Key measures to boost internal mobility and long-term retention

Northumbrian Water is a utilities company providing mains water and sewage services across various English counties. Having long been alert to the risk of their ageing workforce, the company decided to look at measures that would promote retention and internal mobility of junior colleagues. This was part of a wider strategy to strengthen their pipeline of talent over the next decade by reducing reliance on finding candidates in an increasingly tight labour market.

Collaboration between HR and management helps the company identify gaps and opportunities within the business

After making internal mobility a strategic priority, Northumbrian Water looked to improve collaboration between HR and business departments across the company.

It’s now common practice for the organisation’s Head of Talent to work with management teams across the business to identify gaps and opportunities for where people could move internally, with formal reviews taking place annually.

This was a big cultural shift for the business where managers had previously operated with a  silo mentality, not considering candidates from other areas of the business when they were hiring. HR teams work with managers to help them consider how the skills of employees in different departments are relevant to the role they’re hiring for, ensuring that preconceptions don’t act as a barrier to retention.

Making internal vacancies more visible and introducing CV workshops has incentivised employees to look for new jobs internally

The company offers lots of feedback opportunities for colleagues to engage with the Colleague Strategy and Engagement team, and found that employees didn’t know what opportunities were available to them in the business.

To make internal positions and development opportunities more visible and boost internal mobility, the company introduced HYDRO – ‘Helping You Discover the Right Opportunities’ – which included a new part of the company microsite listing all the development opportunities and roles open to current employees.

Focusing on ‘opportunities’ has broadened thinking around development, to include jobs, secondments and development schemes. The idea was to make it easily accessible, so that all employees could regularly check the page to see what opportunities were available to them, rather than looking elsewhere in the market if they wanted a change.

To ensure inclusivity, having all opportunities in one place also made it simpler for colleagues working off-site to review opportunities available. HYDRO was launched as part of the company’s live, weekly CEO calls and shared across internal channels to promote awareness.

To further incentivise employees, every month the company offers a CV and interview workshop, often with one-on-one support. Employees are able to access advice from one of the business’ recruitment specialists, where they help employees tailor their CV and application to the internal vacancy they’re applying for. The intention is to make the entire process open and transparent and as easy as possible for employees to consider an alternative career path in the business, boosting retention rates overall.

The new measures have helped boost retention and strengthen their future talent pipeline

Since adopting the new strategy, the company has seen higher rates of internal promotions, with internal appointments to senior roles increasing to 41% in 2021 and tracking at 50% so far in 2022.

Along with higher levels of talent moving around in the business, and helping to boost employee retention rates overall, this change is also helping to improve diversity within senior roles – 38% of the internal promotions have been to female employees, when the business has a 34% female colleague base.

Feedback has suggested this is driven by employees feeling more informed and encouraged by the support the company offers them, particularly on the CV and interview workshops.