Why internal mobility is the solution to corporate turnover problems

Internal mobility is proving itself to be the key to a successful long-term business strategy.

Understand your turnover rate

Your company’s turnover rate is the percentage of employees who voluntarily leave your company in one year.

It’s natural for some people to leave your company each year so a low turnover rate is normal. There are plenty of excuses to be found for people leaving that don’t fault the company, such as relocating for a family commitment, but companies with large international operations have the power to accomodate lots of these reasons and keep your people on your team, thus avoiding the potentially devastating effects on their business.

Somewhat ironically, large companies tend to have high turnover rates. The irony lies in the fact that they are the ones who have the resources to make the necessary accommodations to keep these employees.

The key reason seems to be that large organizations lack the visibility to even know there is a problem, nevertheless understand and solve this problem until it’s too late.

Then again, we haven’t yet addressed the elephant in the room, which is the fact that most people voluntarily leave companies for reasons that are indeed the company’s fault, or at least they see it that way. The number one reason being a lack of internal mobility opportunities within realistic reach on a reasonable timeline.

Many companies don’t have the right infrastructure to assess employee engagement and happiness, which is the first step in understanding what measures need to be taken to prevent employees from leaving.

Remember, we don’t just want employees to stay, we want them to be happy and productive, i.e. do their best work.

Internal recruitment, in other words, internal mobility goes a step further and actually fixes engagement rather than just measuring it.

Your employees have the upper hand

As with most things in life, one cannot tackle a problem without considering all true factors. Taking on corporate turnover is no exception.

In the current state of low unemployment, companies simply cannot afford to risk losing their best people. People are what make up companies and consistency and expertise are what help companies maintain their drive and fundamentally who they are. All companies know that high turnover rates are deadly, but with the backdrop of record low unemployment high turnover packs an ever greater punch.

In fact there are now more open jobs in America than jobseekers, Market Watch reports.

The United States unemployment rate is at its lowest in forty-eight years.

High hiring rates have resulted in a significantly diminished pool of available candidates to the point where companies cannot find enough skilled workers. The competition is fiercer than ever to both attract new talent as well as retain existing employees.

Luckily, internal talent mobility programs help both in retaining and improving the output of current employees as well as attracting new talent. Internal mobility is currently the number one most important factor in employee happiness and productivity.

Internal mobility is the answer

Recent studies consistently tell the same story. Employees who have a lack of awareness about internal mobility opportunities within their companies are choosing to leave their companies.

After all, in this economy – why not? Demand for talent is booming and the new millennial majority workforce requires visible internal mobility at their companies.

A lack of internal mobility not only worsens retention efforts and high turnover rates, but it also “robs companies of the opportunity to promote and build their leadership bench from within, which drives up talent management costs,” writes Topia.

In other words, unless companies step up their internal mobility programs, they can find themselves not only with high turnover, but also with inexperienced leadership.

It’s natural to want to stick around if you’re happy and your needs are being met. Talent mobility allows employees to grow professionally and build a better future for themselves and their families. It’s no wonder this has such great effect on turnover rates.

In today’s low unemployment economy, get ahead of your turnover and start amping up your internal recruitment and talent mobility programs. You’ll thank me later.