HR · Workforce planning · Component
The capability map
What the organisation can currently do, expressed as capabilities held by people rather than as a list of job titles.
The deliverable
What it is
A capability map answers a question an org chart cannot: not who reports to whom, but what the organisation is able to do and how many people could do it.
Its most useful output is usually the least welcome one — the capabilities held by exactly one person, which are invisible until that person is unavailable.
One level in
What it is made of
Each element is a constituent part of the component. Follow one to see the attributes it carries.
The capability list
The capabilities themselves, named at a level that is neither a task nor a department.
3 attributes: Capability · Category · Criticality
LearnThe depth record
How many people hold each capability, and at what level.
3 attributes: Headcount · Level · Holder
LearnThe single points
Capabilities held by one person, listed explicitly rather than left to be inferred.
3 attributes: Capability · Mitigation status · Owner
Learn
The single-point list is the map’s real output. Derive it automatically — a risk that must be calculated is a risk nobody reads.
The other components in workforce planning
The demand forecast
What capability the plan will require, over a horizon long enough that the organisation could still acquire it.
LearnThe gap analysis
The difference between capability held and capability needed, with a decision attached to each gap.
Learn