Is your gut telling you to hire internally while your head keeps nudging you to look outside your organisation? You’re not alone.
Recruitment and TA specialists worldwide are wrestling with this idea — and on Wednesday 15th April, The Herd got together to work through the problem.
The Herd IRL: Stop losing people you already have
Moderated by Tom Jewell, Chief Customer Officer at Zinc, The Herd’s first IRL event of the year was all about learning how to put internal mobility into practice.
Along with Tom, we were joined by two incredible panellists to understand where internal mobility breaks down and what happens when it works:
- Michael Thomas Morgan, Lead People Partner at YTREE
- Tasnim Tudor, Principal HRPB at Saviynt
Sad you missed this event? Don’t worry, you can sign up for the next one when you join The Herd.
Hiring externally: the “safe” choice
To get us started, Tasnim said what everyone in the room was probably thinking: “Internal mobility is hard, and very few organisations know how to make it work.”
But why?
For our panellists, it boiled down to the perception of safety.
While hiring externally comes with its own risks, most HR teams would agree that it’s the safe route. Or, as Tom pointed out, hiring externally “already has a playbook.” But internal mobility isn’t as simple.
“Internal moves feel muddier because of the emotions involved in that person’s growth story,” said Tom.
Even though hiring externally feels safer, he pointed out that, in the long run, it’s just as risky.
“You could bring in someone with all the credentials who is a complete nightmare to work with,” said Michael, “so the two cancel each other out.”
Michael went on to explain how HR teams are looking for risk-averse solutions that work for everyone. And while that comes from a place of empathy and a desire to help people in the business, it leads to them building overcomplicated policies that ultimately aren’t as helpful to employees.
Investing in your people
So what’s better: hiring someone who can do the job or someone whose values match your organisation’s?
Tom framed it simply. Skills can be taught, but attitude is harder to shift. For him, hiring for culture is a “huge vote in favour of internal mobility.” If someone is already in your team, you’ve already vetted their values and ways of working, and you know that they’re in alignment with your organisation as a whole. When they move into a new role, that means fewer opportunities for misalignment and missed expectations.
Michael pointed out that behaviours are often the missing piece in most recruiters’ hiring checklists, because they’re so focussed on the candidate’s skills. It’s not just about what someone can do, but how they do it, and that’s where internal candidates have a natural advantage. You already know how they operate.
But this approach only works if you’ve invested in your people to begin with. As Tasnim put it, “Invest in your people as you would in your technology.” Just as tools become outdated, so do skillsets.
Organisations that treat learning and development (L&D) initiatives as an afterthought will find their talent pool shallower than they think, and see more employees finding reasons to leave than incentives to stay.
On the other hand, businesses that do invest in their people stand to reduce hiring costs and build a team of people that are already culturally aligned.
The psychology of talent hoarding
Talent hoarding isn’t always deliberate. As one audience member pointed out, it can often show up as passive resistance, rather than outright denial. Think extra questions, extended conversations, or a general drag on actioning someone's progression.
And while most HR managers and TA experts agree this is a problem, very few talk about why it happens in the first place.
The room’s general consensus was that it comes from a place of fear. Managers under pressure to hit targets are naturally reluctant to lose their best people. When the conversation turns to revenue targets and team performance, the tone shifts Suddenly, a manager’s passive resistance to internal mobility seems out of their control.
But as Michael rightly pointed out, “Hoarding great talent means you have a great team in the short term, but a disengaged one in the long run.”
While managers may be afraid of losing their top performers, Michael suggests that retaining a great employee in a different team — one that they’re engaged and happy in — is better than losing them forever. Holding onto a top performer might keep a team strong in the short run, but risks them becoming disengaged in the long run.
On the flip side, letting them move into a role they're excited about keeps them in the business and signals to others that you care about their progression.
Tasnim took it a step further: many of these behaviours are habits built from past experiences and won't shift on their own. Organisations need to actively equip managers with the tools to handle transitions, so that losing someone to another team feels like a win, not a threat.
Panellists’ pro tips: What actually works for internal mobility?
To close the discussion, Tom asked Tasnim and Michael the big question: what does it take to turn retention into growth? A few themes emerged.
Mobility starts at the top.
Internal mobility only works if leadership believes in it. CEOs and business leaders must believe in the power of internal mobility to truly forge a path for their teams. No matter the size of the organisation, if enough emphasis is placed on the value of internal mobility, it works.
Tasnim’s top tip to get leadership invested in internal mobility is to show them the numbers. She said taking the time to forecast numbers and demonstrating just how much value a program or initiative can bring to the organisation is one of the best ways to push leaders to try a new approach they may have never considered before.
Programs that let people test before they commit.
Michael shared that he is himself a product of internal mobility — he wouldn't have found his way into People and Talent without Selfridges' “Try for Size” programme, which allowed employees to shadow different teams and explore roles before making a move.
Tasnim spoke to the value of investing in employees' development more formally, pointing to a mini-MBA programme that gave high-potential employees the commercial and managerial skills they needed to progress.
Low-stakes ways to discover what you want.
Closer to home, Tom shared how Zinc's onboarding mentor programme has evolved into something more intentional, giving non-managers a structured way to test whether people leadership is something they actually want to pursue, before committing to it.
The result: people either discover a passion for management, or get clarity that it's not for them. Both outcomes are valuable.
Final thoughts: Internal mobility isn’t just a “nice to have”
Your internal mobility policy is a signal your employees are constantly reading. It shows them that “progression” isn’t just a term hiring managers mention during an interview, but something you actually want for them.
As Michael said, “I was given some cool opportunities by some forward-thinking people that changed my life forever.” How could the right internal mobility approach power lifelong development for someone in your organisation?
