You need a Career Hub!
A career hub, or opportunity marketplace, is a centralized platform that supports employees in managing their careers. It is much more than yesterday's internal career site. A career hub provides opportunities for employees to explore new jobs or temporary gigs, develop skills, and collaborate with colleagues, and is enabled by rich talent data that helps match employees to opportunities. All of the major HR platforms offer these advanced capabilities and are busy adding features like skills-matching, because it is so critical to modern HR.
Personalized Career Paths
In the past, career paths outlined a handful of career ladders for building one’s career. For example, a sales career might include a path from sales associate to sales manager to sales director to VP of sales. In reality the salesperson moves from sales, to marketing, to product development and perhaps back to sales again. These personalized career pathways or career lattices are enabled by a career hub.
Modern HR systems provide career hubs to enable personalized career paths, or career lattices, by matching current and aspirational skills with the skills required by gigs and job opportunities. This is made possible because the system has data on employee skills, competencies, interests, and goals. This data allows the software to generate tailored recommendations for career paths, training programs, mentorship opportunities, and job openings, aligning individual aspirations with organizational objectives. This can enhance employee engagement, by encouraging professional growth and fostering a culture of continuous learning.
Career hubs enable personalized career paths, or career lattices, by matching current and aspirational skills with the skills required by gigs and job opportunities.
Adding reference points for goal setting, feedback, and check-ins, career hubs can also amplify talent management. They can add meaningful data to talent processes, and more importantly, data which employees are very interested in discussing. Simply put, employees are far more interested in discussing the project they might participate in two months from now than the project they did six months ago. Career hub related data can provide HR professionals additional insights into individual and team performance, skill gaps, development opportunities, and workforce planning.
Employees are far more interested in discussing the project they might participate in two months from now than the project they did six months ago.
Enhancing Internal Mobility
Internal mobility, a critical capability for mid to large organizations, is also enhanced by allowing employees to explore new roles, acquire diverse experiences, and contribute to various departments within the organization. Modern HR platforms enable internal mobility by providing comprehensive visibility into internal job postings and short-term gigs and facilitating the application, acceptance, and transfer process.
The data from openings and related skill requirements allow talent and mobility teams to track interest, applications, transitions and performance in new roles. A low-friction internal mobility process enabled by a career hub helps retain top performers, nurture talent, and promote a culture of internal progression.
Best in class career hub programs are tied to mobility capabilities to support employees with any policies and processes for relocation and reassignment, whether temporary or permanent.
A low-friction internal mobility process enabled by a career hub helps organizations retain top performers, nurture talent, and promote a culture of internal progression
Professional Social Networking
Some HR systems incorporate social networking features, such as connections, mentorships, knowledge sharing platforms, and communities of practice. These collaborative and engaging features enhance employee satisfaction and promote knowledge exchange, innovation, and cross-functional collaboration. Any roll-out of a career hub should include a training for mentors and managers, and build on communities of practice and other networks. Such models will enhance the social fabric of the organziation and build a deeper sense of community.
Systems that Enable Career Hubs
Some common HR software platforms that offer career hub features include:
Workday - Workday's career hub provides internal job postings, enables employees to follow open positions, highlights growth opportunities, and recommends relevant jobs.
SAP SuccessFactors - The SAP Career Workhub allows employees to search for jobs, follow organizations and positions, get recommended roles, and set career interests.
Oracle HCM Cloud - Oracle's career development tools include internal job boards, career advice, mentoring matches, and skills gap analysis.
ADP - ADP Workforce Now has an employee career site for reviewing open positions, setting alerts, and exploring career paths.
Paycor - Paycor's talent hub provides visibility into opportunities, succession planning, and career path building.
UKG Pro - UKG Pro has an internal talent acquisition module for career transfers, mentorship, and promotions.
Paycom - Paycom provides talent mapping, skills gap analysis, automated job matching, and internal recruiting workflows.
In addition to these comprehensive HR solution vendors, solutions from Cornerstone, PeopleFluent, Gloat, Fuel50, Degreed, Eightfold, and Lattice offer excellent capabilities focused on talent capabilities.
Conclusion
Digital transformation is driving organizations to evolve their talent strategies. Career hubs powered by modern HR systems can empower employees, streamline talent processes, and foster a culture of continuous learning and development. Through personalized career development opportunities, enhanced mobility and collaboration, organizations can maximize their talent potential, drive employee satisfaction, and stay competitive.
