Talent Mapping

 

Finding workers with the right skill sets, knowledge, and experience can be challenging. And once you find them, you have to know how to motivate and retain them.

As more baby boomers retire, many millennials and Gen Zers are entering the labor market with a different set of values and expectations than companies are used to. Apart from good compensation, this new class of employees values flexibility, transparency, diversity, and inclusivity.

Research shows that, while millennials and Gen Zers feel more loyalty to companies than they did a year ago, many are still willing to leave their jobs even without another job lined up. So, companies need a solid talent management strategy to hire and manage employees well.

A talent strategy is a systematic approach to optimizing employee performance and satisfaction—and includes hiring, on boarding, training and development, and compensation.

 What is Talent Mapping?

Talent mapping is a strategic workforce management approach designed to help businesses anticipate and build an employee base with the skills and talents they need now and into the future.

Talent mapping builds around an organization’s “map” of the skills they need to fulfill business goals. It’s a comprehensive approach that incorporates hiring, employee development, engagement, retention, career paths, and succession planning – all managed with a goal to hire, retain, develop, and adjust the right mix of talent to meet business goals over time.

1. TM is the strategic management of the flow of talent through an organization. Its purpose is to assure that a supply of talent is available to align the right people with the right jobs at the right time based on strategic business objectives’. (Schweyer, 2004)

2. Talent mapping is an essential tool for HR professionals to develop a comprehensive understanding of their workforce’s skills levels and gaps and address these gaps. (Veldsman, 2023)

3. Talent mapping involves finding the right talent, putting talent in the right roles, and retaining top talent through carrier parthing. It’s a continuous activity that grows and iterates with the business as needs change. 

Talent mapping requires you to take three essential actions:

• Proactively identify any new roles your organization will need to drive its business strategy.
• Refresh existing job roles and descriptions to more accurately reflect your organizational needs in executing your business strategy.
• Create compelling upward and lateral career paths and communicate those advancement opportunities to retain top talent.

It’s crucial that all mapped roles are tied to delivering tangible results to propel your business strategy forward. Just as important, talent mapping needs to be visible in your organization.

If an internal candidate were to quietly move through the process and suddenly be hired into a new unknown role on a new team, this can be misinterpreted as an appointment. While the HR team, hiring manager, and candidate all were aware of the work that went into that transfer, the perception by others might be that this was simply the prize in an office popularity contest. And that creates cultural unrest and distrust of HR. 

 Benefits of Talent Mapping for Your Organization

Talent mapping is a recurring activity that keeps employee skills and competencies clearly mapped to desired company performance today and anticipated performance in coming years.

Primary benefits to talent mapping:

1.      Helps close skills gaps – by providing a needed framework with an inventory of desired skills, skills gaps analysis, and steps to fulfill future skill needs.

2.      Helps identify key roles within the organization – including employees with high-impact contributions at every level of the organization.

3.      Improves transparency into career advancement opportunities for employees – as managers and employees engage in conversations about career development.

 Additional benefits:

1.      Reduced time to hire – especially if you can find someone for a role before the vacancy is posted.

2.      Identifying stars and future leaders – which helps to retain key employees and develop their skill sets critical for your future business success.

3.      Conserved hiring resources – by prioritizing open positions that will have the biggest impact on company growth.

4.     Greater return on hiring investment – by increasing the tenure of the employees you have and hire.

Talent mapping strategies for recruiters

For recruiters, talent mapping usually starts with market research, competitor analysis, and data mining.

• Market research: The best way to find more about current hiring trends and potential candidates is with some research. Try looking at job postings in your niche, reading up on salary trends, and investigating other data points to understand the local labor market.
• Competitor analysis: Researching updates and news from your competitors can be helpful, especially if it informs your strategy in reaching out to the same candidates they might be targeting.
• Data mining: Looking into your ATS can be useful for talent mapping as well. Try evaluating patterns between candidate skills and placement outcomes. Knowing what led to past success will help you create a more targeted approach to recruitment in the future.
• Networking: And the old-fashioned way to set strategy is to just talk. Use social media and industry connections to gather info about what’s happening in your niche.

 Talent mapping to fill tough roles

Referencing

AIHR. Available at: https://www.aihr.com/blog/talent-mapping/.

 Schweyer, A., 2004. Talent management systems: Best practices in technology solutions for recruitment, retention and workforce planning. John Wiley & Sons.

 Team, A. (2023). What is Talent Mapping and What are the Benefits for Doing it? [online] The Avilar Blog. Available at: https://blog.avilar.com/2023/04/04/what-is-talent-mapping-and-what-are-the-benefits-for-doing-it/ [Accessed 26 Mar. 2024].

 Veldsman, D. (2023). Talent Mapping: How HR Can Use a Skills-Focused Approach. [online]

 www.vincere.io. (2023). Talent Mapping: Processes, Techniques & Tips | Vincere. [online] Available at: https://www.vincere.io/blog/talent-mapping-processes-techniques-and-tips/ [Accessed 26 Mar. 2024].