The purpose of this qualitative single-case study research was to examine how the design of the Talent Marketplace program within a financial institution could be used to proactively address training, skill enhancement, and internal mobility of exist...
The purpose of this qualitative single-case study research was to examine how the design of the Talent Marketplace program within a financial institution could be used to proactively address training, skill enhancement, and internal mobility of existing employees while simultaneously benefiting the organization through retention, succession planning, and addressing competency gaps. As a new program within this organization, it was not known how the design and implementation of the Talent Marketplace program could improve the training, skills, and internal mobility of existing employees. Therefore, two research questions were created to explore this topic in detail. The first research question asked what strategies were used by the development team to create a new Talent Marketplace program with this organization. The second research question asked how the newly implemented Talent Marketplace could be used to improve the training, skills, and internal mobility of existing employees. To answer these questions, the researcher used three primary data collection instruments, 23 participant responses were incorporated into the findings, and the findings were analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s Six-step Thematic Analysis. The findings for research question one revealed a connection to Theme #1-Organizational Focus Theme, Theme #2-Employee Focus Theme, Theme #3-Strategy Focus Theme, and Theme #4-Project Focus Theme. These four themes tied together to provide a step-by-step guide to creating a generalized Talent Marketplace program and illuminated the strategy used by the development team to systematically identify the needs of the organization and the needs of the employee. The findings for research question two revealed a strong connection to Theme #4-Project Focus Theme and Theme #5-Reward Focus Theme. These two themes identify what is needed to successfully address the training, skills, and internal mobility of existing employees. The Talent Marketplace, through a progressive learning experience, encourages employees to develop academic skills and on-the-job training that could result in internal mobility, monetary, and non-monetary rewards. Recommendations include the addition of a quality review team to ensure short-term opportunity postings and the actual job requirements are aligned. The quality team should also evaluate the program to ensure equitable inclusion of all interested volunteers and that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) initiatives are incorporated.