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People often ask about the relationship between talent acquisition and workforce planning and how both canimpact internal workforce mobility. Talent acquisition and workforce planning are intricately linked functions within any successful organisation—making understanding both aspects crucial for any company planning to grow, scale, or expand.
Let’s get down to it.
Workforce Planning(WP) focuses on the long-term strategic view. It involves identifying future talent needs based on business goals, technological advancements, and market trends. It also includes forecasting demand for specific skills, analysing potential skill gaps, and identifying potential internal and external talent sources. Talent Acquisition (TA) is finding, screening, and selecting the best candidates to fill specifically identified roles.
The importance of aligning Talent Acquisition and Workforce Planning
In a nutshell, here’s how these two interact and inform one another.
Workforce plans provide crucial input for TA strategies, and by understanding future talent needs, TA teams can then:
- Implement targeted recruitment efforts, which means focusing on attracting candidates with the specific skills and experience identified in the workforce plan.
- Build talent pipelines by proactively sourcing and engaging potential candidates for future roles.
- Develop employer branding by attracting top talent and showcasing the company’s growth potential and career development opportunities.
TA teams provide valuable insights into the availability and cost of talent in the external market. This information can help refine workforce plans and identify potential areas for improvement in internal talent development.
Now, a strong relationship between TA and WP directly impacts internal mobility in more ways than one:
Identification and assessment of internal candidates for open positions. This then encourages both internal mobility and employee development. Instead of automatically looking for qualified candidates outside the company, an alignment in TA and WP prioritises internal growth and empowerment.
For example, a SaaS business might be expanding into a different country or region and have identified the need for a General Manager. TA, being informed of this need, can successfully identify team leaders within the company who have the potential and drive to take on a higher role. This reduces the time and resources needed for hiring and training.
Developing internal talent pools.
By tracking employee skills and career aspirations, TA teams can build internal talent pools and identify potential candidates for future roles that align with the company’s long-term goals and plans.
For example, a customer support company aims to grow its client base by at least 50% in the coming year. However, to accommodate these clients, more internal teams will need to be created. This will require more team leads, which can be drawn from existing manpower. When internal talent pools are intentionally developed, the workforce can grow parallel to the planned company growth.
Improving employee engagement.
Promoting internal mobility can increase employee engagement, motivation, and retention by providing organisational growth and development opportunities.
For example, when employees see that top performers are given leadership positions, they may become driven to excel.
Why is workforce mobility so important?
Aligning TA and WP is crucial for successful internal mobility. Workforce mobility improves talent retention, increases employee engagement, and reduces turnover. A study by Cornell reported that internal hires significantly outperform external hires.
Additional benefits of internal workforce mobility are reduced recruitment costs and faster time-to-fill positions. Expenses related to hiring, recruiting, interviewing, onboarding, and training external hires can be redirected to internal training and engagement programs.
When internal mobility is prioritised, the benefits are multidimensional. Empowering and engaging the workforce translates to enhanced agility of the organisation as a whole. When individual goals are aligned with business goals, the result is an organisation that responds faster to change, innovates more, and adapts easily to industry challenges.
Overall, organisations can foster a more engaged and productive workforce while gaining a competitive advantage by prioritising internal mobility. Working with an expert like CXC can help facilitate a balance between internal mobility, external hiring, and contingent workforce management.
Risks of misalignment between Talent Acquisition and Workforce Planning
Aligning TA and WP should not be taken lightly. Misalignment can lead to risks for internal talent growth—such as inefficient hiring, missed opportunities for internal talent growth, increased costs, and reduced organisational agility.
Inefficient hiring
If TA focuses solely on filling immediate vacancies without integrating the long-term workforce needs, they may end up hiring for roles that will become redundant. Over-hiring or under-hiring in certain areas or departments can also happen when critical skill gaps are neglected.
Missed opportunities for internal talent growth
An internally motivated workforce is robust and can benefit an organisation in many ways. So, if TA primarily focuses on external recruitment, qualified internal candidates may be overlooked, leading to missed opportunities for employee development and increased engagement.
Organisations may fail to identify and develop high-potential employees for leadership roles without clearly understanding future talent needs.
Increased costs
Frequent external hiring can significantly increase recruitment costs, including advertising, agency fees, and onboarding expenses. Additionally, if employees feel there are limited opportunities for growth within the organisation, they may be more likely to seek employment elsewhere, leading to increased turnover costs and talent shortage.
Reduced organisational agility
The organisation may struggle to remain competitive if the workforce lacks the necessary skills and experience to adapt to changing business needs. Also, a lack of available talent can hinder the organisation’s ability to capitalise on new opportunities and achieve its strategic goals.
4 challenges hindering internal mobility success
Given the unmatched importance of internal mobility, knowing the various challenges hindering its success is essential.
Challenge #1: Siloed operations between TA and WP
Poor communication and a lack of integration between departments can significantly hinder internal mobility success.
For example, if information about internal job openings is not effectively communicated to employees, they may be unaware of opportunities and miss out on potential career advancement. This lack of transparency around internal mobility policies and procedures can create confusion and discourage employees from pursuing internal opportunities.
Additionally, when HR systems, performance management tools, and career development platforms are not integrated, it becomes difficult to track employee skills, identify potential candidates, and manage the internal mobility process effectively. This lack of collaboration between HR, managers, and employees can hinder the identification and development of internal talent.
Challenge #2: Over-reliance on external hiring
Over-reliance on external hiring can be costly and detrimental to an organisation, incurring the following costs and missing crucial growth opportunities:
- Recruitment expenses: External hiring involves substantial costs, including job postings, recruitment agency fees, candidate screening, and onboarding expenses.
- Lost productivity: The time and resources spent recruiting and onboarding external candidates can disrupt existing workflows and reduce productivity.
- Loss of institutional knowledge: External hires often require extensive onboarding and training to learn about company culture, processes, and industry-specific expertise. This can lead to losing valuable institutional knowledge that internal candidates already possess.
- Limited skill development: Over reliance on external hiring can stifle internal talent development, hinder employee growth, and limit the organisation’s long-term talent pool.
Challenge #3: Lack of visibility into skills and workforce needs
The lack of visibility into skills and workforce needs significantly hinders effective planning. This lack of visibility stems from several data and technology gaps.
Critical workforce data is often fragmented across various systems, such as HR systems, performance management tools, and learning management systems. This siloed data makes it challenging to gain a comprehensive and accurate picture of the current workforce’s skills, experience, and career aspirations.
Data quality issues, such as missing information, inconsistent data entry, and outdated records, can significantly impact the accuracy and reliability of workforce planning analyses.
Many organisations also fail to leverage data analytics tools to effectively analyse workforce data and identify emerging trends, skills gaps, and potential risks.
Challenge #4: Impact on employee engagement and retention
Employees may feel stagnant in their careers when internal mobility opportunities are limited due to a lack of communication, transparency, or a focus on external hiring. This can lead to dissatisfaction and a desire to seek opportunities elsewhere.
When employees witness a consistent pattern of external hiring despite the availability of qualified internal candidates, it can negatively impact overall employee morale. This can create a perception of unfairness and a lack of internal equity.
These feelings of disengagement and frustration can ultimately lead to higher turnover rates as employees seek opportunities for growth and recognition elsewhere.
Strategies to align talent acquisition and workforce planning
1. Breaking down silos between TA and WP
To break down silos between TA and WP, organisations need to establish strong communication frameworks and shared goals. Here are some top recommendations:
- Conduct regular meetings between the TA and WP teams. This will allow them to discuss current and future workforce needs, analyse talent market trends, and review recruitment strategies.
- Establish data-sharing protocols and seamless data flow between HR systems, performance management tools, and other relevant systems to provide a unified view of the workforce.
- Create dashboards that provide real-time insights into key workforce metrics, such as skills gaps, employee turnover, and internal mobility rates.
- Foster open communication channels between TA and other departments, such as marketing, finance, and operations. This ensures that everyone is aware of current and future workforce needs.
- Establish shared goals that are aligned with the overall business strategy. These goals should focus on building a high-performing workforce that supports the organisation’s success.
- Develop and track key performance indicators (KPIs) that measure the success of TA and WP initiatives. These KPIs should include time to fill, cost-per-hire, employee retention, and internal mobility rates.
2. Leveraging technology for better workforce insights
Leveraging technology is crucial for aligning TA and WP. Here are some top tools for skill mapping, workforce analytics, and talent mobility tracking:
Skill mapping tools
- Skillsoft: Offers a comprehensive platform for skills identification, assessment, and development. It helps organisations identify skill gaps, track employee progress, and build personalised learning paths.
- Cornerstone OnDemand: A comprehensive HCM platform that includes robust skills mapping capabilities. It allows organisations to create skills inventories, identify critical skills, and track employee development.
- LinkedIn Learning: Provides access to a vast library of learning content and allows organisations to track employee learning progress and identify skill gaps.
Workforce analytics tools
- Tableau: A powerful data visualisation tool that can be used to analyse workforce data, identify trends, and generate insightful reports on workforce demographics, skills, and performance.
- Power BI: Another popular data visualisation tool that offers robust data integration and analysis capabilities, enabling organisations to gain deeper insights into their workforce.
- Workday: An integrated HCM platform with advanced analytics capabilities, allowing organisations to track key workforce metrics, identify potential risks, and forecast future talent needs.
Talent mobility tracking tools
- SuccessFactors: Offers a suite of talent management solutions, including tools for career pathing, internal mobility tracking, and succession planning.
- SAP SuccessFactors: Provides a comprehensive platform for talent management, including tools for skills mapping, performance management, and internal mobility tracking.
3. Embedding workforce mobility into talent strategies
Designing clear internal mobility pathways and robust career development plans fosters employee growth and encourages internal mobility.
Create visual representations of potential career paths within different departments and functions, showcasing possible progression routes for employees with various skill sets and interests. Next, define the key skills and experiences required for progression within each role and department. You can also consult with CXC to gain a deeper understanding of how to leverage your internal workforce while leaving space for a solid contingent workforce.
There are also some internal programs you can implement that will help encourage internal mobility:
- Implement rotational programs that allow employees to gain experience in different departments and roles, broadening their skills and expanding their career horizons.
- Encourage employees to create individual development plans (IDPs) with their managers. These plans outline their career goals, skill development needs, and a roadmap for achieving their aspirations.
- Provide access to various training and development opportunities, such as workshops, online courses, mentorship programs, and professional certifications.
- Set up a transparent internal job posting system. Ensure all open positions are widely publicised through internal job boards, company intranets, and employee newsletters.
- Publicly recognise and reward employees who have successfully transitioned to new organisational roles.
- Pair employees with mentors who can provide guidance, support, and career advice throughout their career journey. Provide access to professional coaches to help employees identify their career goals, develop their skills, and navigate their career paths.
The benefits of internal mobility alignment
Cost savings from reduced external hiring
Hiring from within significantly reduces costs associated with external recruitment, such as advertising, agency fees, and extensive screening processes.
Onboarding internal candidates typically requires less time and resources than onboarding external hires, as they are already familiar with company culture and processes. Thus, it is recommended that you leverage your internal workforce for higher positions and explore hiring contractors or consultants for short-term projects or seasonal needs.
Enhanced employee engagement and retention
When employees see opportunities for growth and development within the organisation, they feel valued and are more likely to stay. Employees who feel challenged and fulfilled in their roles are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs. Internal mobility allows employees to explore new roles, learn new skills, and gain valuable experience—increasing job satisfaction.
By providing clear career paths and opportunities for advancement, organisations can significantly reduce employee turnover, which can be costly and disruptive.
Increased organisational agility and readiness for global scaling:
When employees can quickly move between roles and departments, organisations can adapt rapidly to changing business needs and market demands. The cross-functional movement of employees fosters knowledge-sharing and collaboration, leading to increased innovation and creativity.
A skilled and adaptable workforce is essential for successful global expansion. Internal mobility can help organisations develop a globally-minded workforce with the skills and experience to succeed in international markets.
It’s time to build your workforce mobility advantage
In today’s dynamic business environment, aligning talent acquisition and workforce planning is no longer an option but necessary for global success. By closely aligning these crucial functions, organisations can unlock the full potential of their workforce, foster a culture of internal mobility, and gain a significant competitive advantage.
By investing in internal workforce mobility, you can prioritise collaboration between TA and WP teams, leverage data and technology to gain deeper workforce insights, and design talent strategies that maximise the potential of your existing employees. Overall, this will reduce your reliance on external hiring, enhance employee engagement, and build a highly skilled and adaptable workforce that drives innovation and fuels future growth.
Ready to unlock your workforce’s potential? With decades of experience providing expert advice to global businesses, CXC is more than a solution provider. We are your partner in scaling sustainably. Contact us today to start fostering a culture of workforce mobility and leverage strategic workforce planning for a competitive edge.
