Addressing skills gaps through internal mobility

Keeping talent moving is the key to obtaining and maintaining high engagement levels. Lateral movement can help address key skills gaps across an organization.

This article below highlights a study of 3,000 senior HR professionals by Alexander Mann Solutions, which found that 25 percent believe lateral hiring is a company’s best weapon for talent retention in the immediate future. The figure rose from one in four to 36 percent for investment banking, 50 percent in energy and 86 percent in healthcare.

To effectively leverage internal mobility, your managers must overcome any reluctance to let employees go from specific managers or departments and move on through the company to gain experience for themselves while supporting needs within the organization.

In the book, "Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go", chapter 6 is all about providing moves internally that help employees stretch. Forget about the ladder — think more about career paths and consider that "onward and upward" are being replaced with "forward and toward."