How to assess agility in employees for internal mobility

When was the last time you audited your internal mobility strategy? We mean really audit it?

It can be hard to even know where to begin let alone what practices and strategies to put into place. Add on top of that the fight against talent shortages and uncertainty, and coming up with a strategy can feel impossible.

But there’s good news. The data shows that internal mobility strategies are moving in the right direction and come hand-in-hand with healthy hiring practices. 

According to HireVue’s 2024 Global Trends Report, 50% of talent teams are turning their focus to internal candidates as a response to talent shortages. That’s compared to 44% last year—proving that TA teams are realizing that their current workforce can be the backbone to holding up during tomorrow’s challenges.

Below we talk about 3 strategies to support stronger, fairer internal mobility and talent assessment.

Measure the ability to be agile in changing situations.

We say this a lot at HireVue, and in fact, it’s the foundation of Human Potential Intelligence:

Your hiring practices should measure what a candidate can do, not just what they have done.

It’s important for your candidates to have the skills needed for today, but also the agility and ability to adapt to tomorrow’s needs as well. 

The Agile Mindset Assessment is a critical solution to measure an external and internal candidate’s ability to adapt. It works by measuring 4 key types of agility:

• People: Do they read people and interact well with new people, a variety of people, and tough situations?
• Results: Do they drive results in new or novel situations?
• Mental: Are they comfortable with complexity? Can they examine problems and make fresh connections?
• Change: Do they experiment and deal well with change? Can they deal with resistance to change? 

The Agile Mindset Assessment is a science-backed tool designed to support fairer hiring decisions and build a workforce more adept at navigating different challenges. And since it only takes minutes to complete, it supports a positive candidate experience as well. 

Healthy workforces and happy employees 

Did you know 65% of today’s hiring teams are turning to skills assessment to determine potential? Or that almost 100% (96%) are now looking at candidates’ ability to learn new skills while also assessing candidates for skills that transfer to new responsibilities as roles evolve? 

However, a McKinsey study shows that 80% of workers transition to another employer in order to advance. 

When disengagement and attrition costs companies hundreds of millions of dollars, it’s fair to say that a healthy internal mobility strategy should be part of your business strategy.  

Showing your employees you care extends to your internal mobility programs—and your employees should be able to trust that you’re making smart and fair decisions.

The Agile Mindset Assessment is a great tool to support promotion decisions—but know that it might not show you what you expect… and that’s okay!

Sometimes, employees are more suited in their current role instead of managerial role or a different role less suited to their strengths. Having those conversations can be hard, but they benefit the whole organization. 

Fair internal mobility starts with fair hiring. 

If you want an internal mobility program based on merit and not just an ad hoc who knows who or who’s been there the longest, then you have to create a hiring system based on merit as well.

But merit doesn’t mean resume line items like education, degrees, and job titles. It means hiring those with the potential to do great work today and tomorrow. 

If you want to promote the most qualified team members, you have to hire them in the first place. HireVue offers AI-driven tech designed to measure the skills and competencies of your candidate pool—the ones with the hard and soft skills to continue achieving success. 

HireVue offers an assessment for every role and every level, so you can be sure you’re basing decisions on data instead of “gut instinct.” Plus, ensure you have the right tools in place so candidates feel empowered from the very start. 

• Find My Fit: Candidates complete a brief assessment of their interests, personality, and background. The results are then compared to your organization’s open opportunities, recommending the roles that are the best fit for the candidate. By recommending roles based on the candidate’s skills and interests, it drives candidates to those roles that might be a better fit—helping expand the diversity of your talent pool in the process.

Skills-based hiring is fairer hiring and with the right solutions in palace, you can build hiring and internal mobility strategies that are rooted in fairness and value well-being.

Ready to add more strategy to your internal mobility? Request a demo!