25 min read
Companies don’t lack talent. They lack visibility. How to fix this? Simple. With an internal talent marketplace.
Every day, businesses struggle to fill critical roles. Open positions stay vacant for months, projects stall due to skill gaps, and hiring costs keep rising. At the same time, employees feel stuck. They want to grow, learn new skills, and take on new challenges; but they don’t see a clear path forward within their own company.
So, what happens? People leave. They take their skills, experience, and institutional knowledge elsewhere. Meanwhile, companies scramble to replace them, often overlooking the talent they already have.
Many organizations believe external hiring is the only solution. Need a data analyst? Hire one. Need a project manager? Post a job ad. But this approach is often costly and inefficient. It ignores the potential within the workforce and reinforces a cycle of constant turnover.
An internal talent marketplace changes that. Instead of looking outside, companies tap into their own talent pool. Employees can explore new roles, take on short-term projects, or join mentoring programs; all without leaving the company. It’s a win-win: employees grow, and businesses build a more agile, skilled workforce.
Yet, many organizations resist this idea. Some fear it will disrupt traditional career paths. Others worry that managers won’t want to “lose” their best employees to other teams. And some simply don’t know where to start.
Sound familiar? Maybe it’s time to rethink how you manage talent.
Now you might wonder “but what exactly is an internal talent marketplace”, “how can it transform the way companies manage and develop their workforce” or even “what does it take to build one that actually works.” So, let’s break everything down.
A talent marketplace is a digital platform that connects talent with opportunities based on their skills, career aspirations, and organizational needs. Talent marketplaces use AI and data-driven insights to match employees with opportunities that align with their abilities and professional goals.
This system benefits both employees and organizations. Employees get access to new challenges, career paths, and learning experiences they might not have otherwise known about. Employers, in turn, can better utilize their workforce, reduce hiring costs, and improve employee retention.
In fact, more than three in five (61%) employees say they’d search for a new role if their company didn’t allow role changes, and over two-thirds (67%) would leave their organizations altogether if they didn’t allow internal mobility. This highlights the critical importance of providing internal growth opportunities to retain talent and maintain a motivated workforce.
The terms external talent marketplace and internal talent marketplace refer to systems or platforms designed to connect talent with opportunities, but they have distinct focuses based on their scope and audience:
| Feature | Talent Marketplace | Internal Talent Marketplace |
|---|---|---|
| Audience | External job seekers or freelancers | Employees within a single organization |
| Purpose | External hiring or project outsourcing | Internal career mobility and skill development |
| Examples | LinkedIn, Upwork, Fiverr | Nestor, proprietary HR platforms |
| Focus | Recruitment and talent acquisition | Employee retention and development |
| Reach | Open to anyone with access | Limited to the organization’s workforce |
| Business Goal | Accessing a global talent pool | Optimizing internal resources and reducing turnover |
Both systems play a critical role in workforce management but are designed to address different challenges and goals.
The type of opportunities listed in a talent marketplace will obviously vary based on the size, resources, and (the development and business) needs of each company. However, the list can include any and all types of initiatives, from the most traditional and formal ones to the most innovative and experiential approaches:
Depending on the other platforms or learning systems used by your organization, an internal talent marketplace can also allow the inclusion of opportunities from external learning providers, such as Coursera or Udemy, among many others.
When selecting the types of opportunities to be included in their talent marketplace, organizations shouldn’t overlook the importance of informal or in-the-flow-of-work learning — which, according to the 70-20-10 development model, accounts for most of the growth and development in the workplace.
Embracing an internal talent marketplace comes with many benefits that cannot be dismissed. But perhaps the critical importance of doing so is best expressed by Josh Bersin, top HR voice and thought leader, who argues that:
Internal mobility and talent marketplaces and identifying adjacent skills for employees — allowing people to do gig work — those are life-or-death survival strategies in an economy like we’re in today.
— Josh Bersin, top HR voice
With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at the main advantages of having a talent marketplace:
Employees often want to take on new challenges, but without clear visibility into opportunities, they may feel stagnant or overlooked. A talent marketplace eliminates this frustration by offering direct access to career development.
Instead of waiting for promotions or external hiring cycles, employees can engage in:
By having access to a more diverse range of projects and tasks that align with their expertise and interests, people are naturally encouraged to expand their skill utilization and take on challenges that are beyond the comfort level of their existing roles.
This is crucial because 52% of employees would consider rejoining previous employers if opportunities for growth, upskilling, or reskilling were made available. When employees see that their current organization is committed to their growth, they are more likely to stay and continue developing their careers within the company,
As a direct result, they will collaborate on projects that enable them to learn from each other’s experiences and best practices which is one of the fundamental elements of a culture of continuous learning that drives the sustainable skill-building of in-demand capabilities.
The simple premise is the talent marketplace lets people put their hand up for work outside their core role — it opens up the capacity of the workforce. But it is so much more than that — for employees, it helps them really see what their skills are and how they can develop those skills.
— Anne Le Blanc, Senior Principal at Mercer Workforce Solutions
Career growth should be accessible to everyone, not just those in the right place at the right time. Thanks to this transparency, candidates and growth opportunities are matched based on factors that can be measured objectively — e.g., skills, proficiency levels — thus eliminating (managerial) bias or preferences based on personal networking.
For businesses, this means stronger internal mobility and fewer roadblocks in talent development. Instead of looking outside for new skills, companies can cultivate expertise from within, leading to higher engagement and stronger succession planning.
For modern organizations that are struggling with talent and skill shortages, retaining people for longer has become a critical need with a direct impact on overall performance and business outcomes.
A talent marketplace keeps employees engaged by showing them a future within the company. Instead of feeling like their only option is to look elsewhere, they can:
This leads to:
Replacing an employee can cost up to twice their annual salary when factoring in recruitment, onboarding, and lost productivity. By retaining and developing existing talent, companies can cut costs while strengthening their workforce.
Rigid structures slow companies down. When business needs change, organizations that can quickly reallocate talent gain a competitive advantage.
A talent marketplace makes it easy to:
For example, if a company suddenly needs more people in a high-growth area—like AI, cybersecurity, or data analytics—leaders can quickly identify internal candidates with the right foundational skills and move them into those roles.
Companies often struggle to predict future talent needs. Without clear visibility into skills and workforce trends, hiring decisions become reactive rather than strategic.
One of the nice things about data derived from AI is the transparency. It allows us to see patterns. We can see skills on the rise and on the wane. The search still has a human interface, but by being able to look across many more roles, skills, and people, you start getting a sense of what skills are trending.
— Bill Schaninger, Senior Partner at Modern Executive Solutions
For example, HR can determine whether they are (or risk being) under- or over-staffed in certain areas based on the number of internal candidates interested in specific roles. Or they can see the difference between employees’ aspirations and organizational needs. For example, will workers be more interested in the business-critical (short-term) projects or in the career growth and L&D opportunities from the marketplace?
In the case of succession planning, this will help prevent situations in which too many candidates end up in the pipeline of qualified future leaders without the possibility of actually making that move (to a high-level role), which can lead to unexpected departures and unhealthy internal competition.
These predictive analytics and talent marketplace data are also crucial for proactive reskilling programs and anticipating talent redeployment needs — something that could become increasingly necessary as AI tools and automation become widely adopted.
A talent marketplace helps businesses connect employees with internal opportunities instead of constantly looking outside for talent. If your company struggles with any of the following issues, a talent marketplace can offer a solution.
It’s frustrating when critical roles go unfilled or when external hiring takes longer than necessary. Managers often struggle to identify internal candidates who possess the right skills or qualifications for emerging opportunities. This can lead to missed deadlines or unnecessary hiring costs. A talent marketplace addresses this by giving managers a clear view of available talent within the organization.
Another situation where your organization should consider an internal talent marketplace is when a significant percentage of your workforce either reports that their skills aren’t applied to the full extent or they feel they could contribute more to other projects or even in different roles. These insights can emerge from both self-assessments and from 360 feedback.
Here, it’s important to exclude factors like the Great Resignation or the pandemic, which made many people reconsider their priorities and long-term (life) decisions. We’re talking about low retention that goes beyond what your internal predictive analysis estimates. You can make use of exit interviews and see if they reveal a lack of (growth) opportunities or career mobility as one of the main reasons for leaving.
For some companies, the numbers simply don’t add up. While there are obvious benefits to hiring freelancers and temporary workers, those usually lack company loyalty (at least, compared to regular employees) and can choose to stop becoming available for projects or additional work at any point.
In industries like healthcare, tech, or engineering, finding qualified candidates is time-consuming and expensive. Recruitment, onboarding, and training expenses can add up quickly, especially for highly specialized roles. High worker-replacement costs can affect an organization’s bottom line and limit growth opportunities. By retaining and upskilling current employees, you’ll cut down on replacement costs and create a more efficient workforce.
And while we’re talking about industries, if change defines your area of business, then your workforce, productivity, and organization would greatly benefit from internal transfers — which are a true gold mine in terms of spreading and sharing valuable knowledge. And what’s one of the best ways to facilitate, democratize, and encourage these internal transfers? Through an internal talent marketplace.
Organizations with a large number of generalists face unique challenges. While generalists are versatile and adaptable, it can be difficult to identify their specific strengths or deploy them in the most effective way. Without clear visibility into their skill sets and interests, generalists might not be utilized to their full potential.
The newest generation entering the workforce, Gen Z, has unique expectations compared to previous generations. Gen Z employees tend to prioritize career growth, work-life balance, and opportunities to develop new skills. If they feel stagnant in their roles or lack a clear pathway for advancement, they are more likely to look for jobs elsewhere.
Let’s break down how this innovative platform manages to successfully connect your workforce with opportunities:
An internal talent marketplace cannot function without insights from employee profiles, which are rich sources of data where people showcase their skills, qualifications, experience, and growth interests. Regularly updated profiles enable automated matching algorithms to make personalized suggestions and inform workers about their matching scores with temporary projects or new roles.
The platform’s effectiveness depends on comprehensive profile creation, which may involve:
Learn more about employee skills profiles.
This stage is all about HR, decision-makers, and managers posting projects and openings that reveal teams or areas where extra muscle is needed on a temporary or permanent basis.
Opportunities represent a two-way street of organizational engagement, allowing for diverse talent deployment and knowledge sharing. These can encompass a wide range of interactions:
For each opportunity, managers provide critical details:
In modern talent marketplace platforms, optimized matching harnesses the power of advanced AI algorithms to connect skills with opportunities and pair the right employee with the right projects. The matching process involves several critical components:
A transformative aspect of AI-powered matching is its ability to eliminate decision-making biases. By relying exclusively on objective, skills-based data, the talent marketplace ensures:
Once they have a list with enough candidates, your managers can select one (or more) suitable contributors based on their requirements. Key selection principles include:
The platform continuously evolves by:
This approach transforms talent selection from a rigid, departmental process into a dynamic, skills-driven ecosystem that prioritizes individual potential and organizational growth.
A talent marketplace works best for companies whose number of workers is high enough. Why? Because the larger the marketplace, the larger the number of opportunities and the higher the chance of matching employees with various projects or roles.
How high should that number be? 500 or lower, according to the Harvard Business Review. But Mercer suggests that 2,000 is the minimum required for this type of marketplace to make sense.
The truth? If you face at least some of the situations above and are serious about growing people internally and retaining them for longer then a marketplace solution can definitely work — as long as it is implemented accordingly and you select a vendor (and a platform) that matches your specific needs.
Creating a talent marketplace that works well isn’t just about choosing the right technology—it’s about making sure your whole organization is aligned and ready to make the most of the opportunities it offers.
Whether you’re looking to increase employee engagement, develop skills, or build a stronger internal talent pipeline, the right platform, strategy, and support can make all the difference. Here’s a closer look at how to build a successful internal talent marketplace.
A talent marketplace platform represents a transformative approach to talent management, bridging the gap between organizational needs and employee potential. The right platform serves as a critical technological infrastructure that enables dynamic, intelligent workforce optimization.
Essential Platform Capabilities:
Technical Integration Requirements:
Platform flexibility transforms talent management from a rigid, department-bound process to a dynamic, organization-wide talent ecosystem. By adapting to unique organizational structures and individual employee aspirations, the platform becomes more than a tool—it becomes a strategic talent development mechanism.
Customization Priorities:
The success of a talent marketplace hinges on user adoption, which is directly influenced by platform intuitiveness and accessibility. A well-designed interface can convert a technological solution into an engaging, empowering employee experience that encourages continuous learning and internal mobility.
Design Principles:
In an era of increasing data sensitivity, a talent marketplace platform must be built on a foundation of trust, transparency, and rigorous data protection. Security is not just a technical requirement but a fundamental commitment to employee confidence and organizational integrity.
Security Priorities:
Firstly, it’s worth emphasizing that adopting a talent marketplace solution involves a cultural shift across your entire organization. In essence, it means understanding and integrating new ways of thinking about talent and job roles, which will also manifest in a cultural change.
Here are other aspects you should consider in the process of supporting your workforce during and after adopting an internal talent marketplace:
It all starts with clearly explaining how the talent marketplace will create value and what the main use cases will be within your organization (or the business areas where it will be deployed). Another aspect is ensuring that HR, L&D, and people managers or direct supervisors know how the new platform works, as well as how it integrates with existing hiring, learning, or performance management systems — this will take time. Questions that could arise here:
Managers will need encouragement to rethink how they view talent and identify candidates for new tasks, while employees must be supported in adopting a more dynamic approach to their career progression. Making participation optional is also a good idea to avoid situations where people take on new tasks just to “check off” another item on their to-do list.
Different people will be worried about different things. For example, some managers could perceive hiring someone from another team, even temporarily, as ‘stealing’ talent instead of sharing it. Therefore, a change in mindset will be necessary. At the same time, other managers could fear that losing their top performers will inevitably affect the overall performance of their team and their KPIs.
While this could easily be labeled as another concern, it deserves to be treated separately since it overlaps with larger and more important things like ethics, privacy, and, of course, the matching algorithm and AI used by the talent marketplace.
Organizations need to be transparent about what information is public and what is private on the platform (e.g. skills information and employee profiles) and what each type of user — administrator, manager, employee — can see from their end. In this direction, you can organize Q&A sessions from the beginning and do them regularly, at least in the first few months after the adoption of the talent marketplace.
When you’re building a talent marketplace, it’s important to choose a platform that’s built for today’s needs, but also future-proof for whatever comes next. Nestor is a comprehensive, AI-powered talent management platform that can help your company unlock its workforce’s potential.
With Nestor, you’ll have access to a range of tools that make it easier to manage talent, track progress, and develop employees. Here’s why it’s a great choice:
For companies that want to boost employee engagement, reduce hiring costs, and foster continuous learning, Nestor gives you the tools you need to make it happen.
Businesses are facing a variety of challenges when it comes to talent management today. Traditional hiring and talent management processes just aren’t cutting it anymore. Nestor’s platform can help solve many of these issues, giving companies the flexibility they need to meet today’s challenges head-on:
Nestor helps address these challenges by giving you a clear view of your workforce, enabling you to build a stronger, more agile team ready to meet whatever comes next.
An internal talent marketplace isn’t just about filling positions—it’s about creating an ecosystem of growth, development, and opportunity within your organization. The right platform, like Nestor, can help you unlock your team’s full potential, leading to more engaged employees and a more agile business.
Investing in a talent marketplace helps businesses adapt to changing needs and allows employees to take control of their careers. With the right tools in place, you can build a culture where learning and internal mobility are part of the company DNA, and your employees are empowered to thrive.
In the end, a well-designed talent marketplace can benefit everyone: employees, managers, and the company as a whole. It’s not just about filling roles—it’s about creating opportunities for everyone to grow, develop, and succeed together.
An internal talent marketplace is a platform where employees can access career development opportunities, including roles, projects, learning programs, and mentoring, all within the company. It helps match employees with opportunities based on their skills and career aspirations.
It allows employees to take control of their career development by providing visibility into roles, projects, and learning opportunities. They can develop new skills, explore different roles, and grow without leaving the organization.
It helps employers retain talent, reduce hiring costs, and fill roles more efficiently by leveraging internal resources. It fosters employee growth and agility while cutting down on external recruitment needs.
Yes, it provides a clear view of employees’ skills and career aspirations, helping identify potential leaders and build a pipeline for key roles within the company.
The platform uses algorithms to match employees with opportunities based on their skills, experience, and goals. Managers can also manually match employees to roles or projects.
Yes, employees can apply for multiple opportunities. They can prioritize what aligns with their career goals and availability while managing their workload.
There’s a possibility, but most platforms allow employees to set preferences and availability. Clear communication and work-life balance encouragement can help prevent burnout.
Success can be measured by tracking employee engagement, internal mobility, talent retention, cost savings from reduced external hiring, and skill development.
Most modern platforms integrate with HR systems like performance management and learning management tools. This ensures smooth data flow and better opportunity matching.
Nestor’s Talent and Opportunity Marketplace helps connect talent with gigs, projects, or new open roles based on AI smart-matching, ensuring people with the right skills are in the right place at the right time.
Fill open roles faster through internal mobility
Plan and deploy talent efficiently
Dynamically assemble teams with the right skill mix
Support employee career goals with dynamic career paths
