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Talent Agility
Glossary

Talent Agility

Learn what is talent agility, its use cases, benefits, how it builds resilient and future-ready teams, and enables internal mobility initiatives.

What is Talent Agility?

Talent Agility, by definition, is the ability of a workforce or organization to adapt and pivot quickly in response to changes in the business landscape. Moreover, it also plays a crucial role in a business’s internal mobility strategy, enabling employees to develop their skill sets and encouraging internal movement.

An agile workforce anticipates and responds to change independently and subsequently innovates in the face of unforeseen circumstances.

Workforce agility can be achieved in various ways, including:

  • Introducing employee growth and development plans
  • Using AI to recommend learning opportunities
  • Deploying a talent marketplace for employees to take up short-term projects

What is the difference between Talent Agility and Talent Mobility?


Talent agility is all about adapting, innovating, and responding to specific situations or challenges within a particular role or department. Meanwhile, talent mobility involves the internal movement of employees within a workforce to meet long-term organizational needs, promote employee development, and drive overall business success.

An agile workforce is absolutely critical for successfully supporting and executing talent mobility strategies. In today's uncertain economic climate, businesses must have a workforce that can adapt to unexpected challenges.

Talent mobility is the key to empowering agile individuals to expand their skills, explore various business areas, contribute to company goals in innovative ways, and carve out their own career paths.

Talent Agility Use Cases


Decline in productivity

Change causes disruption, especially if the workforce isn't ready for it. This can lead to a decline in productivity as employees struggle to adapt to new processes, technologies, or organizational structures. If this disarray continues for a long time, it can seriously affect your business's efficiency.

Increase in employee turnover

During times of change, if employees feel unsupported, they may get frustrated and look for new jobs. This not only leads to losing valuable talent but also means spending more on hiring and training new employees.

Potential damage to brand reputation

In today's business world, a company's reputation relies heavily on how satisfied its employees are and how happy its customers are. If employees are not happy, it can reflect badly on the company and may lead to lower customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Benefits of Talent Agility


Reduced expenses

Training and moving talent internally are more economical than hiring externally. To hire externally, you need to post job listings on websites like LinkedIn, Indeed, etc., and bear travel expenses when recruiting and interviewing talent.

Reduced Turnover

Even after thorough hiring and vetting, a large number of external hires leave or are asked to leave, for not meeting expectation. With internal hires that number drops significantly because of the familiarity with the business and culture.

Better Morale

When businesses hire internally, it shows that they care about their employees, and their skill development is highly valued by the business. This motivates employees to learn new skills within the business for internal movement, giving them another motive to stay.

Strengthened Company Culture

Talent agility empowers individuals and organizations to thrive in today's dynamic and unpredictable business landscape by embracing change, fostering collaboration, and continuously adapting to new challenges and opportunities.

Attracting External Talent

Talent agility also helps you create an external perception within the job seekers' community that you encourage internal movement and recruit internally for new roles and promotions. This is good because most people learn and acquire new skills on the job, so it makes for a good opportunity for them to learn and grow.

Make your workforce agile and resilient while informing your internal mobility decisions and learning initiatives with iMocha’s skills intelligence cloud.

Terms related to Talent Agility with some content

  • Talent mobility: It is a talent management and talent development strategy. More specifically, it’s the process of moving existing employees to new roles or departments within the same company.
  • Employee Retention: Employee retention is the ability of an organization to retain its employees and ensure sustainability.
  • Employee Turnover: Employee turnover refers to the total number of workers who leave a company over a certain period. It includes those who exit voluntarily as well as employees who are fired or laid off—that is, involuntary turnover.
  • Cross-functional collaboration: Cross-functional collaboration is the process where individuals from different departments in an organization with different areas of expertise come together to achieve a common goal. This collaboration could be organic, or project based.

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