The gap heatmap and burden scores are the two most actionable views in skills analytics. Together, they answer: where are the biggest gaps, and which ones should you fix first?
What the health heatmap shows
The health heatmap is a department-by-competency matrix. Each cell displays the average gap between target and assessed proficiency for that department–competency pair. Rows represent departments, columns represent competencies from the assigned framework.
The heatmap recalculates whenever new assessment data comes in. If a department has not been assessed against a particular competency, the cell appears gray with a "No data" indicator.
Gap severity scale
Huneety uses a five-tier severity scale based on the average gap value:
- Healthy (gap ≤ 0.5) — the team meets or nearly meets the target. No intervention needed.
- Minor (gap 0.5–1.0) — a small shortfall. On-the-job learning, coaching, or peer mentoring is usually sufficient.
- Moderate (gap 1.0–2.0) — a meaningful gap. Plan a structured development action such as a workshop, course enrollment, or stretch assignment.
- Significant (gap 2.0–3.0) — a large shortfall affecting capability. Prioritize formal training and consider hiring to fill the gap in parallel.
- Critical (gap 3.0+) — a severe deficit. This competency is far below what the role requires. Immediate action needed — combination of training, mentoring, and potentially external recruitment.
Understanding burden scores
A gap score alone does not tell you how much organizational damage a shortfall causes. A critical gap affecting 2 people is different from a moderate gap affecting 200.
The burden score combines both dimensions:
Burden = affected employees x average gap depth
A competency with a 1.5 average gap across 80 employees produces a burden score of 120. A competency with a 3.0 gap across 5 employees scores 15. The first is the bigger organizational problem, even though the second has a worse per-person gap.
Using burden scores to prioritize L&D investment
Sort competency gaps by burden score to allocate your training budget where it creates the most impact. Practical approach:
- Open the analytics dashboard and navigate to the burden score view.
- Sort by burden score descending. The top entries represent your highest-impact development opportunities.
- Cross-reference with the L&D catalog gap map. If a high-burden competency is also an orphan (no learning content available), it becomes a procurement priority.
- For covered high-burden gaps, check whether existing content is actually being consumed. A covered gap with low enrollment signals a communication or access problem, not a content problem.
Drilling from org-level to individual gaps
The heatmap supports three levels of drill-down:
Organization level
The default view. Shows all departments and their aggregated gap data. Use this to identify which departments need the most attention.
Team level
Click a department row to expand into teams within that department. This reveals whether a department-level gap is evenly distributed or concentrated in a specific team.
Individual level
Click a team row to see individual employee gap profiles. From here, you can navigate directly to an employee's competency profile or their individual development plan (IDP) to assign development actions.