20 of March, 2025

The Human Resources department should take care of, among other things, the management of personnel in the company. For this, it is important that the HR department know how to make a talent map correctly.

Currently, different methods can be used, but the talent map in the company is one of the most effective for improving processes such as staff selection. Continue reading to discover what it is and how it is designed.

What is a talent map in the company

There are multiple tools dedicated to the management of talent. Among them is the talent map, which provides a strategic vision of the people who make up a business. But, what is a talent map?

The talent map in a company, also known as the employee journey map or employee map, is a tool that locates employees’ aptitudes to maximize their potential.

The goal is to conduct a study on different types of talent both within and outside the entity to maximize the professionalism of the teams.

The importance of talent maps in companies

The HR department must work on how to make a talent map. This is vital as it allows the alignment of people management strategy with the rest of the company management.

With these tools, the necessary roles, employee competencies, and business objectives are taken into account. The goal isn’t only to find the right talent but also to retain it, thus decreasing the employee turnover rate.

Benefits of talent maps in companies

Knowing how to design a talent map is essential today as the human team is one of the main assets in the entity. Some of the advantages of talent maps are:

Promote job motivation: HR managers can understand in depth all the challenges their team faces every day. Based on this, strategies are created to improve performance, making workers feel valued.
Reduce hiring times and costs: by forming a database according to the current roles and those that are needed. This saves future resources.
Strengthen employer branding: The market is more competitive, so finding and retaining qualified professionals can be a challenge. Talent maps make strengthening relationships with employees easier.

How to make a talent map

A talent map in a company works as a snapshot of the company and serves as a roadmap for the future. It helps to understand the current state of the organization and which roles are key.

Similarly, it helps to understand which areas will be most demanded in the future, thus anticipating the needs to be covered.

When considering how to make a talent map, some main actions are necessary:

The first thing is to proactively identify the new roles that the organization needs. Once known, the appropriate commercial strategy can be boosted or adapted.
Update existing job positions and descriptions to give a more precise idea of the entity’s needs.
Create attractive career plans that allow for vertical and lateral growth, providing new growth opportunities for the staff and ensuring their retention.
Perform a talent gap assessment. For this, when the profiles are known, the company must study and analyze how far or close they are to meeting the demands of each role. Ideally, this gap can be mitigated with training plans implemented by the company.
To evaluate aptitudes, a competence wheel can be very useful. With it, skills or abilities can be identified to strengthen individuals. For this, certain personnel management softwares such as Sesame HR can be useful.

Steps to implement a talent map in the company

When designing a company’s talent map, the departments that need improvement are reviewed, and professional skills are analysed. In this way, tailor-made training plans can be created to complete the profiles.

Some basic steps on how to make a talent map are as follows.

1. Anticipate new challenges

The company should think about how each department can improve, which roles are key, and what new talents can be incorporated into the team. The idea is to anticipate possible future challenges by bringing the most suitable people for each position.

2. Identify types of talent

To understand how to design a quality talent map, it is necessary to analyse:

The types of professionals that exist in the workforce.
The talent that can be developed through the different training offers of the company.
The profiles they should have to be more competitive.

Thus, the different types of competencies that exist are identified by making a talent map of the company.

3. Research the potential of employees

It’s advisable to perform a competence evaluation in which the skills and competencies of each of the employees are described. In this case, competency and skills evaluations can be used.

Similarly, it allows understanding the potential they have and how to evolve within the organization so that professionals can progress and achieve their goals.

4. Review job positions and the people who occupy them

The suitability of job positions must be known to reinforce the personnel in the most favourable positions. This is how to make the talent map in the company in detail.

Once these are known, continuous training plans and career plans are developed to improve the career path.

5. Implement talent recruitment and retention actions

Once you know how to make a talent map in your company, the strategies necessary to retain talent and avoid losing a high rate of professionals must be prepared and implemented.

Similarly, recruitment and selection processes are enhanced to be of quality, and to bring in the most talented members for the company. It is important to opt for clear and high-quality communication along with better job conditions than the competition.

6. Review the talent map

Over time, the talent map will need to be reviewed to cover training needs and new roles that may arise, for continuous improvement.

You now know how to make a talent map. Now, you just have to implement it in your company! Find out a lot more about HR on our blog. We are your reference HR software.

Professional with over 20 years of extensive experience in various areas of Human Resources (Recruitment, Training, Occupational Risk Prevention, and Personnel Management). Experience in the Management Department: Broad understanding of the company and HR.

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cristinamartin

HR Content Specialist

How to create a talent map within the company step by step