How to Promote Horizontal Talent Mobility

Earlier this week Customer Success Team Member Juliana Withers hosted Truvelop’s User Community Lunch and Learn on Horizontal Talent Mobility Strategies and how to develop them. 2021 is predicted to have a much more competitive talent landscape, so taking a creative approach to developing internal talent is more important than ever. Additionally, improving the employee experience is expected to be a focus for many organizations again this year which means finding new ways to engage and challenge employees is definitely a priority. Juliana took our Users on a deep dive into creative talent development strategies, placing an emphasis on horizontal mobility through the utilization of transferable skills.  

Transferable Skills 

So, what are transferable skills? They are exactly what they sound like: skills that can be transferred between different jobs or projects. Rarely is someone equipped to do only one job.  Realistically, they can do many jobs very well. It’s about thinking outside of the box.  

When considering transferable skills, you may ask yourself, “Are there certain projects that need someone who is organized and can motivate others?  What about projects that need someone who is great at staying focused for an extended period of time? Maybe there is a project that needs a creative person?”  

When we start thinking about the application of transferable skills, we can start getting more employees involved in different tasks. Some of these projects may be new for an employee, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t be great at it. Instead, it could be an awesome opportunity for them to develop and practice their skills in a unique way. They would be moving horizontally and being challenged in a new setting. You would be recognizing them for their talents by considering them for a new role or project team. Anything new is engaging and can increase creativity and motivation. This is a major focus for many organizations in 2021 who may not have the budget to hire externally and are still recovering from last year’s shut down.     

Cross-Training 

Once again, cross-training is exactly what it sounds like. You are training individuals to be effective across the organization. Specifically, we would want to cross-train employees who have the transferable skills to be effective in a variety of different roles. Cross-training is an amazing way to increase engagement with employees while at the same time making your entire organization more flexible and adversity resistant. If someone is out sick, but other employees have been cross-trained, then you know for sure that the role will be covered. Additionally, it promotes more trust and team cohesion. It’s one thing to say your team members have your back, but it’s another thing to know for sure that they can actually help you out if you ever needed them to. Additionally, employees want to be challenged. According to LinkedIn, 76% of employees are looking for career growth opportunities. This horizontal mobility allows for career growth, challenges, and strengthening of their current talents and skills.   

Mentorship 

Mentorship is an awesome way to engage and guide not just the employees, but also the managers. According to a study published by Sun Microsystems: 

• Employees who participated in a mentorship program were five times more likely to advance in pay grade, and mentors made even more progress.

• Mentees were promoted five times more than those not in the mentorship program, and mentors six times more. 

• Retention rates were significantly higher for mentees (72%) and for mentors (69%) than for employees who did not participate in the mentorship program (49%). 

Mentorship has also been shown to have positive effects on diversity representation. Cornell University found that mentoring programs boosted minority representation at the management level by 9% to 24% (compared to -2% to 18% with other diversity initiatives). The same study found that mentoring programs also dramatically improved promotion and retention rates for minorities and women—15% to 38% as compared to non-mentored employees. Those stats are amazing! 

Using Truvelop to identify Transferable Skills, Cross-Training and Mentorship Opportunities 

Truvelop empowers businesses to put creative talent management practices to use – like identifying transferable skills, cross training and mentorship opportunities. Truvelop shares data driven insights with managers and employees to maximize individual and team performance.   

Truvelop is not just an employee assessment tool, Truvelop also promotes the delivery of real-time feedback and recognition to employees with our Spark feature and our Recognition Wall to supercharge on-going performance development conversations between managers and employees.  

Contact us today to learn more or send us an email at sales@truvelop.com to schedule a demo to find out how your business can benefit from our industry-leading, modern approach to performance management and development.