Talent mapping is a tactical job that is used by businesses to plan talent acquisition. Talent Mapping is used to ensure that a recruitment process doesn’t just result in a rapid hire, but also, it focuses on the short, and long-term needs and leads to a number of strategic talent acquisitions over a period of time. It allows leaders to proactively build the capabilities of the workforce using an in-depth and analytical process. by identifying the capabilities, experience, and potential of current employees to reveal talent gaps and development needs.
Below we have identified some reasons why talent mapping is essential for strategic growth.
1. Wide range of employee engagement
Talent mapping is an internal process used to assess current and future efficiency, involving the entire organization across every level and function. such as clarifying the technical knowledge, qualifications, and performance of individual employees – it also presents a perfect opportunity for employee engagement. It’s another touch point, where career conversations take place and qualitative data of employee goals and interests are gathered and compared with growth strategy and future investment.
2. Identify potential leavers
Reviewing employee performance and potential isn’t just about recognizing talent gaps and training needs within the team. It can also uncover signs someone may soon leave an organization, or that it’s time for them to move on to a new opportunity. First of all, taking the time to investigate the tangible impact of employees is always a good idea. Once you’re clear about this, you can then assess the potential each person has to progress or evolve within the organization, over time. The 9-box grid is a popular talent mapping tool, as it helps leaders visualize where employees fit on a matrix.
3. Opportunities for internal moves
Talent Mapping allows for keeping a record of the whole organization in terms of the capabilities, experience, and potential of each employee. Talent Mapping is a great way to ensure that the right people are assigned to the right roles and for deciding which talent can be moved internally to meet short-term needs and visa versa.
This, on the one hand, is a proactive way to bolster teams so they can deal with sudden changes in priorities and market conditions or pre-empt vacancies and manage talent shortage risks. It can also create new opportunities for internal moves, by revealing skill shortages not previously identified. Training needs, too, are highlighted and training solutions are delivered to ensure positions are filled, where gaps emerge.
4. Succession planning
Succession planning is a key reason for any talent mapping exercise. Earlier Talent Mapping process highlight people only with potential and only those people were given access to development opportunities, but now the development programs have a wide vision to recognize that every employee should have access to career growth trajectories. Moving people to a new project, country, or even into a new discipline, will likely accelerate ‘leadership’ development anyway.
5. Reducing the time to hire
External Talent Mapping is another way to lead to strategic growth. This method recognizes that identifying candidates for multiple potential vacancies requires a large pool of candidates. Often, those engaged during the talent mapping project are regularly contacted over several months and years, meaning when an immediate need arises, the firm doesn’t need to spend time in finding talent, external Talent Mapping is equivalent to building a talent pipeline.
the recruiter is not solely dependent upon building new relationships or selling opportunities to the market.
Case Study: Audentia executive Talent Mapping for healthcare partner
Our client is a well known global consulting firm, with a strong presence in the healthcare space and are rapidly expanding their UK healthcare practice. Audentia Research were commissioned by the UK Leading Health Partner, who we had successfully placed earlier in the year, to identify talent in the UK for a Healthcare Partner.Our brief was to uncover a list of talent confidentially due to there being an incumbent in place.
We used classic executive search methodologies to identify partners in our client’s competitors, with deep expertise in this specific market segment. Throughout the project, we provided regular updates and detailed market feedback to the in-house TA team. We effectively mapped the talent available in the UK and found 50 candidates. Through deeper research and by confidentially speaking with individuals, we highlighted 10 key candidates, who are thought leaders in this space.
THE BENEFIT OF EXECUTIVE TALENT MAPPING
Now having access to this in-depth mapping exercise our client was able to use the data to scope top talent with deep expertise in emerging and disruptive health technologies. They have detailed knowledge of the candidate pool available in the UK with the functional/technical expertise needed for the Partner Health Technology position. This data is now fully owned by our client’s in-house executive recruiting team, allowing the business to reach out to candidates whenever the time is right.
- Client: Global Consulting Firm
- Services Talent Mapping
- Functions Partner Level
- Sector Health Care Practice
- Location United Kingdom
- Talent Pool 50 candidates
- Result Identified 10 key thought leaders and provided market feedback on the talent pool
