Although an organizations’ largest talent source may be internal, it rarely recognizes its potential. Most recruiters focus on external talent without scouting internally. What’s more? There are barely any initiatives internally to reskill and upskill the workforce efficiently. Those that exist are haphazard and not attuned to the aspirations of the employees.

However, a shifting business landscape, the emergence of new skills and the need to satisfy employee development are pushing barriers for organizations slowly but steadily. There is a growing need to understand more ways to achieve internal talent mobility than simply filling a role with a current employee. According to LinkedIn’s 2018 Workforce Learning Report, nearly 95 per cent of employees feel that they would remain with the existing company if it made an investment in their careers. This opens up a peripheral opportunity for organizations to increase employee retention and bolster the reskilling process while taking a holistic approach to the organization’s needs.

As organizations reimagine today’s talent journey, they’re putting greater emphasis on employee experience. However, an essential aspect of the same is understanding their career aspirations, connecting them to organizational goals, providing learning opportunities to build their skills and finally putting them in the best position so that they are engaged.

Why is internal mobility important?

• Employees may look for a career change but may be unwilling to leave the organization for multiple reasons
• Innovative L&D programs help employees take ownership of their career growth
• Helps build a collaborative and agile workforce, the imperative of every organization

This brings up a pertinent question — what can organizations do to ensure an ‘employee first – employee aspiration’ strategy?

The fact is, in most organizations, HR systems, internal job boards, L&D programs are disconnected systems. They all exist in different capacities but in isolation. The need of the hours is one centralized platform that will align organizational goals to employee goals, see employee aspirations, suggest relevant skillsets and provide adequate L&D opportunities to ensure employee growth. So, in a way, personalized job recommendations will help them move towards their aspiration.

And it is an essential organizational need because the present challenges do not allow them to

• Identify and move people across the organization
• Low skilled employees who are unable to fill new vacancies
• Lack of visibility of current roles in the organization
• Resistance from managers

According to a McKinsey survey, 43% of organization’s said they have a skill gap today. This means they don’t have people with the relevant skill sets to take them to their next growth step. Of them, 22% felt they would have the skill gap in the next two years. And the remaining 22% thought they would face a skill crunch in the next two to five years from now. A small percentage believed the heat would come on them in the next 6-10 years.

Now, these percentages are scary and forecast a destabilized future. It can only be mitigated when organizations take the lead and focus on new upcoming skill sets and encourage their workforce to fulfil their aspirations.

Today, the specific specialized people you hired to work on high-value projects need multiple specializations. Then again, you need more with another domain expertise. To hire specialists, the organization has to make that extra spend, the extra investment. Now, what if the same two people can be upskilled as a part of their aspirational plan? It’s a win-win for both. The organization saves costs, and the employee moves to the next level.

This is precisely what EDGE Pathfinder will enable you to achieve. It understands what is happening in the market, can decipher the current or future needs of the organization, details the needs and aspirations of the employees and links them in unison. Built on our Smart AI EDGE GraphTM - an astute knowledge graph, which has analyzed over 10 million job descriptions and 35 million candidate profiles, EDGE Pathfinder puts the employee in the centre and simplifies employee engagement. It helps HR teams and employees with auto-filled, standardized, consolidated profiles of all the employees. Based on employee profile information, EDGE Pathfinder recommends the best internal jobs for which the employee is eligible. It also tells the employee where they can upskill to be relevant and help them with career paths to go to the next level. Thus, putting the employee in the centre of all talent decisions makes the employee feel valued, engaged, and future proof in your organization, thereby making the organization more efficient and future proof. At EDGE, this is how we use tech for good.