Why internal mobility is at the core of Bank of America’s talent strategy

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When asked what HR leaders should prioritize in today’s labor market, experts almost always say internal mobility.

Bank of America exemplifies the value of doing just that. The bank has invested in talent development for years, and in 2025 14,000, or around 44%, of the bank’s job openings were filled by existing employees.

Josh Bronstein, Bank of America’s head of global talent, oversees these and other efforts related to talent acquisition, management, and development for the bank’s 20,000 employees and 20,000 managers and senior leaders.

Investing in internal mobility is a “win-win,” Bronstein said, because it benefits the bank’s growth and employees’ career development while incentivizing retention. The company consistently reports high engagement scores and low turnover rates (86% and 8% in 2025), thanks in part, he said, to career development.

“It’s something that I believe many companies overlook the value of, and for many roles there’s a real benefit to us hiring somebody who understands the company, who knows the company, has relationships across the company,” Bronstein told HR Brew.

Internal hires are just half the equation, as the bank makes thousands of external hires annually (18,000 in 2025). One major focus of Bronstein’s team is striking a balance between transitioning existing employees into new roles, and recruiting external expertise at scale.

That largely depends on managers’ understanding and alignment of employees’ career needs and aspirations, and the company’s workforce planning needs.

“It’s disciplined individual people management, disciplined workforce planning, and disciplined external hiring. Together it creates a system that is a well-managed workforce planning and individual talent development system,” he said.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

What’s the best change you’ve made at a place you’ve worked?

One area I’m particularly proud of is the progress we’ve made in creating real, scalable internal mobility.

We’ve continued to invest in the infrastructure that makes mobility work as a system—not a one-off program. That includes a skills taxonomy, internal mobility advisors—who help teammates prepare for what’s next through confidential career coaching, résumé review and navigating opportunities—and clear expectations for managers to develop talent rather than hold onto it.

Internal mobility succeeds only when it’s intentional and reinforced from multiple directions. When done well, it strengthens business continuity, preserves institutional knowledge, and reinforces a culture of growth and progression.

What’s the biggest misconception people might have about your job?

A common misconception is that this work is primarily relationship‑driven. Those elements matter, but at our scale, HR and talent management is highly structured, process‑oriented, and grounded in data.

We’re operating across more than 200,000 teammates, including roughly 20,000 managers and thousands of senior leaders. Managing talent in that environment requires discipline—consistent frameworks for assessing performance and potential, and well‑defined talent planning processes that provide clear visibility into leadership pipelines and future needs.

We take an integrated approach to talent planning that starts with our most senior leaders and extends across lines of business, legal entities, and local markets. This allows us to connect talent to development opportunities and future roles in a way that’s deliberate and aligned to where the company is going…Human judgment remains essential, but it operates within a much more rigorous, data‑driven framework than people might expect. That combination—structured processes, data, and informed judgment—is what allows us to manage talent at scale in a way that supports our clients, our shareholders, and the long‑term strength of the company.

What’s the most fulfilling aspect of your job?

The most fulfilling part of my work is supporting the development of talented leaders and watching careers compound over time.

We see teammates join early in their careers—sometimes starting in a financial center at our $25‑per‑hour minimum wage—and grow into roles with significantly broader responsibility and impact. Entry points matter, but career paths are what fundamentally change economic trajectories.

What trend in HR are you most optimistic about? Why?

I’m optimistic about the shift toward skills‑first organizations and the renewed emphasis on human capabilities.

One thing that’s becoming increasingly clear is that the half‑life of technical skills is shrinking. What remains durable are human skills—judgment, communication, empathy, relationship‑building, and learning agility. Technology can enable those skills, but it doesn’t replace them.

When productivity gains are reinvested into higher‑value work and clearer career pathways, teammates spend less time on repetitive tasks and more time solving problems and supporting clients. At the end of the day, we’re a relationship-driven business, and this evolution allows our people to focus on the work that matters most.

What trend in HR are you least optimistic about? Why?

There’s a lot of enthusiasm around AI point solutions. The tools can be useful, but outcomes ultimately depend on how well they’re integrated into how the organization operates.

Sustainable transformation is less about the technology itself—it requires organizational vitality, leadership capability, skills infrastructure, and strong risk management and operating controls. Without that foundation, adoption tends to stall and workforce risk increases over time.

AI can accelerate progress, but only when it’s embedded in an environment designed to absorb continuous change. This requires well managed processes and data; we don’t want to automate or “AI” spaghetti.

The encouraging part is that this moment is pushing HR and talent leaders to continue to be intentional architects—designing skills frameworks, mobility pathways, and leadership expectations that allow change to scale and make adoption stick.

These views do not necessarily speak for the company, but instead are the personal responses from individuals.