Talent Mobility Trends by Company Size
Enterprises (large organizations; > 5,000 employees) and SMEs (small to mid-sized organizations; < 5,000 employees) face distinct obstacles in talent mobility, but how do they differ in their approach? Drawing from a survey of 700+ HR leaders across the US and Europe, we share the realities behind the statistics.
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Prioritizing talent mobility
Internal talent mobility is the movement of employees into new roles or projects within a company. It helps reduce hiring costs, improve retention, and boost employee engagement by developing and deploying talent based on people’s skills and business needs1,2.
As businesses transform and needs evolve, talent mobility has progressed far beyond the traditional career ladder, embracing the power of sideways movement, high-impact project-based work, and cross-functional collaboration. Our research shows 8 in 10 enterprise organizations consider internal mobility as critical or significant to their talent acquisition, talent management, retention, and workforce planning.
Managing large workforces with many business units and cross-functional projects supports why redeploying talent would be top-of-mind for enterprises. What may be less expected is that SMEs also prioritize talent mobility, with only 5% stating it is not a priority. However, with traditionally fewer resources, most SMEs are only beginning to formalize their approach—only 17% have advanced talent mobility strategies. In contrast, 67% of enterprises have advanced talent mobility strategies firmly in place.
From gut instincts to data-driven decisions
The way organizations assess employee potential exposes another key difference. Enterprises blend performance reviews, manager input, and a growing number of skills assessments to guide mobility choices. SMEs, on the other hand, still lean heavily on intuition and informal judgment. This reliance means role matching can be subjective and may miss hidden talent. For enterprises, the inclusion of objective data has the power to fuel more precise decisions about who could backfill critical roles, how talent should be deployed across the organization, and where development should be focused.
Talent data is the cornerstone for effective mobility. Over two-thirds of enterprise leaders have high confidence in the accuracy of their talent data, empowering proactive and reliable internal moves. Without the required technology or more formal systems in place, smaller firms are not always able to capture or leverage data-driven talent insights that larger organizations use. Only 1 in 5 SMEs feel they can truly depend on the data they have on their employees, leading to more subjective decision-making and potentially missed mobility opportunities.
Overcoming barriers to effective mobility
Managerial resistance remains the biggest barrier to effective mobility in enterprises, which is at odds with its acknowledged importance. However, talent teams often work in silos so transitioning to a skills-first workforce that includes sharing talent for the greater good requires a significant cultural shift, driven by leadership buy-in and transparency.
SMEs struggle with limited visibility, underscoring the need for assessment tools that provide relevant data insights to drive talent decisions. Interestingly, resource constraints were identified as the second-biggest barrier for both types of organizations. Despite vastly different financial situations, this could suggest that insufficient funding and resources are being devoted to talent mobility regardless of organizational size.
Inadequate technology is another challenge facing all organizations. Many still lack the right tools and platforms that can support and scale mobility initiatives across the business. As AI starts to transform HR, adopting the right tech may help to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of HR teams to facilitate more strategic talent planning and mobility. This may ultimately provide these organizations with a significant competitive advantage.
Outlining a clear strategy that includes how impact will be measured is a critical step to securing internal buy-in, investment in the right tech, and resourcing. HR can play a lead role in proving the value of skills-based talent mobility by helping to define and measure this impact in a way that will be meaningful for internal stakeholders.
Measuring impact to harness opportunity
While over half of enterprises see a tangible boost in performance and retention from mobility programs, 40% of SMEs aren’t tracking impact. This lack of measurement means many smaller organizations struggle to demonstrate the value of their talent mobility efforts. The lesson is clear: if HR teams want to use talent mobility to drive critical metrics like retention, investing in tools that can provide reliable talent data and shifting organizational mindsets toward internal mobility are non-negotiable.
Download the infographic, The Talent Mobility Gap: Enterprise vs SME to reveal key differences in mobilizing talent for different sized organizations.
