What is Talent Mapping and why is it essential?
What is talent mapping?
We talk about it frequently as HR professionals. Talent mapping is the process of finding the right people, putting them in the right roles, and retaining the best people by creating career pathways that meet their own professional development needs, and the needs of the business. There are many schools of thought on the actions necessary for effective talent mapping, but one thing is for sure - it shouldn’t be done just by the recruitment team to identify external talent, or only during any formal annual performance review process. Talent mapping should be a continuous activity that grows, morphs and iterates as the needs of the business change.
What is included in a basic talent mapping process?
Update existing job descriptions to accurately reflect what the organization needs to execute the business strategy now, and in the foreseeable future
From this, identify any new roles your organization will need to close the talent gaps, and determine whether those roles can be hired from within your existing workforce, and what development/cost/timing will apply for those people to be “job ready”; or whether those roles need to be hired for through an external recruitment exercise. This is also an opportunity to assess what existing roles may now be, or are about to be redundant and to plan change accordingly.
Create compelling upward and lateral career paths for high performance talent, and communicate those across the organisation and to the individuals you’ve targeted as high performers - this will help to engage and retain great people, and to motivate others who have an interest in their own professional development
Create succession plans for anyone deemed to be a high performer and/or holding a role that is considered “critical” to enabling the company to execute its business strategy and/or who has no replacement that can be “job ready” within weeks (or days, depending on the role to be filled) and/or is in a role that will be difficult to fill due to talent scarcity/salary budget/needing niche skill/etc.
For all people in roles deemed to be “business critical” ensure that their leaders keep them engaged, challenged, supported. Ensure that the Compensation & Benefits team are kept appraised, to ensure those roles are regularly benchmarked on the external market so that the person in role feels fairly rewarded and/or so you can ensure an accurate headcount budget has been allocated for any replacement hire. Ensure that your Talent Acquisition team and/or external recruitment partners have a “watching brief” to keep you appraised of any trends emerging for the skills and knowledge required on the chance you do have to rehire externally for the role.
What happens if you haven’t organised talent mapping for HR?
Very simply, you’ll be caught short with a gap in your own team - which aside from the inconvenience, could prove to be quite embarrassing given that HR leaders are constantly warning Business Executives to be careful with their own talent mapping plans to avoid continuity risk.
Just this week for example, we’ve had another multinational employer engaging us after the unexpected resignation of a key leader within their HR function - in this instance an Executive Compensation specialist. So now the shock, surprise, and panic in the employer's response, with a "need it now" brief to find a replacement person, urgently.
Sure, its a great scenario for our firm. But here's the thing. This is a critical role within the function. So why hadn't it occurred to anyone before now, that there was no succession plan in place? And if they had realised this, why hadn't they had a "watching brief" in place for talent mapping ,the moment they realised there was a talent gap?
Does any HR function do talent mapping well?
Two of our favourite employer companies stand out as being very effective for their HR talent mapping. Both do a review every 6 months, not only of their existing team members within all specialist functions and HRBP roles, but they also annually refresh their forecasts for extra needs they may have in 2-3 years time, based on business strategies. They match their current HR staffers to those future needs to identify any skill and/or experience and/or interest gaps and set to work in plugging those gaps, now.
When they don't foresee the option to upskill or transfer internal HR talent, they come to us. And we build and maintain pro active talent pools, all very discreetly of course. So that if the time comes for an external hiring need, we and the company can get moving fast, in formally talking to people who've already been checked for potential interest and capability. In commercial terms, its a "warm prospect" sale situation, so the deal gets closed more efficiently and effectively than if it were a "cold sell".
This proactive approach means a bottom gets on the seat sooner, to maximise delivery and productivity for the function. It means the company is never feeling "at ransom" in addressing performance issues for the fear of being left short of a key specialist. It means minimum disruption to the team and to the company. It is another of those ironies in the world of HR, where we're constantly chatting with business leaders about talent risk, succession and workforce planning; but we too often miss applying these principles to our own function.
Why is talent mapping essential within the HR function?
When someone on the team unexpectedly exits, any HR team already working to full capacity will need to find a way to absorb additional duties until a replacement is found. The theory of this is fine, but there comes a point where quality of work and/or service delivery will slide.
There is a frequent risk of inadvertent damage to stakeholder relationships when a professional exists without a fast replacement - the proprietary knowledge on making those relationships work usually exists with the departing HR professional, leaving any replacement to waste time figuring out “the lay of the land” and politics.
Many a time I have heard business leaders wondering why the HR leader didn’t work faster/smarter to retain a key HR person, and those business leaders inevitably question how “connected” the HR leader is to his/her team.
There is inevitably a continuity risk whenever a historically reluctant business leader is starting to become more responsive to HR initiatives. Any gap in time of replacing their key business partner can reset the buy-in for HR to zero.
HR teams today now feature specialist roles that have never historically existed within the function (eg: Workday Implementation Leaders, HR Data Analytics, HR communications, etc) so if you need to hire externally, at short notice, chances are you’ll have a very limited market for talent, and you’ll be facing direct competition for those people, which will likely drive up the package you’ll have to offer to secure your choice of professional.
Unique regional and global talent shortages exist in some key HR areas (executive compensation within the USA as an example) which will not only create competitive pressures for securing new talent, but may also create a significant time that the role is empty. As companies continue to refine their overhead costs, an empty position within the HR function for some months may well result in a loss of headcount budget to hire for that role.
The understanding and appreciation of talent mapping as part of the talent management process has increased across leadership teams around the world, who are now seeking these kinds of experts to join their executive teams, so not doing it well could potentially be career limiting for ambitious HR professionals
Talent mapping certainly feels like an onerous process for HR leaders who, in frequently spending vast amounts of time educating and aiding business leaders on this, then fail to put the same efforts into their own functional teams. However, given the risks and implications of not having the HR “house in order”, should talent mapping be jumping up the priority queue to be an essential part of every HR team leader's ongoing agenda?
About the Author
Leanne Morris is well known as a both an outspoken advocate and critic of the HR profession. With long standing networks across 94 countries in all specialist areas of the function, and a multi- continent work history, she is a sought after subject matter expert on international HR hiring trends and HR hiring best practice.