Unlock Internal Talent Flow to Grow

“It was easier to leave and get rehired than to find a job within the company,” said ​Jean Pelletier​, ​Schneider Electric​’s VP of digital talent transformation and global talent acquisition.

Legacy incremental vertical career paths didn’t need ‘talent mobility’. Non-linear career pathways up and across flatter, nimbler organizations do, enabled so employees don’t leave. Tasks and projects matched to people based on their skills also do, shifting to a skills-based operating model.

86% of HR leaders in 2024 said internal mobility was an organization priority [​iCIMS​].

Your company must launch or advance an internal talent marketplace (ITM) – a platform, process, and culture transition that lets your people apply their skills dynamically across projects, teams, and roles.

ITMs are increasingly widespread as AI further catalyzes skills-based work allocation and hiring:

2024’s 6% increase reaffirmed the benefits of greater versus less internal talent mobility:

• 70% and 62% higher retention likelihood with promotion or lateral move respectively [​Internal Hiring Factbook​, Josh Bersin Company & AMS].
• 17% greater employee learning engagement.
• 79% more leadership promotions per employee [​LinkedIn Talent Solutions​].
• Lower recruiting costs as hiring a new employee is 2.5x more expensive than reskilling a current one [​Financial Services Skills Commission​ (UK)]

Freeing up employees internally requires:

🔥 Mindset shifts from “jobs” to “skills” and “opportunities.”

🔥 Careers shift from “ladder climbing” to “lattice growth.”

🔥 Opportunities shift from limited visibility to transparent and accessible.

🔥 Managers shift from hoarding talent to sourcing skills.

🔥 Rewarding cross-functional collaboration and project contributions.

🔥 Focusing initially on user experience over technical sophistication.

​Schneider Electric​ has led the charge with their Open Talent Market platform. Employees can upload their skills and create projects—what Schneider calls "internal gigs"—with AI connecting internal candidates to these opportunities. ​Find out more​.

​Unilever​ expanded their ​U-Work initiative​ as an internal talent marketplace. “It’s about starting to shift the mindset from, “These are my people and this is our job” to being more fluid in your thinking about how you bring in resources,“ – Morag Lynagh, former Global Future of Work Director.

Prudential Financial created the Skills Accelerator in 2020, an internal digital career services platform, enabling their 50,000+ employees to own and drive their personal non-linear career journeys focusing on their skills. ​Read more​.

IBM launched the Blue Matching program in 2017 using AI to analyze data collected about workers’ skill sets and compare them with requirements for other roles at the company. Their Your Learning platform creates custom collections of lessons for employees to acquire new skills to advance. ​Read on​.

​Uber​ facilitates internal movement with an internal jobs marketplace where all open roles and projects globally are posted to all employees. They offer short-term opportunities from business-driven assignments to structured programs that match employees with high-impact projects. ​Discover more​.

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🤔 Are you letting internal talent flow—or slowing it down?

Talent marketplaces in future are expected to extend and provide employees with access to project or ‘gig’ work, mentorship, rotation programs, stretch and volunteering assignments, and innovation and skill-building experiences. The concept is stimulating a true ​opportunity marketplace​ that aligns with business needs.

This expansive talent model—referring to ​my newsletter two weeks ago​ about future-proofing your workforce composition—further changes the way to think about work by fractionalizing:

• the work for increased efficiency.
• the workforce to unlock greater potential and value.
• the workplace to break down silos.

MONTH 1: LAY THE FOUNDATIONS

Goal: Define vision, assess readiness, and identify advocates.

• Communicate the ‘why’ - Frame the marketplace as career enabling, and employee engaging and retaining. Include it in onboarding, learning, and performance cycles.
• Identify the champions - Starting with one unit or department, choose leaders open to experiment who have project needs and are willing to share talent.
• Build the core team - Appoint a marketplace lead. Form a steering committee with HR, IT, Ops, and other key business units represented.
• Conduct an internal opportunity audit - Where do new projects get posted? How are stretch assignments assigned? Log time-to-fill for project needs? Survey employees on career development satisfaction and internal posting awareness.

MONTH 2: PILOT & BUILD

Goal: Launch pilot internal platform or process.

• Make skills transparent - Ensure employees log their current and aspirational skills. Use surveys, manager reviews, and or sync with LinkedIn (​see last week’s newsletter​) using a common skills language. Map current roles to required skills and proficiency levels.
• Choose a platform - Start simple: Trello, Airtable, or Google Sheets enabling a basic matching process to test demand and supply. Or test purpose-built platforms such as ​Gloat​ or ​Fuel50​.
• List opportunities dynamically - Include not just jobs but also project roles, mentorships, shadowing opportunities, and innovation sprints.
• Enable managers – train managers on ‘work fractioning’ – breaking complex projects into discreet, assignable components. Establish incentives for talent sharing and remove penalties for ‘losing’ team members to other projects.

MONTH 3: MEASURE & SCALE

Goal: Gather momentum and build for scale.

• Integrate technology solutions – embed with existing HR systems for seamless data flow. Ensure AI-powered matching capabilities.
• Track core success metrics - Internal time-to-fill; percentage of roles filled internally; percentage of gig/project contributions; percentage of workforce with active profiles; skills-application rate (top 5 skills matched to work used weekly).
• Establish continuous improvement loops – Create feedback mechanisms for talent providers and consumers - what’s working and identifying bottlenecks. Review with hiring managers and contributors. ‍
• Present business impact - Show speed, savings, retention, engagement—build the case for organization-wide expansion and extension to include alumni and partners.

📕 ​The End of Jobs: The Rise of On-Demand Workers and Agile Corporations​

🎬 ​Schneider’s Open Talent Marketplace​ – sharing how they did it.

📄 ​Talent Marketplace – Buyer’s Guide​ – unlocking agility at scale.

🎶 ​Take A Chance On Me​ by ABBA – every internal move begins with opportunity!

Could focused insights accelerate your progress adapting to modern work—evolving to a skills-first organization and increasing internal talent mobility? I offer executive coaching for leaders looking to scale with less distraction.

​Click here to reserve a limited slot​. Let's discuss how best to design your talent transformation together. Email me BEFORE June 21st to get a start of SUMMER SPECIAL 2-for-1 private coaching sessions at sophie.wade@modernworkLIFE.co.

Next week, I focus on how and why to update your leadership approach to grow during fast-moving unpredictable times of change.

Thanks for reading. Until next time!

Sophie