Article: Why HR must leverage internal talent pools

Recruitment

Why HR must leverage internal talent pools

When looking for the right fit, does it help organizations to look within? Read to know more.
Why HR must leverage internal talent pools

The war for talent is being fought on a global scale today. It’s no longer direct competition alone that you find yourself up against. Nor can you restrict your search to a geography or industry. In fact, you will be looking everywhere.

Try this on your next cab ride. Ask your Uber or Ola cab driver about their background and don’t be surprised to hear a lawyer, engineer, entrepreneur, management consultant, or marketing executive!  

So in this new war for talent, companies must look for new and innovative ways to attract, develop and retain people. The question is: are they ignoring and under-leveraging the internal pool of talent that lies within? How ironic is it then, that in many companies while recruiters toil to find the right candidate externally – the best fit is one of your own employees – looking for this job outside!

A recent LinkedIn study revealed that 33% employees rate career growth as their no. 1 motivation to explore external opportunities. Surely, time for a rethink on talent strategy – with a clear focus on how to best leverage the internal talent pool. 

Here are a few pointers why companies would want to nurture and leverage their internal talent pools:

Improve utilization

Organizations must invest in getting visibility and understanding their internal skills supply. With this in-hand knowledge, business heads would be able to allocate available resources to the right jobs instantly, thereby reducing bench and loss of revenue. This also contributes to better forecast of skills demand, which could act as an input to upskilling existing talent pool to meet future demands. 

Reduce attrition and improve engagement

By engaging with the internal talent pool, firms could potentially reduce attrition by half which costs millions of dollars for large organizations that invest heavily on external recruitment. Most often than not, organizations are looking for best-fit candidates in the market when a rightly-skilled employee is looking for a similar job in the market. Imagine, if you could have this intelligence in-house – it would be a win-win for both. For the employee, it could also mean a greater job satisfaction.

Gain competitive advantage

In a market scenario where competition is so intense, organizations must leverage their strengths and minimize their weaknesses in the ‘People’ sphere. Those organizations that have the ability to provide a full career view for a new joinee will not only enjoy employee loyalty but also improve their employee’s lifetime value. 

Improved agility

By putting the responsibility of one’s career in their own hands and letting them choose or in some cases even design their career path, organizations would drastically improve agility. Thus, the organisation will witness faster decision making, lower allocation gaps, and improved utilization.

Shorter learning curve

It is likely that an existing employee will hit the ground running as against someone from outside the organization as an internal recruit would need to no induction to the company culture, business units, organization structure, expectations, processes, etc. This means that the team will start deriving value faster and may witness 100% productivity.

Significant top and bottom line impact

By using talent mobility, organizations can prevent attrition to a large extent which in turn has an impact on the revenue and profitability of the company. Talent mobility is a great way to retain staff especially for large organizations which have a wealth of opportunities owing to their size, business, and geographic spread. This also keeps the employee more contented as he or she may get enough learning and upskilling opportunities.

As companies look to optimize their workforce, HR must consider strategies to leverage their internal talent pool as the key to unlock their talent transformation journey.  

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Topics: Recruitment

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