This Emerging Role Can Help Companies Boost Retention — and Keep Top Talent

On paper, internal mobility always sounds like a great idea. Companies get to improve retention, reduce recruiting costs, and leverage employees who know the culture and workplace processes and can get up to speed more quickly in a new role.

It would, of course, be an even better idea if most employees knew where to find internal opportunities. Or if hiring managers were sure about how to locate top talent within their organizations. 

Enter the internal mobility advisor. These are the folks increasingly popping up in companies such as Charles Schwab, Meta, and Morgan Stanley to help employees find roles — and managers find talent — within their companies. 

The idea, however, isn’t new. “It was a role often introduced and then sunsetted in many of the large consulting firms and in some IT organizations,” says Lori Niles-Hofmann, a senior learning strategist in Toronto. “But we are definitely seeing this more and more.”   

Internal mobility advisors (sometimes called “coaches”) can solve real and nagging problems for companies. According to LInkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report, 93% of organizations are concerned about employee retention — which can get a big lift from internal mobility. And even though C-suite execs consider “giving employees opportunities to move into different roles within the business” to be one of their top two workforce priorities right now, only 15% of employees say they have been encouraged to move to a new role internally.

Internal mobility advisors can play a key role in eliminating that disconnect.  

To get an idea of what they do and how these advisors help organizations, we spoke to an internal mobility advisor at Bank of America and another at BAE Systems. Here’s what they had to say. 

BofA advisors provide one-on-one support to help employees grow 

In her role as a talent mobility advisor for Bank of America, the Los Angeles–based Sarah Holmgren spends a lot of one-on-one time helping employees figure out their next move. 

She’s part of an internal mobility program team that BofA launched as a pilot in 2020. The program is available to all of the bank’s 171,000 full-time and part-time U.S. employees, and it’s become so popular that Sarah’s team has grown from four advisors to 12. 

Employees are eager to work with the team, which offers both workshops and — most importantly — the personal touch. “People are always blown away when they hear how we work,” Sarah says. “‘Wait, one-on-one?’ But that’s what we offer, to help employees find and use the right tools at the right time.” 

Some employees reach out for guidance on planning their next career move. Others want to broaden their networks and explore options. Still others need help starting a conversation with their manager. But one of the most common requests is also decidedly retro: Employees need help with resumes.

A former recruiter, Sarah coaches employees on how to fill skills gaps, polish their personal brand, and gain exposure. Her one-on-one sessions typically last 30 to 45 minutes, depending on what an employee needs. She’s able to help some employees in just one session; others need as many as seven or eight (which can include quarterly check-ins). 

A large part of BofA’s internal mobility team’s work is offering virtual presentations, open to all employees, on career development topics such as how to build a compelling resume, prepare for an interview, or use the company’s career development tools. The presentations have allowed the team to reach employees at scale — 13,000 employees so far this year. 

In her one-on-one work, Sarah recently coached an employee who had been in an entry-level operations role for two years and wanted to move into technology. He was the first person in his family to work in a corporate setting and needed help navigating the terrain. Over multiple sessions, Sarah says, “We talked about tips and strategies for connecting with people in the job he wanted. We worked on interview prep and we crafted an elevator pitch.” She also helped him compose a follow-up email to use after his interviews. The employee followed Sarah’s recommendations and is now working as a help-desk analyst. 

He’s also become “one of our outspoken ambassadors for the program,” Sarah adds — which puts him in good company. The BofA team has guided hundreds of employees to new roles in the company. And, in turn, those employees have helped Sarah’s team grow by singing their praises and underscoring their value. 

BAE Systems’ advisors help the company fill executive roles

BAE Systems, which has 90,000 employees worldwide, takes a different approach. Clifford Alsop, the company’s London-based internal talent mobility lead, and his team of three advisors act in many ways like internal recruiters, focused on filling executive-level roles with talented employees. 

The U.K. defense contract company created its internal mobility team in 2020, to help retain talent. Here’s how it works: BAE’s executive-level talent (and those who hope to join their ranks) create LinkedIn-style profiles on the company’s SAP Success Factors page. Employees can also sign up with their internal mobility community, through the Avature platform, to signal that they’re interested in being considered for in-house opportunities. When a hiring manager needs to fill a new role, Cliff and his team conduct proactive talent searches, using the information in people’s profiles to match employees to opportunities. They also advertise open internal roles, to make sure the opportunities they manage are accessible to all employees. 

In a recent example, Cliff was asked to fill a two-year role of CEO for Movement to Work, a nonprofit sponsored by several different companies, including BAE, Barclays, Tesco, and Accenture. Movement to Work tackles youth unemployment in the United Kingdom’s underserved communities. 

A former recruiter, Cliff knew they’d need someone with a diverse skill set to excel at the job. He and his team looked at their data list, conducted talent searches, and reviewed employees’ career aspirations. After various rounds of shortlisting, they arrived at two candidates, who were interviewed by the chief people officers at Tesco and Barclays. Finally, Gillian Churchill, BAE’s former head of media UK, landed the job. 

Cliff estimates that his team spends about 70% of its time doing internal recruiting work (BAE uses an outside recruiting company for external hiring), 20% building up talent pools, and 10% doing the type of work that Sarah’s team does at BofA: coaching employees on their careers. 

He says that his team hopes to spend more time advising employees in the future. “But there’s a real need for us right now to retain talent, move our people around better, and build up internal capability,” he explains. “At the moment, my team is the solution for all those things, merged in one.” To prove his point: Since his team was launched, it has saved BAE about £750,000 (US$940,000) in recruiting costs, and contributed significantly toward meeting the objectives set by the company’s executive committee for talent mobility. 

Final thoughts: Internal mobility is more important than ever

At a time when many companies have leaner workforces, they are also looking for ways to make even better use of talent. But that equation goes both ways. While companies need good talent to thrive, employees still want to grow.

That’s what excites Sarah about her job, helping employees land new opportunities. “When somebody sends me an update that says, ‘I nailed the interview’ or ‘I just got a verbal offer,’” she says, “those wins just make my day.”