The Untapped Power of Internal Mobility: Why Growing Talent Beats Hiring Talent

Airports and other complex operational environments continue to face talent shortages, rising turnover, and increasing pressure to fill critical roles quickly. External hiring alone cannot meet these demands.

Internal mobility offers a more reliable way to build capability by developing people who are not only already trusted but who understand the organization’s operations, safety requirements, and culture.

Read more to learn why internal mobility consistently outperforms external hiring and how leaders can build an internal mobility strategy that strengthens workforce readiness.

Internal Mobility Delivers Faster Performance

Workday’s 2024 Talent Insights Report found that internal hires were 82 percent more likely to be high performers in their first year compared to external hires, which makes sense as they already know the organization, its people and its processes.

But this difference is especially significant in airports where staff must work within strict safety protocols and complex operational systems. Internal movers already know these systems and relationships which reduces training time and operational risk while dramatically increasing efficiency and onboarding speed.

Internal Mobility Supports Retention

Career development has proven to be a key driver of retention and, according to a LinkedIn study, lack of growth opportunities is among the top reasons employees leave an employer.

Internal mobility gives employees clear opportunities to progress and find a renewed sense of purpose and achievement without changing organizations.

A culture that supports internal mobility helps employees feel valued and motivated to stay and when leaders highlight internal roles, encourage employees to apply, and provide access to training, retention improves. 

Preserving Institutional Knowledge

Airports rely heavily on institutional knowledge as experienced employees hold insights about irregular operations, local safety requirements, and department-specific processes.

While this knowledge is costly to replace, internal mobility helps preserve these insights.

When employees move into new roles, they carry institutional knowledge with them and often pass it on through coaching or on-the-job training, hence strengthening capability across the organization.

How to Support Internal Mobility?

So, given all the benefits of internal mobility, what systems and processes can airport leaders put in place to support this strategy?

Capability Mapping Improves Role Alignment

Clear capability frameworks help leaders match people to roles more effectively by creating a better alignment between people and role expectations. This ensures that employees move into roles they are prepared for, which supports stronger performance and safer operations.

In order to create a solid capability framework you need:

• A perfect understanding of your team, department, and organization structure
• Well-defined roles with accurate job descriptions
• A clear list of tasks required within each role
• An understanding of the competencies and certifications required to execute each task.

This means that your organization needs to have a transparent approach to information-sharing between leadership, HR, and operational teams to understand exactly who does what, how, and where. This often means revamping your current workforce documentation system to allow for more flexibility and accuracy.

The Organizational Culture Shift

Internal mobility also requires cultural support as some managers hesitate to release high-performing employees, which can limit opportunities. Leaders can address this by:

• Communicating internal mobility as an organizational priority.
• Recognizing managers who develop and promote talent.
• Posting internal job opportunities before external recruitment.
• Offering learning programs to prepare employees for advancement.
• Supporting managers in need of backfilling roles after an internal transfer.

These practices create an environment where employees feel encouraged to explore cross-functional roles and where managers are eager to support their staff with their career development goals.