Mobility and Analytics

Data drives so much of everything that happens in our vast world of work. Every day, countless decisions are made based on data, those decisions produce more data, the new data leads to new decisions, and on and on and on.

Numbers don’t lie, so they make for a trusty, dependable guide we can use to shape our efforts to achieve just about any goal. Success vs. failure, progress vs. regression, right vs. wrong – if we’re looking for it, we can find it in the data.

The utility of data and data analysis is widely accepted. No matter what field you work in or what you’re trying to accomplish, odds are you’re using and analyzing data on a regular basis. Even so, there are some areas where data often goes uncollected, overlooked, unused, or all of the above.

Talent mobility is definitely one of those areas, and the fact that it is doesn’t really make sense. Why aren’t we looking at and drawing conclusions from data to figure out whether or not it’s working for internal talent and for our organization? 

There are plenty of ways in which analytics can be useful in guiding and assessing our talent mobility endeavors. 

The big one, of course, is turnover. Improving retention is one of the ultimate goals, if not *the* ultimate goal, of adopting and embracing talent mobility. So, what was our turnover rate to start? How many people were we losing and how much was it costing us then? How many people are we losing and how much is it costing us now? If the numbers are better, that’s a good sign that it’s working.

Another good sign that our talent mobility is working is participation rate. How many people are actually applying to internal jobs? How many are successfully switching roles? Are people getting to where they want to be? A low participation rate is an indicator that either awareness isn’t high enough or there are too many remaining roadblocks or both. 

A deeper dive into the analytics can tell us even more about the core strengths and weaknesses of our organizations and the jobs we’re offering. Do we have any skills gaps, and if so, what are they? What about opportunity gaps? Do our requisitions line up with the skill sets that the jobs actually require?

There’s a whole lot of questions we can answer when we collect and tap into the data surrounding talent mobility, and it’s about time we start doing so on a broader scale. And a tech solution that does the work for you could be just what you need to take your talent mobility to the next level.