What Stops Employees from Applying for Internal Roles

With job openings and turnover soaring in the labor market, ****nizations must prioritize retaining the talent they already have. **wever, new research from Gartner shows that only 33% of employees seeking a new role looked internally at their own employer first when they’re looking for a new opportunity.

Awareness

It can be easier to learn about opportunities at a competitor

Democratize awareness through technology

Create platforms that match people to jobs based on their skills

• Internal job platforms should allow employees to signal which roles they are interested in
• This can both keep employees from missing opportunities and help HR leaders ascertain interest in and the quality of the internal pipeline for a particular role

Open universal access to opportunities

While most ****nizations have goal-setting processes to chart in-role growth, progressive ****nizations work to surface employees’ aspirations beyond their current position or job trajectory.

• They provide career coaches or mentors who work with employees to uncover their interests, passions, and motivations and explore career opportunities.

Access

Even when employees are aware of a job opening, they may not believe they have access to it

• The top barrier is the perception that another employee is already favored for the role
• Of candidates who focused their search on external jobs, 32% said they did so because it was easier to achieve career growth elsewhere

Express support for mobility

Managers should normalize conversations with employees about their next role, building discussions of potential career options into goal-setting and performance conversations.

• After laying out the options, managers should ask questions like, “If you were to take a different role at this company, what would it be and why?”

Support

Employees don’t feel supported in pursuing internal roles by their managers, peers, or the ****nization as a w****

• Ways to make internal labor markets more equitable
• Gartner found that women are 55% more likely than men to not know about internal job openings, and women from underrepresented backgrounds are three times less likely to be formally identified as high potential

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