Mythbusting Mobility: I already have an Internal Mobility Solution

I hear this one all the time when I am introducing WORQDRIVE to people.

“ We already have a solution”

My response every time is: And how is it working out for you?

I know this is aggressive, but it doesn’t make it any less true.

Most mobility solutions are simply an internal job board. Others are managers steer their direct reports’ careers. Other people have what their ATS has, which 90% of the time is an internal job board.

So, maybe you do have a solution, which is a great start, but the question remains, “how is it working for you?”.

And the answer inevitably is “it’s not.” We know it’s not because people keep leaving. We know it’s not because despite the data that tells us people want to stay, they would rather move internally, they aren’t. They’re leaving.

So, while you may have a solution, the solution isn’t doing what it should be doing. It’s not actively engaging your employees. It’s not the first thing they think of when they want a new challenge or have a bad day. Indeed and LinkedIn are where they go when that happens. So, while there is a solution, they may not even know you have one.

The reality: They are not adopting the solution you have.

The solution needs to be focused on helping them move internally. To match them to jobs that will be a fit, not a wide-open search that could set them up to be dismissed. They should be tapped by recruiters for new roles based on their skills and aspirations.

They should be plugging into your solution in the same way they plug into LinkedIn and Indeed. In Internal Mobility, the metric is adoption. How frequently are they interacting with the solution. What percentage of your employee base uses the solution? How well do they convert from the solution? These are the things you need to be looking at. Internal mobility is not a box to be ticked. This approach is costing the organization too many people and too much money.

You need to focus on providing solutions that people will use and engage with. You need to focus on thinking through the cultural shifts that need to happen o bring real mobility to your company. You need to focus on solving the problem of people leaving when they would rather stay.

Let’s stop with the box ticking and look at what we currently have with the same scrutiny we look at our recruitment marketing and applicant tracking systems. We need to and can solve this problem, but we need to really solve it, not tick a box.