How To Transition Employees Moving Between Departments

Sometimes, employees reach a phase where their current role might offer them little scope of growth. It could happen on account of lack of interest, redundancy, and monotonous nature of their job profile. Whatever the reason, some employees need a change. However, your employees might like everything about your company, but if they have the capability to shift to another department to learn new skills or grow further, there are a few things you can do as an employer to ease out the process.

Encourage Employees To Explore Interests

Instead of making your employees perform only certain duties over and over again, you can ask them what exactly they would want to do in your company – even if it falls outside their job description. The idea is to make them perform the task they are interested in and not what they are asked to do – to ensure long lasting productivity. Recent research suggests employees who express interest in projects outside their job description, result in new revenue channels.

Give Employees Feedback Throughout

Before your employee makes the switch, it is wise to hold a one-on-one with them and their current manager, along with the head of the department they wish to join. This kind of a preliminary meeting helps everyone gauge their expectations and capabilities and interests. This kind of communication also helps bridge any misunderstanding with regard to the reasons for the internal transfer, promotes better collaboration, etc. When moving company departments, employees constant feedback to know where they stand.

Create A Formal Transfer Process

You should treat the internal transfer process as a formal one. If your employee wants to take on a new role within the firm, consider implementing a formal structure and process in place as you would do for a new hire. If you and your employee have decided that he/she will be transferring to a new department and that such a move would mutually benefit the employee and the firm, you need to formalize the entire process. Invite all interested employees to apply for the internal job posting, test them on skills, interests and experience, etc. Give the selected candidate a new date of joining, training, orientation, contract as well as a manager.

Verify Their Matching Skill Set

Before finalizing an employee’s move to the new department, it is important to vet their skills as well as interests. Since the whole idea is that they want to try out a new option, it is not necessary that they have the required skill. Therefore, they would want sales training if they are moving to the sales or marketing divisions. In some cases, you might have to provide additional training or resources. This would ensure the successful transition to moving departments within the company. So, ensure that you gauge their passion and interest well before finalizing the decision.

Encouraging your employees to focus on themselves and their growth would not only boost their productivity, but also enhance your employer branding, and may even generate new areas of revenue for you in the long run. All you need is the ability to spot new opportunities and be well prepared for them when the time comes.