Internal Talent Marketplaces: America’s Best Kept Secret

As the jobs market remains tight in most industries, a focus on employee engagement and retention can offer businesses a powerful competitive edge. And according to a new report, an internal talent marketplace is the right tool to do just that.

The Conference Board report, produced in partnership with Gloat, highlights the benefits of using an internal talent marketplace—a powerful digital platform that matches workers to opportunity—to address labor shortages through internal mobility.

A talent marketplace can make hiring existing talent faster, less costly, and less risky while improving retention and engagement. It also allows workers to see opportunities for open roles, gigs, and projects, as well as mentors, career paths, and development opportunities; recruiters and hiring managers to post open opportunities; and leaders to see current skills and skill gaps within the organization.

However, successful implementation requires investments in technology, processes, and culture, as well as careful measurement to demonstrate the return on investment.

Insights were drawn from a three-part roundtable series with both talent leaders and include:

For employers: An internal talent marketplace has numerous benefits for hiring, retention, engagement, strategic workforce planning, and cost savings, including:

• Higher retention: Employees who feel that they have a clear career path and multiple options for mobility within the organization are more likely to stay longer.
• Improved efficiency in filling critical roles and better workforce planning: Hiring existing workers is faster, cheaper, and less risky than external hiring, as it leverages the talent and potential of the employees who already know the culture, processes, and goals of the organization.
• Increased productivity: An internal talent marketplace can unlock latent productivity in the organization by providing additional projects and gigs.
• Saved costs and enhanced revenue: By posting gig projects, employers provide the opportunity for employees to voluntarily contribute on top of their main role, unlocking thousands of working hours in a year, saving the company millions, and generating additional revenue.
• More accessible talent and skills: Employees can highlight their skills, interests, and availability on the platform, and managers can search for and engage the best talent for their projects or roles, regardless of location, department, or function.
• Improved succession planning: Talent marketplaces can build leaders with broader, more diverse experiences, as well as increase the ability to identify promising talent deeper in the organization for succession planning.
• Higher engagement: The skills and aspirations of employees can be better identified, acknowledged, and supported through more specific career development goals and opportunities, keeping them engaged and challenged.
• Stronger culture: An internal talent marketplace strengthens organizational culture by enabling transparency, visibility, and inclusion.

For workers: Talent marketplaces match workers with opportunities.

• A talent marketplace offers broader access to work opportunities, expanded career paths, better upskilling and reskilling, and more inclusive access to networking and mentorship.

“The importance of fostering a company culture that values and invests in internal mobility cannot be overstated. Strong and ongoing support for internal mobility from leaders is essential for creating the cultural change needed for an internal talent marketplace to succeed,” said Robin Erickson, PhD, Vice President, Human Capital, The Conference Board. “Managers who hoard talent not only put their employees at a disadvantage, but the business overall.”

Successful implementation of an internal talent marketplace requires considerable investment.

• Technology: Carefully assess the platforms available in the market, their features and functions, and how each matches the organization’s goals, budget, and capacity.
• Process: Implement a process for employees to update their skills profiles to match them to potential opportunities and to understand the aggregate skills inventory across the organization. Create end-to-end internal mobility processes like career paths and learning opportunities.
• Culture: Foster a culture that rewards and supports employees taking on short term or gig assignments,increase transparency about internal opportunities, and empower employees to talk directly with hiring managers.

“Internal talent marketplaces can unlock latent potential and create immense value, but they also require a considerable investment,” said Diana Scott, US Human Capital Center Leader, The Conference Board. “Companies will need to measure the results, show the ROI, and make a strong business case that is tailored to a range of stakeholders.”

Demonstrate the ROI of an internal talent marketplace in four steps:

• Identify the desired outcomes and how progress will be measured.
• Track both input and output metrics and understand the value of both.
• Recognize that different C-Suite stakeholders will be interested in different metrics.
• Use metrics to guide ongoing development and improvement.

About The Conference Board

The Conference Board is the member-driven think tank that delivers Trusted Insights for What's Ahead^®. Founded in 1916, we are a non-partisan, not-for-profit entity holding 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status in the United States. www.ConferenceBoard.org

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