Internal mobility: how talent networks and redeploy portals move careers faster

LAURA CHAMBERS • 28 Jul 2025

Candidate Experience and Attraction | Employer Brand and EVP

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Summary: Internal mobility thrives when employees can see real-time roles through talent networks and redeployment portals like the features available in our ATS.

Internal mobility has gone from "nice-to-have" to a must-have. Skills shortages, flatter hierarchies and the growing cost of external hiring mean forward-thinking organisations are looking inwards for growth. Put simply, the quickest route to future-ready capability is to empower existing employees to embrace new roles, projects and career paths within the organisation.

But what path should be taken to do this? Bringing internal mobility to life across your organisation takes more than good intentions alone. It means having clear visibility of available opportunities and a thoughtful redeployment process when roles change or become redundant. That's where technology can play a key role in making both of these things seamless. In this blog, we explore the data behind the rise of internal mobility, then show how an applicant tracking system (ATS) like Jobtrain – specifically how Talent Networks and a Redeployee Portal - can turn a "good intentions want" into a reality.

Why is the spotlight on internal mobility?

Retention, engagement and agility all bloom when employees can grow with an organisation rather than leaving. LinkedIn’s latest learning research shows that employees in organisations with a strong internal mobility programme stay twice as long (5.4 years v 2.9 years) compared to peers where movement within an organisation is limited (Devlin Peck). Longevity of employees really does matter, especially when each leaver drains all that hard-won knowledge and culture.

Despite the positives of having an internal mobility programme, progress has been quite patchy. The same LinkedIn study revealed that only 33% of employers have a formal internal mobility programme and only one in five employees feel confident they could make an internal move (LinkedIn Learning).

The career-transparency gap is another warning sign. Gartner’s 2024 trend review found that fewer than a third of employees understand how their career might develop over the next five years (talkspirit.com). When opportunities aren’t visible, even your best people might consider moving on - often unaware that the right next step could be waiting for them within your organisation.

Employees internal mobility stat (2)

Common barriers to mobility – and why they persist

If the business case is so compelling, why hasn’t internal mobility already become the norm? Three recurring hurdles appear in client feedback and market surveys:

Hidden vacancies – managers often post roles externally or rely on informal networks, meaning many employees never see opportunities that fit their skills. And research by LHH found that only 8% of employees check internal job boards, so encouraging employees to explore internal roles is also key.
Conflicting incentives – team leaders worry about internal “talent poaching”, so they hold on to people even if another internal role might suit them better and help them grow.
Cumbersome processes – when employees are redeployed after restructures, manual spreadsheets and ad-hoc email trails slow everything down, creating anxiety for affected staff.

Each point here can be easily solved with the right blend of culture, policy and tech. This is where some key features in an ATS like Jobtrain can step in.

Talent Networks: matching ambition with opportunity

Talent Networks is a feature that turns passive internal databases into living, breathing marketplaces for skills. Employees – or alumni you still want to engage with – self-select into themed communities (for example data science, marketing or early careers). Depending on what's included in the tailored application form, they can outline aspirations and preferences, selecting locations, working patterns and project types that appeal to them.

When hiring managers create a job, our platform can automatically cross-match those preferences with the role’s requirements. Relevant members receive an alert before the vacancy reaches external job boards, giving them first refusal and safeguarding time-to-hire - and you control how long that internal window stays exclusive.

For busy talent acquisition teams, our Talent Networks also surface “near matches” – colleagues who meet, say, 80% of the criteria but could close the gap with short development sprints. These insights can help teams target micro up-skilling, further growing skills internally.

The impact is tangible. 87% of L&D professionals say enabling employees to move internally is their strongest lever for demonstrating business value (LinkedIn Learning). When this is hard-wired into everyday recruitment workflows, the value of Talent Networks is clear to see: faster hires, lower spend on external agencies, faster onboarding into a new role and higher retention.

Redeployment management: turning risk into opportunity

Sometimes, changes like restructuring, insourcing or new automation projects mean colleagues need to explore new opportunities within the organisation.

Our Redeployee Portal transforms redeployment from a rushed and often panicked afterthought into a well-supported, structured experience that makes every employee feel guided and valued throughout the process.

Ring-fenced visibility – employees "at risk" see a curated board of priority vacancies and can signal interest in one click. HR teams track applications centrally, ensuring no-one falls through the cracks.
Skills passports – the portal can include existing job history, training and qualifications, auto-building a profile recruiters can search instantly.
Positive narrative – rather than being defined by a redundant role, redeployees showcase their transferable skills and career ambitions, helping to reframe conversations.

This matters because prolonged uncertainty erodes morale across the wider workforce who haven't been redeployed. A transparent, time-bound redeployment process shows commitment to people even when roles disappear – reinforcing the employer brand and protecting engagement levels.

Best practice tips for HR and talent leaders

Make internal first the norm – publish new roles internally for a set period before going external. Our platform automates the timing of this, so hiring managers stay compliant without extra admin.
Train managers to share talent – link team KPIs to overall organisational outcomes, not just department headcount, so managers feel rewarded when they progress colleagues elsewhere in the business.
Treat skills as currency – ask employees to update their skills profile quarterly. Combine self-assessment with verified learning completions to maintain a rich, searchable dataset.
Measure and communicate wins – track internal fill rate, average time in role before move and costs saved from reduced agency spend. Storytelling those metrics keeps momentum high.
Build psychological safety into redeployment – give redeployees first-look access, set clear timelines and provide coaching. The goal is to make redeployment a career accelerator rather than a holding pattern.

Conclusion

Internal mobility is no longer just for L&D projects. It is the fastest route to future-proofing internal skills, lowering recruitment spend and showing your workforce that their long-term home is inside your organisation. The data speaks loudly: greater movement equals longer tenure, higher engagement and stronger business value.

Our ATS is designed not only to support every stage of the recruitment journey, but also to meet the real-world needs of today’s organisations. Talent Networks makes it effortless to spot and nurture hidden potential, while our Redeployee Portal ensures people affected by change move forward, not out. Together they create a transparent, skills-centred ecosystem where careers thrive and organisations adapt at speed.

Explore how these features can help you unlock the full value of your current workforce:

Let’s keep careers moving – inside your business, where growth benefits everyone.

FAQs

An internal mobility programme is a structured strategy that helps employees move into new roles, projects or career paths within the same organisation. It combines clear policies (for example, "internal first" posting rules) with transparent communication and technology – such as our applicant tracking system – to show opportunities automatically, match skills to openings and track progress. Done well, it shortens hiring cycles, reduces external recruitment spend and boosts retention because colleagues can see a future with you rather than elsewhere.

An employee database is typically a static record of who works for you, their job titles and basic HR information. In contrast, our Talent Networks feature is a living community: employees opt into groups aligned to their skills or career interests, update profiles with fresh achievements and receive alerts whenever a role matches their preferences. In other words, a database tells you who people are today, whereas a talent network shows you where they could add value tomorrow – and actively nudges both employees and hiring managers to act on that insight.

A redeployment portal is a dedicated space within our ATS for employees whose current roles are at risk – for instance after a restructure, site closure or automation project. It ring-fences priority vacancies, lets redeployees apply with one click and gives HR teams full visibility of every application, interview and offer. Redeployees gain clarity and control, hiring managers fill vacancies quickly with proven talent and HR demonstrates a duty of care, reinforcing employer brand even during periods of change.