Job architecture and career management

The situation on the hyper-competitive job market and in recruitment is changing rapidly due to the economic downturn. Job losses, hiring freezes and decline in external hiring for the near future — all these conditions have made internal mobility one of the most important strategies in HR. That is why it is the right time to explore the talent you already have on board to fill in the skills gaps and prioritize internal mobility at your organization.

Internal mobility is an essential part of comprehensive talent acquisition and development strategy. Using internal resources not only promotes greater involvement in the workplace but can also make your organization more sustainable in times of downturn.

No longer “pre-hire-to-retire” as traditional old-fashioned talent management exists. Now It’s all about facilitated and developmental internal mobility. We take a job in a company, we move from role to role, and our career grows and evolves through a series of projects, assignments, and positions.

The majority of companies have to struggle with hiring and building skills internally. “We know every our employee and his or her skills” — these words you are unlikely to hear from most CEOs. The reality is that half of the skills and promising talents are hiding inside the company. It is caused by a huge number of unstructured HR data, which no manager can process manually, and it remains untouched and not being analyzed.

Yes, you can publish job postings internally, but would it change anything if your employees’ best way to switch the job in the company is through the connections they have? Will you still hire the candidates without knowing who in the company is the most suitable candidate and do not offer any solutions for your employees to find the right job?

This type of career management based on “the people that you know” is typical for large companies and prevents efficient talent development.  In this case, the reality is that the easiest way for the employees to be successful and progress in their careers is to quit and apply for a new job.

To enable effective internal mobility there are several challenges that companies need to overcome. Simplifying the job architecture fosters the agile way of working. Think, which job roles and skillsets you would need in the future. Which job roles would digitalization and automation replace? Which new roles would you need in the company to stay competitive? Can you develop your workforce to achieve the desired job architecture, or should you invest in external recruitment?

You can (and should) look at the external labor market and analyze the current trends that impact the job roles. The job postings reflect the labor and business strategies of the companies. By analyzing this data, you can predict in which direction your industry or cross-industry competitors are going.     

Second, pay attention to your job descriptions. Do the mentioned skills and duties reflect the strategic orientation of your company? The job descriptions should be designed with the focus not only on the current demand but also include the skills that your company would need to stay competitive on the market.

It makes sense to check what are the best practices for the selected job roles and adapt your internal job postings accordingly. However, it is important not to ‘overload’ your job descriptions: be realistic, which skills you can recruit right now and which ones will remain as the strategic ‘target’ skills of the future and include them in your talent development strategy.

Third, provide talent development tools for your HR and employees. A tool for skill self-assessment and development would help your employees estimate which skills they possess now, where they have the skill gaps (for the future job role or also current job role) and how they can close the skill gaps to achieve their career goals.

It increases employee engagement and motivation and enables employee-driven skill transformation. For the management, such tools create an opportunity to align their strategy and future needed skills to career development. The internal job postings should reflect the strategic goals of the company. The employees would develop themselves towards their interests and goals.

Lastly, give career development the leading role that it deserves! Strategic career and talent development must be the core elements of your HR strategy. It is your main chance to handle the job automation on time, adapt your internal skill landscape to the emerging job roles, and not lose in the war for talent.

Internal mobility, job architecture and skill management is a multi-disciplinary issue. As a leading company, you need a well-functioning job architecture and a clear set of automated open job positions. It is a unique way for employees to identify and assess their skills to equip yourself with the best people.

Although attracting external talent is an integral part of improving your business, many companies do not pay attention to their organization’s most promising talent. At best, this leaves talent untapped. At worst, a failure to maximize your employees’ potential can discourage them from staying in your firm and unintentionally push them to find another job.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has also created many unforeseen obstacles to external recruitment, making it even more challenging to optimize your internal mobility strategy.

For this reason, internal mobility is a critical component of the sustainable success and future growth of an organization and may never be as acute as it is now.

To foster the successful internal career management process, we have built a skill platform smartPeople that enables internal talent mobility.  It helps infer and identify skills and skill gaps for development

Like the end-to-end career development platform, smartPeople assess the employees’ skills, matches them to jobs, projects, tasks or mentors, and facilitates the creation of personalized career paths. The platform links the disciplines of AI-based recruiting, Big Data-predefined succession management, and L&D together.

Book a demo or contact our business development team and help your people with their career growth!