A guide to talent mapping for HR professionals

Don't leave your talent strategy to chance. 

Talent mapping gives you the insights you need to make informed decisions about hiring, employee lifecycle, and future planning.

In this article, Remote takes you through the steps of creating a talent map. Plus, it shows you how to overcome common challenges and build a high-performing global team.

What is talent mapping?

Talent mapping is the process of identifying and assessing the current and potential skills, knowledge, and experience of your employees. Through it, you can better understand the strengths and weaknesses of your workforce, identify skill gaps, and plan for future talent needs. 

Are you making talent decisions based on gut feelings rather than data? If so, it might be time to start talent mapping.

Why should you talent map?

A talent map gives you a clear picture of what your employees are excelling at and where they might be lacking. With this information, you can make more informed decisions about hiring, promoting, and training. 

For example, your talent map could show you lack leadership in a certain department. In this case, you can provide training to address this skill gap, or hire an experienced manager from outside the company.

What are the benefits of talent mapping?

Talent mapping offers many benefits beyond simply understanding your workforce. Here's how talent mapping can help your organization.

Targeted recruitment

Rather than making reactive hiring decisions based on your organization’s immediate needs, you can proactively plan your recruitment strategy.

Talent mapping focuses recruitment efforts on candidates who have the right skills, qualifications, and experience. This targeted method helps you find ideal candidates that align with your company’s needs. You also improve the overall quality of your hires and your company's hiring process.

Finding future leaders

Through talent mapping, you can find the future leaders in your workforce. This is proactive succession planning at its finest. By identifying high-potential employees early on, you can create tailored development plans that nurture their leadership abilities and prepare them for future roles.

Smooth transitions 

When a high-quality employee leaves or retires, you want to be able to fill that gap quickly. Talent mapping exercises help you spot potential candidates to fill vacancies and minimize operational disruptions. Moreover, it shows that your company is committed to internal development and career progression.

Reduced employee turnover

Quiet quitters make up at least 50% of the US workforce. Don't be blindsided by unexpected resignations from disengaged employees.

Talent mapping gives you a window into your employees' career aspirations and talents. Getting to know your employees better lets you help them grow in ways that match their goals and interests. This can make them happier and more involved at work.

Engaged and fulfilled employees are more likely to stay at your company. You can reduce turnover rates and save on the significant costs of recruiting and training new employees.

What are the challenges of talent mapping?

To tap into the benefits of talent mapping, there are a few challenges to overcome:

Accurate data and skills assessment

Gathering comprehensive and up-to-date information on your employees' skills and career aspirations is a time-consuming process. 

If you only rely on self-assessments or annual performance reviews, your data might not be accurate or up-to-date. Instead, offer regular skills assessments, personality tests, surveys, and check-ins to get a better idea of your employees’ current skills and potential.

Minimizing bias in evaluation

Unfortunately, 89% of candidates believe that they undergo bias when applying for a job. Unconscious bias can easily influence talent evaluations and end in missed opportunities. 

Establish clear evaluation criteria before going into any talent mapping assessment. Use multiple evaluators like managers, peers, or even external hiring agencies, to get a more well-rounded perspective on an employee. 

It’s equally important to provide training on unconscious bias for HR professionals and interviewers so that they can recognize and mitigate their own biases.

Integrating talent mapping with HR processes

Talent mapping is a great starting point for understanding your workforce, but you need to use the data to get real results. Many companies struggle to create an HR strategy that effectively combines specific data into their broader HR framework. 

A global HR partner like Remote helps you streamline the entire talent management pipeline, including hiring, onboarding, attendance, and payroll. With a comprehensive view of your workforce, you can easily spot any gaps in talent, track how your employees are doing, and make sure your talent development is in line with your business goals.

How to successfully talent map

Here's a five-step guide to an effective talent mapping process:

1. Define goals and roles

Defining your short-term and long-term goals helps you map out the talent you need to get there. Think about the roles that are absolutely essential for reaching those goals. For example, if you're planning to launch a new product, your engineers, designers, and product managers will be key players.

For each role, list out the skills, knowledge, and experience needed to succeed in each one. This includes both technical skills and soft skills, like communication and leadership. 

2. Gather employee data

Next, gather data on your talent, including skill sets, experience, performance, and career aspirations. Through this exercise, you can better understand the strengths, development areas, and potential of your current workforce. Don't forget to get feedback from peers, managers, and employees themselves. This holistic approach gives you quality information to align your talent with strategic business goals.

3. Visualize your talent

Laying out your talent data in a visual format can help you make connections faster and spot trends you might have missed. Choose a method that suits your company's needs and preferences. For example, nine-box grids, which plot employees on a grid based on their performance and potential, can help you quickly identify top performers, high-potential employees, and those who need more support.

This kind of visual map is also a great tool for communicating and persuading management to invest in talent management.

4. Develop your people

Use your talent map for long-term growth, not a quick fix. Use it to determine where employees need additional support or development. This could mean offering them specialized training programs, pairing them with mentors, coaching them, or giving them challenging assignments that push them to grow. 

For your high-potential employees, create personalized development plans that align with their career aspirations and the company's goals. Help them reach their potential and keep them invested in your company. 

5. Continuously update your map

As your employees grow, so should your talent map. Keep it fresh by regularly updating it to reflect employees’ progress and changing ambitions.

Have regular check-ins with your team to make sure your map still accurately reflects the company's direction. Don't wait until a key player leaves to start looking for a replacement — be proactive and build a talent pipeline to keep your business running regardless of staffing changes.

Find and manage the best global talent with Remote

Talent mapping is about placing the best people in roles best for them. Remote helps you discover top candidates and turn them into valuable team members with confidence.

Remote Talent helps you map out real salary data to create competitive job offers, compare employment costs across countries, and stay updated on the latest compensation trends. That's all the data and insights you need to attract, hire, and manage top global talent.

From hiring to compliance and everything between, Remote Talent helps you map and manage the people you need to grow.

Get started with Remote Talent today— launch your free trial and build your talent strategy.

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