Internal Prospecting: When Talent Lies Within Your Company
Image credit: saeed mhmdi on UnsplashIntroduction
In an era where the war for talent is top of mind for companies, capitalizing on existing internal skills has become essential.
Internal prospecting, often undervalued or challenging for many organizations to implement, represents a key opportunity to meet skill needs while reinforcing employee loyalty. Yet, is this approach always fully utilized within companies? And most importantly, how can you make the most of the hidden potential of internal talent?
The Importance of Internal Prospecting
Internal prospecting involves identifying and mobilizing the skills already present in the company to meet recruitment needs or specific projects. Unlike external talent searches—which can be both expensive and time-consuming (The cost of recruiting an executive in France is influenced by various factors such as industry, company size, and job level. On average, it ranges between €3,000 and €10,000, or even more in shortage sectors.)—this approach allows you to better utilize existing human resources.
It’s possible that your employees already possess (or will possess) the skills you’re looking for, and they are already accustomed to your company values and culture, reducing the risk of a “difficult integration,” a “bad hire,” and the related financial costs of a poorly executed recruitment.
Hidden Skills: Beyond Current Roles
It’s common for your company’s employees to have skills that go well beyond those required by their current job description. Sometimes, skills from their previous work experience, personal projects, responsibilities, or skills acquired through training or career changes remain unused. For example, an employee currently working in accounting might have been a translator in a previous career, a valuable skill often overlooked in most companies. Yet these abilities could prove essential in meeting recruitment needs through internal mobility or for additional projects in the scope of their role.
Thus, effective internal talent management requires a comprehensive view of every employee’s capabilities within your organization.
The Challenge of Detecting Internal Talent
One of the biggest challenges for HR managers and team leaders is spotting these hidden skills. Why? Because most traditional talent management tools focus on skills related only to the employee’s current position. Yet in a constantly evolving work environment, it’s crucial to capitalize on each employee’s diverse experiences.
Artificial intelligence and new technologies (often referred to as ICT or New ICT) address this need by automating the collection of employees’ skills. By cross-referencing available in-house skills (through an automated real-time mapping) with the company’s current and future needs, organizations can not only anticipate internal mobility but also optimize overall performance.
By integrating predictive models, companies can foresee emerging skill requirements, match internal profiles to future projects, and plan the necessary training. AI-facilitated internal mobility improves the alignment between talent and positions, reducing periods of inactivity or underutilized skills. This helps retain talent by offering more dynamic and engaging career paths. Such a proactive approach enables a quick response to HR needs while reducing the costs and delays associated with external recruitment.
Creates.community: Detecting and Showcasing Hidden Skills
The Creates.community solution is designed to streamline internal prospecting. Powered by AI and an intelligent chatbot, our tool identifies and automatically analyzes your employees’ skills, even those not used in their current roles. Thanks to a precise skills map that is regularly updated, you can uncover hidden talents and mobilize them to fuel your company’s growth.
Additionally, our tool provides managers with data on how team skills are evolving, enabling them to oversee team competencies and pinpoint training or internal mobility needs. By empowering managers to guide their teams, Creates.community facilitates a proactive talent management process and optimizes internal career paths. With creates.community, make the most of the skills you already have, save time, and operate more efficiently!
Transform your internal talent management with Creates.community and maximize the hidden potential of your employees.
