The recession is forcing organisations to become more creative about career development for its employees, the group HR director for AXA UK has told a London audience.

Short-term secondments and job swaps are among the internal opportunities that can be created for ambitious employees when budgets are tight and little movement between positions is occurring, said Sonia Wolsey- Cooper, speaking at The Economist conference. However, she added, employees must also take a broader view of the options available to them. “People are far less open to moving 50 miles down the road” than they are to relocating significant distances, she said.

“There are plenty of career opportunities but people have to be more flexible,” she said.

Before the recession, AXA UK split its time between identifying the key players outside the organisation and wooing them, and looking after its own key talent. “That balance has completely shifted,” she said. “We are bringing far fewer people into the organisation. By looking at how we retain people internally, we are being forced into being far more creative… We are being asked to develop people but in a different way.”

AXA is also looking ahead to its strategic development and the jobs that will be necessary in five to 10 years’ time. The issue then will be how to ensure that the company’s “emerging talents”, as Wolsey-Cooper described them, can be given the right skills to fit the jobs.