Does your TA tech prioritize the employee experience?

January 29, 2024

 

Rachel Findlay

5 min read

For years, employees have been telling us that they are happier and more likely to stick around when given opportunities to develop their skills and grow into new roles. Yet many employers continue to struggle to retain talent.

Why? We know the problem areas. In many cases it’s not a lack of commitment to provide employees what they need; when it comes to retention, employers’ talent tools aren’t up to scratch.

Internal mobility shouldn’t feel like a battle for employees. Employers succeed in their retention goals when they put tools in place that prioritize the employee experience and make internal career opportunities easy to find. Here are our tips and tools to promote internal mobility at your organization, retain talent and keep employees engaged beyond the onboarding process.

1. Simplify internal mobility with automated processes

Streamlining the internal mobility process is the first step in making it easier for employees to grow at your organization. Your ATS can be more than a tool for tracking potential candidates, with many employers using it to keep track of their employees’ career journey too.

Tools like iCIMS ATS identify employees who may be qualified for new positions, while tracking their experience, skillset and development. Not only this, your ATS can automate the process of notifying employees about new opportunities ensuring open communication and transparent processes.

Data from our UK Class of 2023 Report shows that nearly half (47%) of final-year university students think that communication is the most important skill employers look for in entry-level talent. Candidates today expect transparency in recruiting processes – and the same goes for internal mobility. Automating internal mobility is key in maintaining transparency and prioritizing the employee experience.

2. Provide 24-hour communication with a virtual chatbot

In the same way you provide a digital assistant to your customers or candidates, it should be easy for employees to quickly find the answers to their questions. Whether it’s an HR query or a question about the company itself, digital chatbots can understand and process specific questions. Tools like iCIMS Digital Assistant use conversational AI to adjust responses to meet employees’ needs, give job search guidance and provide them with fast support 24 hours a day.

In a virtual world, candidates and employees expect efficient processes and systems that work. Especially in a hybrid world where asking a colleague a quick question across your desk isn’t always possible. Virtual chatbots help promote internal mobility across the entire organization by making things simpler for employees.

3. Showcase internal mobility stories with employee videos

It can be hard for employees to put themselves out there and apply for internal career opportunities. Sometimes seeing someone else’s story can make all the difference. Showcasing internal mobility stories from across the organization provide employees with an example of how they can progress and encourages them to take that next step. But how can recruiting teams make the video creation process easy for employees while saving on costs?

Tools like iCIMS Video Studio let recruiting teams build low-lift, high-quality employee-generated videos. The Video Studio app seamlessly walks users through the process of creating videos so employees can use it anytime, anywhere on the device of their choice. With video software like this there’s no need for production studios and huge budgets. Video testimonial software empowers employees to record, edit, share and manage video content without an agency.

4. Emphasize career growth with a dedicated career studio

A recent survey from McKinsey showed that more than 40% of employees left their jobs between April 2021 and April 2022 due to a lack of career growth opportunities. Investing in your employees’ progression is imperative in prioritizing their wellbeing and retaining top talent. And much like a dedicated career site for candidates, employees need a central location to find out about new internal opportunities.

iCIMS’ career studio feature provides a hub for employees to find all the necessary information on open roles and tools to prepare them for future openings. It’s hard to expect employees to grow within your organization if they don’t know how. A career studio dashboard includes a hub for bookmarks, role recommendations and related skills so everything is in one place.

5. Engage your team with employee-targeted text campaigns

Whether it’s for work or their personal lives, your employees sift through a lot of information every day. You know yourself how hard it can be to keep up with internal communications on top of all the other communications in your life.

Employers need to be able to cut through the noise and get important information in front of their employees in a quick and engaging way. Text messaging employees is less formal than other more traditional methods of communication like email, but it means being able to reach out to employees wherever they are.

Tools like iCIMS Text Engagement help employers maintain better connections with employees. Text engagement works with iCIMS Opportunity Marketplace giving employers the ability to easily communicate internal mobility opportunities to employees. And you can even promote a “text-to-apply” code so employees can complete job application for internal roles entirely over text messages. It’s a win-win.

6. Match employees to open roles with generative AI

Our research shows that 44% of candidates appreciate getting recommendations for relevant open positions, and 43% even said they would provide their CV to a potential employer to get relevant job recommendations based on their skills and experience.

Candidates – and employees – expect efficiency. And what better way to let your employees know about open roles than automated job-matching straight in their inbox? iCIMS Talent Cloud AI lets employees surface the roles that match their skills and experience without the need for internal sourcing or unnecessary manual processes.

Not only this, intelligent search can help shine a light on jobs that are harder to find due to inconsistencies in spelling, acronyms, or non-standard job titles. Ai goes beyond the candidate experience and streamlines internal mobility processes for employees looking to find that next step.

Prioritizing the employee experience

Your team’s wellbeing is everything. And promoting the employee experience is key when it comes to retaining talent, encouraging a healthy workplace culture and fostering the talent already in your organization. The benefits are endless.

Discover more about iCIMS Opportunity Marketplace and the tools you can use to promote the employee experience.