Everything You Need To Know About Talent Mobility

It is said that a whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This principle of a Gestalt school of thought is applicable in so many areas of our lives. That is, something, when considered as a whole, carries a lot more value than it being measured by the values of its parts individually.

Our workplaces are no exception to this. There are so many times when we realise that we run a company and are not just individual departments working on our own. Working in cohesion instead of working independently is one of the contemporary values of work that the corporate world has started appreciating. The very concepts of talent mobility help to retain this value and achieve more productivity for a company.

What is talent mobility?

It is a practice that is followed in various companies, aiming at providing exposure to various kinds of tasks to all workers at some point in time. Depending on the job description and the training that the workers have had, they may also be rotated between various departments.

How is talent mobility practised?

Talent mobility needs a far-fetched thought that goes to the future. A company cannot wake up on one fine day and start mobilizing their talent immediately. It needs careful planning to bring talent mobility in practice without letting it happen at the expense of the company or the workforce.

Hence, the beginning of talent mobility starts right at the recruitment process. Instead of hiring workers for specific skills, the talent acquisition team can hire employees based on various other skills which test their flexibility for work and not exactly work-related talents. Instead of going for talent acquisition, the human resource team can make sure that they are hiring employees based on attitude, soft skills and learning skills.

Advantages of talent mobility

Before talent mobility is brought into practice, it becomes important to understand the benefits it procures, for both, the company and the employees. When any decision is made in the corporate sector, it can have long term impacts which makes it necessary for the business development team to map every move carefully and make informed decisions. The decision of talent mobility is not an exception to that and surely has certain favourable impacts.

Advantages for the company

The practice of talent mobility has the following advantages for the company:

1. It becomes feasible to hire multipurpose talent than hiring specialists

When you hire specialists for various jobs, it results in increased costs for your company. The specialists have gained training and experience in specified areas and would have higher fees which would result in higher expenditure on the company’s part. Instead of that, the companies can opt for hiring a limited number of specialists and a higher number of freshers that can be trained for different tasks. That way, the company saves on the costs without it affecting the quality of the work.

2. During times of need, the workforce can double up

During the times of crisis, be it natural or manmade, if a part of the workforce is absent, the rest of the people can take up their jobs to save the company’s reputation without letting the company suffer. At the same time, the affected employees can take some time off to regain their emotional and physical strength and get back to work while the other employees can fill in for them.

3. It creates an environment of growth in the company

Even if someone is the manager of the company, she or he cannot be perfect at every task identified by the organization. There are some things that all of us do well, while there are some that we are not so good at. When all the employees perform different tasks, they understand that it is not possible to be perfect at everything, nor is it desired. This not only helps to retain humility in the workforce but also promotes the attitude of growth between employees.

4. It helps to create and maintain different teams, thereby, promote harmony in the workforce

The company can divide the employees into various teams and every time these teams can interchange members to shuffle things up. This helps avoid the formation of groups and promotes healthy relationships in the workforce. At the same time, it also allows employees to interact with different people and learn from them.

5. Inhouse specialists can be developed with additional training in specified areas

When there is a requirement for specialists, after recognising the performance of employees on various tasks, they can be trained in areas that they are doing well to develop in-house specialists for the company. This helps in increasing turnover and finance inflow.

Advantages for the employees

In the corporate world, all the decisions also have to work in favour of the employees. That helps in keeping employees motivated and reduces turnover.

1. Freshers have a better chance of being hired

When a company is going to hire employees keeping in mind mobility, they would prefer attitude and eagerness for learning over expertise in specific areas. So, freshers have a better chance of being hired. Lack of experience would not matter much above their problem-solving skills.

2. On-the-job training gives a glimpse of the real world of work

For many employees, who are in the formative years of their career, talent mobility can actually provide a glimpse of the real world of work. The employees will get to know more about the pros and cons of various jobs. They will also discover the scope for growth as well as occupational hazards.

3. One gets to learn different tasks and decide if they want to pursue any of those areas further

While they work on different tasks and in different departments, your employees get a glimpse of the task in real life. They can explore the avenues of development in those areas and take up specialised courses regarding that. Additionally, if they are planning to study further but are unsure about the specialisation, undergoing a talent mobility activity offers some clarity to help arrive at a decision.

4. They get better at SWOT analysis — a key factor in career growth

The experience of working on different tasks and in different departments leads to the path of self-exploration. That helps your employees identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Based on this analysis, they can further widen their horizons.

Having certain talents make you capable of that particular job only but having an attitude that promotes learning and growth, personally and professionally, helps you develop your expertise in whichever area that you want. Employees with such an open mind towards learning not only benefits the company by increasing productivity but also promotes an environment of promoting mutual progress. For a recruiting partner that understands the importance of talent mobility and its implementations, contact BetterPlace.