Internal Talent Marketplace is a great step forward, but what is next?

The concept of career path has drastically evolved over the years. Organisations have already started recognising a phaseshift in the mindset of millenials/Gen Z and this led to lot of new developments in the HR space especially around Internal Talent Marketplace. We know the world has changed drastically over the last year due to COVID and this raises question about what is coming next?

Let's have a look at how the concept of career path and career apirations evolved over the years. Based on Josh Bersin's article on Talent Market place strategy, there are 3 stages of evolution

1. Planned - Linear career path based on fixed and clearly defined career roles. Very predictable career path,  functional focussed and familiar with the generations of baby bloomers e.g. A Junior project manager knows they will become a Project manager in 3 years and then Senior PM in 5 years after that and so on.. There is a lot of reliance of expensive external hires when there is a need for organisations to build new capabilities
2. Faciliated - Supported by leaders and HR managers, employees are allowed to do lateral movements or planned vertical career path based on their career aspirations. In this model, oranganisations are able to plan for future needs and build internal high potential talentpool to bridge the gap with constant career coaching
3. Agile - On-demand basis, gig and project oriented, in this model right skills are identified and assembled together to build agile task force team to respond to the need of today. This model focus on building multi-skilled employees. This is the new model talked a lot recently and all agile organisation are already looking in this direction. 

Let's also look at what are the driving force to this evolution, 

• Fast changing nature of the world (VUCA - volatility, uncertainity, complexity and ambiguity)
• Increasing role of technology and artificial intelligence capability allowing to match varied skills
• Gig economy especially with lot of startup looking at this direction as a way to build an agile business model in matter of weeks
• Mindset shift in millenials and GenZ about career aspirations and need for satisfaction and fullfilment as opposed to job security
• Focus on wellbeing and work life balance
• Startup culture and entreprenerial mindset of new generation and supporting government policies

I beleive agile model is a transition phase as opposed to an end state, we still have job title and employees are still hired for a job based on need and formal contracts and still a part of working culture focusses more on job security as opposed to freedom. An interesting platform to look for in this space is gloat

I think, the end state of this evolution will be a bit different and it will not a 1 model, but many model integrated together cohesively. Here is what i think market will go towards based on my experience working in large enterprises , consulting and experience in supporting startups

• Earn As you Work 'True' Internal Gig model- with less focus on job security but more focus on getting things done in a agile way using varied skillset and paying for the work as opposed to a fixed monthly salary. My guestimate is that it will be a 50-50 model with employees singing up to work for a 50% threshold salary with other 50% or more of their salary made from the internal gig market place. This will help employers to combat the big problem of fake freelancers claiming to be great by creating a credible internal gig economy allowing the freedom to be agile enough. Employees will have freedom to work 2.5 days or 5 days, so career breaks, going on holiday can all be balanced based on individual needs knowing that they are valued for who they are. Also, high achievers can even start doing gigs outside of their organisations with no worry about contractual obligations. Traditional performance management system will be transformed to credibility based system based on reviews and there will be a strong focus on problem solving as opposed to hierarchy.
• Intraprenurial Startup friendly enterprises - startups are disrupting many big players. An enterprise with intrapreneurial focus is an internal eco-system that will allow enterpreneurs to innovate with the financial & knowledge backing of a big organisation. This will encourage employees to submit ideas for new products, projects or research with clear business case and own & earn a share from it. The model will allow organisation to take calculated risks and create disruption within the industry by adopting a start-up mindset internally rather than being distrupted.
• Work from anywhere for same pay - focus will be on getting things done irrespective of where you sit geographically, equal pay for the work rather than based on your economic situation or gender or color.

The next generation is expecting fulfillment, work life balance, equality, empathy and freedom - this is the need of the day!