Internal talent mobility strategies help HR leaders combat the “Great Resignation” aftermath, build employee career capital, and create a competitive advantage in uncertain economic times.

Internal Talent Mobility: The Evolving Landscape From Great Resignation to Strategic Retention

Let’s take a quick look at how the talent landscape has shifted over the past few years. Since 2020, companies have been riding wave after wave of change. What started as a global crisis turned into a major reset for how we think about work. We went from mass layoffs to one of the most competitive job markets in recent memory—all in under two years. In fact, a recent survey found that 90% of companies plan to implement return-to-office (RTO) policies by the end of 2025, with 64% already having some form of RTO in place. And even now, as things have started to stabilize, the pressure to retain talent hasn’t let up.

Remember the “Great Resignation”? At one point, millions of people were leaving their jobs every month. In November 2021, a record 4.5 million workers quit their jobs. And while those numbers aren’t quite as extreme today, people are still rethinking what they want from work—more flexibility, more purpose, and better balance. It’s not just about higher pay or better perks anymore. For companies, this is a chance to really understand what motivates their people and build smarter, more flexible ways to grow and move talent from within.

The current economic climate, however, has added additional layers of complexity to these workforce dynamics. Recent policy shifts, including the implementation and subsequent reversal of certain tariffs, have created a climate of uncertainty. On again, off again tariffs that had caused market turmoil, leaving businesses seeking clarity. This unpredictability creates business reluctance to spend and invest, heightening the risk of a potential recession. As a result, organizations face the dual challenge of adapting to evolving work preferences while navigating economic headwinds that threaten growth and stability.

Why Internal Talent Mobility Matters for Your Organization

A career is the most important asset an individual has. Our “career capital” — the unique combination of our skills, experience, and savvy — is how individuals create value for themselves and enable them to contribute to organizational success. Promoting and encouraging career and employee development is a critical link in creating positive employee experiences and strengthening employee engagement and retention. Any meta-analysis of turnover data shows that a primary reason why employees resign is due to a lack of personal growth and development; organizations that pay attention to employees’ careers create an incentive to stay.

Yet, many companies have abdicated the responsibility for career management and have done little to support or enhance employees’ skills related to career navigation. How often have we heard a company tout that “employees are our most important asset” yet a closer look reveals the company has done little to encourage internal talent movement and employees lack basic career management skills. And while designing and implementing a career development program may feel complicated, it doesn’t need to be.

7 Strategic Internal Talent Mobility Practices for HR Leaders

Here are several key practices that any company can adopt, regardless of size, budget, or other resources:

1. Invest in Career Capital Development

Remember, it is through career capital that an employee contributes to organizational outcomes. Companies that invest in career capital — through employee development programs — recognize the “win-win” for all parties.

2. Prioritize Feedback and Career Conversations

Leaders need to be deeply invested in providing regular feedback and there needs to be rewards for individual learning and skill development.

3. Address Career Spillover Challenges

The reality is that all organizations only have so many roles available, particularly at senior levels. A career spillover occurs when employees remain in a role too long, creating bottlenecks for development and career pathing; and a disincentive to stay with the company. HR leaders can think about creating new opportunities through job rotations or other developmental assignments.

4. Implement a Career Lattice Approach

A lattice approach — instead of a traditional career path model — encourages and facilitates multi-directional career movement. Perhaps a company can’t create more “slots” or promotional opportunities — but you can still create new learning experiences and career journeys with lateral movements, job rotations, cross-functional project team assignments, and so on.

5. Focus on Skill Growth Over Title Advancement

Use workforce planning to identify key competencies that your organization will require over the next 2-3 years and create programming to encourage skill and competency development… and pay programs to support this.

6. Eliminate Talent Hoarding

Seek to facilitate internal talent mobility by encouraging movement across your company. Reward leaders who promote, rotate, and develop their employees, particularly those leaders who facilitate employee movement to a new role in another part of the firm. Acknowledging and rewarding these leadership behaviors will help immeasurably in creating a culture that prizes internal talent mobility.

7. Build a Foundation of Trust

Employees need to know their managers will be ok with their desire to pursue careers outside of their current job; trust and psychological safety needs to be built, encouraged, and reinforced.

Conclusion: Internal Talent Mobility – Helping Employees Help Your Organization

Career stewardship is about being purposeful and proactive in taking ownership of your career. We are all ultimately responsible for building and nurturing our own career capital and being capable career stewards. But there is a quote from the movie “Jerry McGuire” that is also relevant — “help me help you.” Savvy organizations recognize that there is tremendous value in helping their employees become more capable career stewards, and they do so by investing in employee career development programs.

So — are you helping your employees help you by investing in them?