Talent Mobility at Datavant
It should always be easier to change roles internally than it is to change roles externally
At Datavant, we invest heavily in growth and development for our employees. One way Datavanters can continue their growth journey is by taking on new roles through a transfer or internal mobility assignment.
Internal transfers have many benefits for the individual and the company. In terms of individual benefits, they allow you to:
Chart a career path around strengths and aspirations. Encouraging team members to be active participants in charting their own career path creates a culture where more employees are deciding what they want to work on (as opposed to a culture that limits employees to what is expected of them within their current role). We believe employees who work on things they want to work on are happier, more engaged, more creative, and ultimately more productive. (But don’t take our word for it. This belief is also supported by research.)
Build out a toolbox. Employees shouldn’t have to leave a company to advance their skills, knowledge, and abilities. If they like Datavant but don’t love their current role, they should have the opportunity to expand their skill set at Datavant.
Expand your value proposition. Datavanters who are agile, adaptable, and versatile are critical contributors to the organization and are also contributing to their own long-term career success. If there is one thing we are certain of in tech, it is that it will change. Agility, adaptability, and versatility are critical to everyone’s long range career trajectory.
Impact the organization. Internal moves are the best way for teams to cross-pollinate, share knowledge, and build relationships. Again: good for the individual, good for the organization.
In terms of ancillary benefits to the organization, most estimates put the real cost of replacing a valuable employee at anywhere from 1.5–4 times the cost of their annual salary.
How it works
Hypothetically, this all means that an engineer who wants to change pods can do so as long as:
1: The pod they want to move to has an open headcount
2: The manager of the pod they want to move to is excited to have them
We want Datavanters to act like owners and be respectful of their colleagues throughout this process, but there are no other rules beyond these two. (We do publish our full process internally for transparency.) The current manager of an employee cannot block a move because someone is “too valuable” to their current team. That’s not how the world works externally (if you receive an appealing offer at another company, your current manager cannot stop you from accepting it), so that shouldn’t be how it works internally. Also, people can have high value working on things that don’t necessarily align with their interests, but keeping people too long in these situations will almost guarantee that we lose them to another company. Better to lose a high-value employee to another team than lose them to a competitor.
There are several stories about Datavanter mobility on the blog. Check out stories from Sheena (IT to SysAdmin), Max (Data Ops to System Architecture), or Leon, Anjali, and Carlos, who at this point have done most things on the engineering team.
It’s also understood that the person being championed for a move is high-performing. Essentially, the new manager is making a job offer, similarly to how they would with an external candidate. The new manager needs to believe in the candidate and be excited for them to join their team. It would be exceedingly rare for someone not meeting expectations to move pods.
And we want moves to be timely. Typically a person would have been in their current role for two quarters before entertaining another move (which is not to say we’re encouraging people to move every two quarters), and the most respectful transfer timeline would be to move at the end of a quarter. This gives the manager of the previous team time to advertise the seat that is opening (both internally and, if necessary, externally), arrange backfill, and transfer knowledge during the handoff. It also means that if the conditions are right, the employee would never never have to wait longer than 13 weeks to begin their new role.
It’s not taboo to want to explore other options
In an ideal world, an engineer who wants to find a different role would engage in open dialogue with their current manager about their interests. Something like, “For XYZ reasons, I think changing pods would be good for me.” They could discuss. The manager could do some exploratory work and help direct them to the best pod, or figure out a way for them to take on a project that resembles the ultimate goal. Ultimately, the two managers would agree on the timeline for the move, set a start date, and inform HR for system updates.
Of course, it’s not always so straightforward. It can be difficult to talk with your manager about wanting to move. Telling your manager, “I want to change teams…” could be perceived as, “I want to move away from you.” As CTO, I’m always willing to have conversations with engineers about their current assignments and their career ambitions, and to work with engineers and managers to find the best arrangement for everyone on the team.
While the individual steps in a career journey may be highly personal to the engineer, they should not be personal to the engineering manager. Ultimately we want a team of engaged, creative people who are happy to work on their pod’s projects. And it’s important that we discuss the benefits of a mobility-oriented environment in order to normalize it.
Matt Vail is the Chief Technology Officer at Datavant. Before becoming CTO, Matt joined Datavant as a software engineer when the technology team was eight people. Matt led multiple teams at Datavant before becoming CTO in November 2023. Connect with Matt on Linkedin.
Nicholas DeMaison writes for Datavant, where he works on the Strategic Communications team. Connect with Nick via LinkedIn.
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