available to the existing employee base leads to greater employee satisfaction and retention, while at the same time lowering staffing costs and filling positions much more quickly. To attain these benefits, the design of the internal mobility program must embody both communication excellence and processing efficiency.

Internal Mobility Process Flow

The structure of an internal mobility process flow has two halves:

1. Inform employees of internal opportunities.
2. Manage responses from interested internal candidates.

In designing the specific steps of the process flow, the overall goal of the internal mobility initiative as well as aspects of the policy and business rules governing it (e.g. eligibility requirements) must be taken into account. The Taleo Research report Internal Mobilitypresents results from a survey of more than 70 large and global corporations, on internal mobility practices. Here is a selection of the findings and implementation recommendations.¹

Internal Job Notification via Intranet

The first function of an internal mobility process is to make employees aware of the opportunities. An effective communications plan promotes to employees the process of accessing opportunities.

Most companies have moved the internal mobility program online. To inform employees of internal mobility opportunities, 96 percent of companies post to an Intranet site. Moreover, three of the remaining four percent of companies currently not posting positions to an Intranet site plan on doing so.

Companies use Intranet technologies in such overwhelming numbers because of its speed and efficiency. Disseminating internal opportunities to the employee base in a timely manner is regarded as a key to a successful internal mobility initiative: 67 percent of survey respondents consider the automation of internal postings to be “very important” for the success of an internal mobility initiative. In complement, 71 percent of survey respondents report being satisfied (24%) or very satisfied (47%) with their current online internal mobility technology, as it enables Intranet posting.

Responses from Internal Candidates

Once the employee-base has been notified of internal opportunities, it is critical that the internal mobility process be designed to manage responses from interested candidates as efficiently as possible. To do so, 91 percent of companies allow employees to express interest in an internal position via the Intranet site from either the PC at their workstation or a kiosk. Moreover, nine percent of companies currently do not have an Intranet-based job application form, but plan to.

Although email is a convenient method of communication, it is not the preferred format for accepting internal candidate applications since it lacks the process efficiencies of integrated Intranet applications. Email is currently, though, a common medium through which employees (internal candidates) respond to internal opportunities: candidates may send an email to the HR department in more than half of companies. However, email responses are losing their appeal: 11 percent of companies plan on phasing out emails sent to the HR department; eight percent of companies plan to phase out emails sent to the hiring manager; three percent of companies plan on phasing out email job applications entirely.

Paper still persists in the response channels of corporate internal mobility programs even though it is difficult to share across the enterprise and hence not scalable, and lacks a common format for assessment. Candidates may send a paper application such as a resume to the HR department or the hiring manager in 50 percent and 35 percent of companies, respectively. There is dissatisfaction with paper responses: 19 percent of companies plan on phasing out paper application forms directed at the HR department.

Integrated Intranet Technologies are Key

It is clear that Intranet technologies are the most favored platform for supporting an internal mobility process. An Intranet site introduces multiple efficiencies, since it manages both the posting of opportunities and applications from employees, and is a self-service environment.

In 89 percent of the companies surveyed, the Intranet site is powered by back-end staffing automation technology. Optimizing a corporate internal mobility process for communication excellence and processing efficiency puts a company in an advantageous position to improve employee satisfaction and retention, lower staffing costs, and avoid losses in productivity due to unfilled positions.

Tags: Internal Mobility