What is Competency Mapping: A 2025 Guide
Knowing how to manage talents within the company is the secret to having a more effective workforce. It speaks volumes when bigger conglomerates that have captured the world’s attention like Toyota, Volvo, and IBM, to name a few, properly utilize their employees’ talents to succeed.
Thus, for most companies, having a competency mapping framework present can greatly help them manage their talents better, along with helping them gain a better perspective on how their employees work as well.
Continue reading to learn more about mapping competencies, the reasons why companies should invest in it, as well as some steps that are included in the process and some frequently asked questions.
What is competency mapping?
Competency mapping is a framework that human resource teams utilize to gauge core competencies and help them identify employees' specialized skills for a particular job description. This can then help companies with their overall talent development, like creating specific training programs and competency assessments that’s specific to each employee, as well as putting them in specific teams where they can shine better.
Think of it as a performance management process that involves defining an employee’s skill set, knowledge, abilities, and behavioral patterns that can help them prosper at work. Properly utilizing these can then help companies reach organizational success at a significantly faster pace than expected.
A good skills library can help create a skills map for companies, but it’s highly encouraged for companies to have some knowledge of the process. Basic knowledge of the competency framework on top of a good skills library means that companies can make more flexible decisions when it comes to their employees moving forward and allows them to make changes on the fly.
Why should companies invest in competency mapping?
Companies should invest in competency mapping because it allows them to properly align the workforce’s needs to help with the company’s success. It offers a more detailed, structured view of what the company needs to succeed, and helps align it with their preexisting employees’ skill set.
It can also help properly define succession planning and career advancement for future leaders. The skill map can help properly identify which employees are perfectly suited to leadership roles and address skills gaps, create leadership training and development initiatives, and create a pipeline that can help with leadership skills development to ensure that required competencies are met.
It can also aid the overall hiring and recruitment process, especially since it can help HR professionals properly identify key competencies required for specific roles. It also reduces overall hiring mistakes since it helps perfectly match candidates to specific competencies instead of basing them on qualifications.
5 steps of the competency mapping process
Listed below are the steps that companies can take to create their own.
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Analyze the job’s requirements
Analyzing the job’s requirements by conducting job analyses can help companies create an effective map. Knowledge of what the job entails and how it functions ensures that the perfect employee goes into a specific role.
That said, HR professionals can interview their existing employees as well to gauge their current employees’ skill level and help them create viable plans moving forward.
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Identify core competencies required
Identifying core competencies is the next step in the competency framework. The entire skills assessment process can be done by identifying employees’ base knowledge, skill level, behaviors, motives, and ambitions, and matching it to the pre-existing role’s 9 to 5.
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Create a competency framework
After the key competencies have been identified, creating the competency framework is the next step. For companies new to creating one, it’s highly suggested to use an effective skills library tool to jumpstart the entire process. This not only expedites the process but also makes it easier to digest and implement.
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Document the competencies
Afterwards, the next step is to properly document and define competencies and create clear descriptions for each of them. This allows companies to easily illustrate the performance that’s expected from employees as well as properly identifying what competencies contain.
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Integrate the map into the HR process
After everything has been created, the final step is to properly integrate the skill mapping framework into the HR process. It’s also important to continuously measure its effectiveness. This ensures that employee performance remains high while ensuring that the map remains effective even during big changes.
How can companies' competency mapping help boost performance?
A company’s mapping can help boost performance as it provides them with valuable insights into which specific skills are needed for every role. After all, employees become a lot more productive if their pre-existing skill set perfectly fits their current job description.
The competency mapping template also helps boost performance by integrating competencies required in employee job descriptions, identifying skills gaps, which lets companies teach them specific skills by making tailor-made training programs. This doubles as helping perfectly align employee performance with organizational goals.
FAQs
Below are some frequently asked questions about competency mapping.
What is the difference between a competency model and a competency mapping?
The difference between competency model and skills mapping is the fact that the latter former on soft skills and helps identify competencies for every employee, whereas the latter is how it’s executed to ensure that every employee is perfectly tailored to their current job description and help identify competency gaps.
What are the 4 stages of the competency model?
The 4 stages of the competency model are:
Unconscious incompetence
Conscious incompetence
Conscious competence
Unconscious competence
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