Episode 68 : Building Strong Internal Mobility Operations As Part of Your Talent Retention Strategy

Dear Corner Office

Next up is a fantastic speaker who is also here with me in the great state of South Carolina. So I am excited to introduce her to sub and some of you probably already know her, especially if you hang out on social media. Ranada Samuel is a human capital leader, focus on internal mobility and Diversity Equity inclusion. Her work revolves around the employee design experience. As she works closely with learning and development and Talent Management, she facilitates the change management process within organizations as they evolve their human capital strategy. Per her project management team is specifically responsible for retention and attrition metrics. She's had the opportunity to work in variety of industries including academia, hospitality, retail and financial services supporting clients across the United States. Her work is a vital part of the integrated talent management process, that that integrates all HR and management practices into an end to end system which attracts, engages and develops and helps people progress in their careers. She's passionate about people operations within multifaceted businesses, and is excited to spend time with each and every one of you today. Ranada it is great to have you join us today. How are you?
Good morning. Good morning. It's great to be here with you.
I'm so excited to talk about how your topic on building strong internal mobility operations as a part of talent retention strategy. I want to first start by asking you how did you get into HR? Like, what what? What was it about HR to say, You know what this is for me?
Right? Well, you know, I had an unconventional method into getting into HR. My background is in academia started out in the social sciences, in those ivory towers, doing all of that great research, my master's degrees in urban planning and public policy. So my focus was on community and economic development, how can we change the world and make it a better place all these wonderful things. And I realized that I could have a greater impact working within corporate America, actually, within institutions and organizations, helping them to facilitate their people management process, then I could and just being in the research realm, doing the research, putting out clever publications, going to conferences, now don't get me wrong, I still do all of those things. But I wanted to have a more hands on approach and transitioning into HR allow me to do just that.
I love it. I love it. I love the non traditional path, people seemingly figuring out where what they want to do Alliance and one of the members of my team like I want to do this was like, What have you heard of People Operations? And she was like, what? And so now she's digging deep into People Ops, because because she's doing the work, but she didn't know she wants to do the work. And she wants to do iOS, study IO Psych. So absolutely. It's that non traditional path of really figuring out as young adults and get experienced in industry that really can lead you to a fulfilling career, especially athlete histories change, and people change. Right. I want to go into something more about your topic now. What are some of the foundational components needed to have a successful diversity, equity inclusion, recruiting every teaching strategy, but the retention recruiting is one part but that retention organizations aren't as focused on right now? Are some of them.
Yes, having that that those foundational components in place are essential. So when we're looking in evaluating organizations, some questions that we have to ask ourselves, number one, is there a strong and efficient sourcing process? Is the recruitment marketing strategy there to identify and attract diverse talent? And we have to be honest about what the reality is about our organization and what's happening. No Does that count? company's overall marketing and communication strategy, provide insight into what it's like to work for that company, what the goals are the mission, the vision, the culture, things of that nature. And when we talk specifically about recruitment, marketing, does it provide insight on what it's like to be an employee there, what type of people are successful in strive in that organization, because when we're talking about talent, attraction, we don't just want to attract everybody, we want to attract the right type of talent, the right type of personality, and that, that talent and that diversity, personality can be diverse, you know, you have Type A's, you have type B's, though, those can be women, they can be men, they can be people of color, people with diverse abilities, but making sure your communication strategies are providing a transparent view into the company that you're trying to invite, or candidates to join.
I love it. And I think when you speak the language, in an inclusive way, to that, to those people that you want to try, it's really, really important. I think some organizations think we should, if you want a job, it doesn't matter how we say it. And then once we use these keywords in your field, then you'll find us and it's like, no, that's not how that works. Exactly.
Exactly. And then, you know, after we get the communications and marketing strategy down, once again, we have to take another self assessment of the organization. Is there an efficient recruitment process that seamless? You know, we're talking about the recruitment basics here? Are we nurturing candidates that are in the pipeline? Is there a timely response to candidates? Is there an efficient interview process with well trained and equipped interviewers, you can't just pick people out of the department and say, Hey, come over, let's interview some people. And these people aren't trained to actually properly interview someone. When we're talking about interview evaluations, is it based on the skill and the talent need versus someone's gut feeling? You know, you hear people say, Well, they're just not a good fit. But they can't tell you why they're not a good fit. They can't tell you why they wouldn't excel in the role, you know, also part of that evaluation. Is there a diversity of slate of candidates? Is there a diverse interview panel? You know, are we giving quality feedback, not only to the interviewer, or is, but also to the candidates, all those things come together as foundational, before you can even move forward in bringing in quality to the house.
And I love how you pointed those things out? Because this brings up a data question for me. So how can organizations use data to help retain diverse talent? And what type of data should they look at to achieve their goals?
Right? So a lot of organizations believe it or not, there's quite a bit of data that's available. It's just a matter of making a commitment to look at the data, analyze it and take action on it. So some of these data points that I mentioned, most organizations already have them. So when we're talking about onboarding data, what's the process? Who's going through? How efficient is it happening? We're talking about training, what are your training programs? What are your metrics, who's successful things of that nature, most organizations do some form of a 3060 90 day review. And then you also have those annual performance reviews. But in addition to that people manager should be giving continuous feedback to individuals that they manage. When it comes to their performance review time, no one should be surprised. 15 Five is a great resource for those weekly touch points and giving feedback and things of that nature. And a lot of organizations have employee engagement or satisfaction surveys, that's a lot of data right there. You're not paying any extra money to get that data, you already have it within your organization. Once again, it comes back to making that commitment to look at it, analyze it, and then take action on it.
So we tried to keep things simple here for people that are new in the space. And you said something and I like let me make sure everybody's on the same page. You said 15 Five, can you tell us what what you're referring to?
Yes. So 15 Five is a software that you can purchase and bring into your organization. I really like it because it's great for people management. So the theory behind indeed is that your individual contributors, they would take 15 minutes, once a week, and analyze and come up with a summary of the work that they're doing. This is what I've accomplished. This is what I'm having problems with. This is what I need support in. What should I do next. So just 15 minutes analyzing what they did for that week. And so if you're a people manager, you should be having regular touch points with your people. So hypothetically, let's say you're having one once a week, and this is just a five minute touch point. So your end of independent contributor is coming to you during that meeting. They they're already nice, neat, organized to give you a synopsis of what's going on. They're telling you what their needs are, what what support they need, who you're who they're partnering with, who they're looping in on the work that they're doing. And that five minute meeting, you as the people manager, you're able to give them the support, they need to direction you're opening up the door, you're sending off an email, whatever needs to happen. So that person can move to the next level and progress in the project that they're doing. Now, that's just one of many software's that are out there that can support you. But I really liked that software is because it rolls up into people management, it rolls up into your performance management. So when it's time to evaluate that individual, you're not like, Oh, my goodness, I'm looking for a sticky note. And I remember I talked to them, but I forgot what we talked about six months ago, all of it is captured within the system.
I love it. I'm glad I asked that I was thinking 55 every five days you meet with your each employee for 15 minutes. That's that's what I had. But so so you know, like nine, eight and things like that like that similar? So I'm glad I asked that question. So what I do
is just pivoting on that a little more. See what these data points do is it allows us as leaders, you know, like myself, and people like the director or the VP level plus role, get an understanding of what's happening in the business. You know, we're not involved in the day to day operations. And we're looking at things from a 30,000 foot view. But this allows us to inspect what we expect by looking at that data.
Thank you for that. Absolutely. Get that out. Let's move on. And I want to focus a bit on culture. What impact does culture have on dei retention strategies? And how do we build a supportive culture?
Yes, so culture is is key. It's it's pivotal, once again, one of those foundational aspects to be able to move the organization forward. And so when we talk about culture, we have to once again, do a self assessment, ask ourselves some questions. You know, what is our goal as an organization? As we're building out our culture? Who needs to be involved? What's the timeframe that we have to implement this culture, get things moving? Or tell people about our culture? And what resources do we have to achieve those goals? Because the reality is people don't leave jobs, they typically leave bad managers. So when we're talking about retention culture is key to the retention strategy. So as an organization, if we want our dei and our retention efforts and internal mobility efforts to be successful, we have to make sure it's embedded in the culture. And so culture includes how are we training our people, managers? How are we mentoring our operators and coaching business leaders? You know, is everyone working in a way to create and support the desired culture? So when we speak of business leaders, so those in the C suite, are they creating policies and procedures along with incentives that support the behaviors we want exhibited? In addition to you know, putting pen to paper? Are they exhibiting it? Are they doing it themselves? When we're talking about mentoring operators? Are those that mid level management these are the people who are leading the business units are leading operations? Do they have the tools, the resources, the autonomy needed to get the work done? You don't want to send someone out to do the work and their hands are tied, and they can't get it done? You know, once again, are they modeling good behavior to for others? to follow, because it's just not about getting the work done. Putting the basket of putting the ball in the basket. It's about how you go about getting the work done, and how inclusive you are in the process. And then that last part, you know, our people, managers, the people that are hands on in the field, getting it done every day, are we rewarding them for being career coaches, and retaining top talent within the organization, all of those things work together to fuel the culture in the organization.
I love it. I think organizations too often forget about the managers that are training and developing other employees and how to best support them, because they're doing multiple jobs too. Sometimes, oftentimes. And that's really key because they're the key to retaining that talent in, in a direct way. Like you said, people don't quit a company, they quit a manager. And having seen that happen, where an HR knew and have the data to show a particular employee long term employee was driving great talent out the door. Upper management refused to do anything, because they thought the person was really great engineer. But it was really costing the organization millions of dollars, because the turnover engineers, he wasn't just leave lose. He was literally turning over driving away six figure engineers that had very specifics that were very specific subject matter experts. So they paid for it in the end. But right. And
it's interesting that you say that because sometimes it is necessary for us to clean up in the house, before we go out and try to achieve these large diversity goals. You know, is there a toxic work environment? Are there toxic people? If that is the case, those things need to be addressed? Because if you bring in more talent, guess what? It's going to be a revolving door, and they're going to leave as well. So if our managers aren't properly trained to manage people in general, but especially an inclusive and diverse environment, it's not going to be sustainable, whatever you do. And we talked about the data again, where can you get that data, you can look at the exit interviews, tenures of employees and business units are among teams. If you notice people, hey, people don't stay on this team too long, something might be going on here, look at your promotion records. And then also is the organization are they doing 360 performance reviews of leaders so that individuals that report into them can give feedback on what they are like as a leader, all of that data should be within their organization comes back to making a commitment to analyze it and take action on it.
Absolutely. Absolutely. I love that. I could talk about this aspect all day. We have a limited amount of time. So I want to move on to talk a bit more about retention strategies. How does internal mobility factor into diversity, equity inclusion retention strategies?
Right. So you know, my experience has been leading cross functional efforts to deliver internal mobility programs. Now, these programs are designed to allow people to grow in the current organization. You know, when people are interviewing and they're moving in, they're going about, one of the things they ask is, what are opportunities for growth and development? No one, typically no one wants to come in except the role and staying in that role for 510 15 years, everyone's looking for some some type of growth. And an interesting statistic that I recently read from the ADP, people that work this is their 2022 research is that 76% of workers would consider looking for a new job if they discovered there was an unfair gender or PAYG. Pay Gap because of gender, or the company didn't have a bi program. So not having pay transparency, not having quality dei programs, not only are you in jeopardy of not bringing in top talent, you're in jeopardy of losing the talent that you have. So when we talk about what what do we do in regards to internal mobility and how does that work? Once again, self assessment, we need to start thinking about some things such as what is your plan to train and upskill your terms in your current population? And in order to do that, you really need to work in partnership with talent management and l&d within the company. Do you have sponsor and mentorship programs that will We're both people don't do things just for the sake of doing them and having a lip service. But we need to see action and movement and changes and individuals lives. And when we're pairing our internal mobility and our dei initiatives, we need to pair them with programming that's already existent in the company. You don't want to have these one off things, because people don't understand how does this relate to the job that I'm doing on a daily basis? Why is it important to me? Why should I buy in, if you're not selling that story, if it's not coming top down from the C suite, then your mid level managers and your people managers, people aren't aren't going to adopt and they're not going to move forward in that. So all those things together help promote strong retention.
I love it. I love it. I have one. I'm listening all of this because I get really excited about this. But I know there are others that are listening are going to listen. And it's like, where do I get started? What advice would you tell provide to somebody who's like, hey, you know, we're switching our focus or building on from recruitment to really focus in on retention for our underrepresented employees. What advice would you have for somebody that's starting that work now?
Absolutely. So I'm a firm believer that success leaves clues. So wherever possible, look at other organizations that have been successful in in these metrics, not to duplicate everything they did. But to understand the philosophy behind it. within your organization, do you have a team of allies that are willing to go to bat with you to get the work done. So some successful organizations that I've seen in implementing internal mobility programs, Deutsche Bank, for example, they embedded internal mobility into their recruitment process, and they saved $25.8 million in 2022, and another 33 point 6 million in 2019. Now, and that should get everybody and finance excited and happy. And they should want to come on board and help in your internal mobility efforts, now and 2022, they were able to fill 35.9% of their open roles with internals, just think about all of that time save the recruitment process, we all know internals tend to ramp up faster in new roles as opposed to someone hiring that you're bringing in on the outside of the organization that levels off at about three to six months, but still that initial ramp up time. So that's a good case study to observe. Another one is US Bank. Now they have a matching a system called a career navigator. So they're using technology that data to go out and do the legwork for them. Now what that system does is if a candidate, or current employee has a 75% match to a position that's open it attack the employee electronically and say, Hey, this is something that you could think about. These are gaps. In your current skill set, this is what you would need to do to be at 100%. But it's a way to actively be involved and getting your employees interested and knowing that there are opportunities out there. And last but not least a credit. Suze, they have an internal first program. Now they shaved 1% just 1% off of their attrition and 2014. And it saved them approximately 75 million to $1 million, just by shaving attrition 1% Everyone in the C suite should get excited about that and be willing to help you. It allowed them to move over 300 employees that were preemptively identified as top talent and possible flight risk, and they were able to retain them. So all of that talent is there for you. And the research is there. And as always, you know, I'm happy and available to help but you got to do the legwork.
I love it. I love it. I have one final question for you because you just roll right into that. How can people connect with you? Where can they find you?
Yes. So the easiest way to connect with me is on LinkedIn. I will put my LinkedIn in the chat you can definitely get it for you. Okay, great. So you guys can reach out to me there I'm always happy to Have a 15 minute conversation just to chat about, you know what's currently going on in your organization and what your goals are and where you'd like to move into. I'm a firm believer that your community is essential and moving and pushing these things forward. You can't do it alone. So not only do you need a community within your organization that's supporting you. You need a community outside of your organization.
Absolutely. Ranada, absolutely fantastic conversation with you today. I am happy that we could get you on before the Tropical Storm shows up. So everybody thanks again, Ranada. I will be in touch. And everybody wasn't just fantastic. We want to know your thoughts. Thanks Ranada I'll talk to you later. So everybody, we have a quick survey for you that we're going to drop into chat. We want to know your thoughts about this quick conversation. I know they're 25 minutes, but it goes very, very quickly. We're going to drop a survey link three quick questions. We want to know your thoughts about rhinitis. conversate conversation today, internal mobility, the ability to retain your talent, the ability to utilize data to see what's working, what's not working. We really, really want to