Talent Mapping – the answer to future proofing my business?

In a world where skilled staff with the right skills, experience and attitude are scarce and time to hire seems to be more drawn out than ever, how do you compete for the people that are going to secure the future for your company?  How do you get ahead of the game?

What if you identified the roles in your organisation that were crucial for your success (now and in the future, say in 2 years time)?

What if you had a picture of the competencies, skills and experience you required for each of these roles?

What if you used your business plans to estimate the number of staff you were going to need in these roles to hit your business goals?

Wouldn’t this would give you a staffing target to aim for?

Now, if you then assessed your current team against the criteria for each role and looked at your staff turnover history you would have a gap analysis of the talent you will need to hit your goals.

This is the first part of a solid talent map.

The second part is researching to find where the people you are going to need in the future are now.  Are they studying, or working with competitors?  Are they available locally? Are people with the skills you need available at all, will you need to train them?

Now you have a staffing strategy to enable you to deliver your business plan.

Why would you want to invest in this?

Many organisations have found that a good talent map has dramatically changed the success of their recruitment and hence their companies results.  The talent map allows you to get ahead of the recruitment game.  It gives you the information you need to start identifying people now that you may need in the future.  It means that when you do have a vacancy to fill you may already have a target list of people to approach.  It also means that vacancies are filled quicker with people who have a better chance at success. More sales are made and more customers are kept happy.

Talent mapping is not the domain of big companies. It is the domain of all companies who are planning to be successful.