Improving Internal Mobility Practices

The day I “retained” Anuj… and still lost him Exit interview. Anuj—one of our top performers—sat across from me. “No special raise,” he said. “Just a role where I can stretch, learn, and help the company grow. I’m okay with putting in extra hours.” We shook hands. Deal done. I asked him to email me and his VP to withdraw his resignation. He did. I thanked him. Two months later, the growth role opened. “Ready to take it next month,” Anuj smiled. “Great. Align your release date with your manager,” I said. The next day, a very different Anuj walked in—upset. “My manager says I can’t be released for three months. I’ll miss the opportunity.” I tried to convince the manager too; however, he seemed to be in a revenge mode due to his earlier resignation. No luck. Anuj felt I had broken my word—even though the intent was real. The next morning, his resignation hit my inbox again. One line stung: “You’ll release me in 30 days for an external opportunity, but you need 90 days for an internal one.” We didn’t lose Anuj to the market. We lost him to our manager's ego, which gets support from our systems & policies. What I changed after that: Internal moves must follow the same (or shorter) notice as external exits. Managers are measured not only on retention but also on how many people they launch. Successors are planned early so one move doesn’t break a team. Internal opportunities have a clear start date and release SLA. 👇 Lesson: Don’t punish high performers for being valuable. If we block their growth inside, we push them to grow outside. #HR #Leadership #InternalMobility #Retention #CareerGrowth #PeopleFirst #Trust #Jobs

The brutal reason top employees leave startups (and how I fixed it) Startups don’t lose their best people because of salary. They don’t leave because of workload either. The real reason? "They stop seeing the future with you." I’ve seen this happen firsthand. A top performer, fully committed, delivering results… and then one day, they’re gone. When I asked why, the answers were almost always the same: 💬 “I don’t know where I’m headed.” 💬 “I feel stuck.” 💬 “I don’t see growth for me here.” In the fast-paced chaos of building a company, I made a mistake—focusing too much on short-term execution and not enough on long-term career paths for my team. Here’s how I fixed it: ✅ Created ‘Future Maps’ for key employees – We started mapping out potential career paths inside the company. Instead of waiting for them to ask, we proactively discussed their growth every 6 months. ✅ Shifted from ‘What I need’ to ‘What they aspire to be’ – Instead of just assigning roles, I started aligning responsibilities with their bigger goals. ✅ Gave them more skin in the game – Equity, leadership opportunities, and decision-making power. If they feel like owners, they think long-term. ✅ Built an internal hiring pipeline – When people know they can move up, they don’t look elsewhere. Retention isn’t about perks or free coffee. It’s about vision—not just for the company, but for the people building it. Founders: If your best people are leaving, ask yourself— Are they excited about their future with you? #team #success #growth #leadership

12% internal hires sounds like a small number. In context, it is a statement of intent. This came in a year when India's tech job openings fell 24% compared to the previous year. Companies were tightening, becoming more selective, and pulling back on external recruitment. In that environment, actively choosing to fill roles from within, and treating it as a deliberate first choice rather than a cost-saving fallback, signals something important about the depth of investment Flipkart has made in its own people. Consider the contrast. Many large technology and consulting firms still rely on lateral recruitment for 35 to 40% of total hires. That model treats talent primarily as something to be sourced from the market. Flipkart’s model treats talent as something to be grown from within, then trusted across entirely new functions and domains. The mechanics here are worth understanding. These internal moves span significant functional gaps: category management to supply chain, marketplace roles into fintech. Employees make these transitions without prior domain experience. What bridges the gap is a combination of cultural permission to experiment, leadership that backs people over profiles, and a rigorous learning structure built to support the transition rather than assume competence from day one. The ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey placed India among the top countries globally for hiring intent in 2025, even as companies balanced expansion with efficiency. That combination of cautious growth and rising skill demand is exactly where Flipkart's internal mobility model delivers its highest value. When external talent is expensive and harder to retain, the depth of an internal pipeline becomes the asset that matters most. 12% today. The direction of travel is the real signal worth watching. #Flipkart #InternalMobility #TalentStrategy #HRLeadership #FutureOfWork https://lnkd.in/gWR2Q3Ke

You don't have to quit your job to reinvent your career. I know my content might suggest otherwise — I talk about leaving banking, saying no to big tech, building on the side. But not every path looks like mine, and I want to keep this corner of the internet nuanced. Let me introduce you to Ed Essey. He's a Senior Director at Microsoft who's been there for 20 years and grew his Instagram to 100K+ last year within a few months. We initially connected because he said my story resonated with him. I was surprised — on paper, we couldn't be more different. I'm a "job hopper" who's bounced between banking and tech. Ed built his entire career at one company. But here's what he did inside Microsoft: → Worked on early products like InfoPath and Office Server → Moved into parallel computing in DevDiv → Taught design thinking to 22,000 engineers over 200 days → Built cross-functional influence across the org Every time he got an external offer, he went to his manager and said "I want to work on different problems." And his manager shaped his role around that. He didn't need outside leverage. He just articulated what he wanted to learn and why it mattered to the business. The teaching stint is what resonated most with me. He was terrified of public speaking but said yes anyway. That year completely rewired his confidence and gave him the foundation for later building his personal brand outside the company. Internal pivots don't get the same attention as external ones because they feel less exciting. They're harder to execute but can be more powerful. You don't always have to blow everything up to grow. Sometimes the opportunity is already where you are. If you're thinking about switching things up without leaving your job, I asked Ed to break down how he navigated internal pivots throughout his career in my newsletter this week: https://lnkd.in/eviQgRVv

Every organisation I have worked with has gone through the same cycle. Trust internal talent. Feel disappointed. Go to market. Feel frustrated. Come back to internal talent. And then repeat. I have watched this many times. The lesson is always the same. The problem was never about build or buy. It was about how each was done. When organisations promote from within, there is initial confidence. This person knows our culture. They know our people. Sometimes the promoted leader struggles. Not because they lack capability. But because nobody adequately prepared them for what the role demands. Without deliberate preparation, mentoring and real stretch exposure, even the strongest internal candidates can flounder. The organisation loses faith in its own pipeline. It goes to market.External talent arrives with impressive credentials and visible energy. Then slowly the cracks appear. The new leader does not understand how decisions get made here. They underestimate certain relationships. They apply solutions that worked elsewhere to a context that is fundamentally different. Cultural misfitment, rarely diagnosed in hiring and rarely addressed in onboarding, begins to cost in ways that are hard to measure but impossible to ignore. And so the pendulum swings back. The real problem with building internal talent is the simulation gap. Preparing someone for a bigger role through workshops and frameworks is completely different from preparing them in practice. The best development happens through stretch assignments that mirror the complexity of the next role, a mentor who has done the job and support, not just observation, in the critical months after promotion. The real problem with buying external talent is the due diligence gap. Most hiring processes assess capability. Very few assess cultural fit with any rigour. And even when they do, onboarding rarely gives new leaders enough time to understand the unwritten rules before they are expected to perform. My own conviction is that internal talent is almost always the stronger foundation. It drives career development, reinforces cultural continuity and costs significantly less. But internal talent alone is never enough. When organisations grow faster than their pipelines can support, bringing capability from outside is not a failure of philosophy. It is a practical necessity. The smartest organisations treat build and buy as complementary tools. They build for cultural continuity and long term leadership depth. They buy for speed and specialised capability the pipeline cannot yet provide. And they invest in making both work through rigorous cultural assessment, structured onboarding and a mentoring ecosystem that does not abandon a new leader the moment they step into the role. The cycle only stops when organisations become honest about where each approach breaks down. It is rarely the talent that is the problem. It is almost always the process around them.

10 years. Zero formal applications. Multiple cross-functional roles. This is what institutional trust actually looks like at scale. Kapil Thirani's career at Flipkart breaks most of the assumptions we carry about how internal mobility works. At most organisations, changing teams means paperwork, approvals, and careful navigation of internal politics. At Flipkart, it starts with a conversation. Bring a solid idea, demonstrate the ability to own the outcome, and leadership backs you regardless of your current level or educational background. When Thirani took on the Shopsy function with zero prior marketing knowledge, Flipkart built a strong team of subject-matter experts around him, established a rigorous learning process alongside his role, and trusted him to lead through first principles. That is a very specific kind of organisational belief: that the right leader, given the right support structure, will find the way forward. Most companies default to the candidate already fully qualified on paper. The safer choice. The lower-risk choice. Flipkart appears to have genuinely moved past that reflex. Thirani also sits on evaluation panels, and his observation over a decade is direct: he has never seen pedigree earn anyone a better rating or a higher role. Performance is what you actually achieve. In a country where the college you attended can shape perceptions for decades, that is a deliberate and meaningful organisational stance. Better-paying offers have come along. He has stayed. The reason: independence, scale of impact, and work that matters at a national level. That is a retention story built on culture, and culture compounds year over year. #Flipkart #LeadershipDevelopment #InternalMobility #CareerGrowth #Meritocracy https://lnkd.in/dqY5M-Sy

The Talent Paradox Interacting with a CXO of mid sized firm, led me to look at this paradox. He told me their "best people" are stuck in roles they mastered 18 months ago. Not because there's no opportunity. Because their managers won't let them go. We've built performance systems that reward retention. Promotions tied to "keeping your team intact." Bonuses linked to low attrition. Manager scorecards that penalize internal movement. Then we wonder why high performers leave. This isn't a new problem. It's a design flaw we keep reinforcing. Here's what I learnt early on: unshackle the systems you create fast enough for them to pivot to the next need of your organisation. Systems that stay too long create outcomes that become natural impediments elsewhere. What's Broken: We measure managers on retention, not on talent development — So they become gatekeepers, not accelerators Internal moves are treated like external exits — Same backfill pain, same "loss" on the scorecard Career growth happens vertically or not at all — Lateral moves are rarely encouraged, leading to stagnation in disguise We built succession plans that lock people in — "You're critical here" becomes a career prison sentence What Actually Works: → Measure managers on how many people they launch, not just retain → Create talent marketplaces where mobility is the norm, not the exception → Reward managers whose people get promoted anywhere in the company → Build succession depth so one person leaving doesn't break the system The Real Impact: Organizations that make it easier for people to move internally create the conditions where people want to stay. The bottom line: Stop optimizing for retention. Start optimizing for growth. My question to you: What's one system in your organization that's accidentally hoarding talent? #TalentStrategy #HRLeadership #PeopleStrategy #OrganizationalDesign #FutureOfWork #CHRO #TalentMobility #Leadership

Are You Stalling Your Own Career Growth? You’re ready for the next big step—whether it’s a promotion or a new opportunity elsewhere—but something is holding you back. It’s not a lack of ambition, qualifications, or capability. It’s the concern that there’s no one to backfill your role. This is especially challenging if you want to move up within the same company. You’ve become indispensable, and that can feel more like an obstacle than an advantage. Leadership sees your value right where you are. If you’re feeling stuck because your current role depends too much on you, consider these three strategies: 1. Develop Your Successor Now Proactively mentor and upskill a team member who could take on key aspects of your role. This not only helps you, but it also demonstrates strategic foresight and leadership—qualities that make you an even stronger candidate for advancement. 2. Redefine ‘Value’ in Your Organization Being indispensable in your current position can limit mobility. Shift the perception of your value from doing the work to elevating the organization. Communicate how you can drive impact at a higher level and how a well-planned transition benefits the company long-term. 3. Make the Case for a Structured Transition Rather than waiting for leadership to solve the backfill issue, present a clear transition plan. Show how your move can be managed effectively—whether through interim solutions, process documentation, or a phased transition. Executives want solutions, not roadblocks. One of my clients expressed wanting to stay at her current organization, but she felt trapped—she was ready for the next level, but leadership hesitated to move her because there was no clear successor. We worked together to identify a high-potential team member she could mentor while documenting key processes to ensure a smooth transition. Concurrently we worked on a way she could pitch herself into a newly created role around her skillset that would serve a need for the organization. (In my Career Velocity program we call that "Write & Pitch Your Job Description." It worked!) By proactively presenting a succession plan, she shifted leadership’s perception of her from indispensable in her role to indispensable to the company’s future. Within months, she secured the promotion, confident her team was set up for success. Staying stuck isn’t an option for high performers. The best leaders don’t just fill roles—they build pathways for future success. If you want to move up, start paving the way today. #CareerVelocity #QualifiedIsntEnough #jobs

One of the most overlooked ways to break into data is by pivoting within your current company. Last month, my client successfully made this transition—from a grocery store manager to a Data Analyst. Are they exactly where they want to be as a data scientist? Not yet. But they’re a whole lot closer. And that’s okay—breaking into data often requires humility. You might not land your dream role right away, but every step forward gets you closer. Being humble and recognizing the value of incremental progress is key to long-term success. But why is this approach so effective? Because pivoting within your company is a win-win: - Trust: Your current company already trusts you. - Cost Efficiency: Hiring and training new employees is costly for the company, and job searching is costly for you. - Simplicity: No need to send 100s of applications, tweak your resume endlessly, or struggle through interviews. Leverage the relationships you already have. So, how can you make this pivot effectively? Here are 7 action steps to help you pivot within your company: 1) Ignore the Job Title, Focus on Skills Identify the skills and key responsibilities of the role you want. These can be leveraged later if you choose to switch companies. 2) Ask Your Manager to Build a Plan Propose a plan that shows how your new role will help the company grow. Suggest dedicating a fraction of your hours to learning and building those skills. 3) Automate and Innovate Look for ways to automate your current job or optimize processes. This can demonstrate your value in a data role. 4) Internal Networking Talk to other departments, explore internal positions, and make connections. Sometimes, a simple conversation can open doors to new opportunities. 5) Volunteer and Take Initiative Offer to take on data-related tasks or projects, even if they’re outside your current role. It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. 6) Review and Analyze Current Data Use the data available in your current role to drive improvements. This shows initiative and builds your data skills. Every company uses data, so find it. 7) Look for Internal Positions Regularly check for internal openings that align with your goals. Applying within your company can often be a faster route to a new role. Remember: The Easiest Change is Optimizing Your Current Situation Before you start looking externally, consider how you can leverage your current position to move closer to your dream data role. It might be simpler than you think. Have you successfully pivoted within your company or are you planning to? Let’s discuss your experience and ideas in the comments! --------- ➕ Follow Jaret André for more actionable tips on breaking into data and accelerating your career. ♻ Repost this if you found it helpful.

*Building Future-Ready Talent Begins from Within* In today’s dynamic business environment, one of the most strategic decisions we can make as HR leaders is to place our trust—and our investment—in the talent we already have. Internal training and career development are not just HR priorities; they are business imperatives. When we enable our people to grow from within, we don't just retain knowledge and experience—we build an agile, motivated, and future-ready workforce. At Lupin, we are committed to building a learning ecosystem that supports every individual’s career journey, across geographies, functions, and levels. Here’s how I feel we can bring this vision to life: * Structured Learning Pathways: Tailor programs that align individual aspirations with business needs—from technical upskilling to leadership development. * Talent Mobility Frameworks: Encouraging cross-functional and cross-border movement to unlock diverse experiences and foster a truly global mindset. * Digital Learning Ecosystem: A blend of AI-powered platforms, microlearning modules, and virtual academies that make learning accessible, adaptive, and always-on. * Manager as Career Coach: Empowering leaders to have meaningful career conversations and champion internal talent growth. * Data-Driven Development: Leveraging people analytics to identify skill gaps, predict growth trajectories, and personalize development journeys. The goal is to ensure that every employee, regardless of where they begin, can envision and realize a fulfilling career within the organization. Because when people see a future here, they build the future with us! #FutureReady #TalentDevelopment #StrategicLearning #AgileWorkforce Ajay Tiwari Arnabi Marjit Sanjay Mishra Bahar Shaikh Turlough Gorman Ashutosh Kotwal