Skip to content
SKILLS GAP ANALYSIS

Skills gap heat maps: how to read them and what to do next

A heat map turns rows of assessment scores into a visual pattern. Red cells are gaps. Green cells are strengths. The value is not the colours themselves but the clusters: where do gaps concentrate, and what does that tell you about where to spend your L&D budget? This guide explains how to read a skills gap heat map, what the common patterns mean, and how to turn the visual into a decision.

By Simon CarviPublished April 20267 min read

On this page

What a skills gap heat map shows you

A skills gap analysis produces numbers: competency scores, gap sizes, target-vs-actual comparisons. A heat map turns those numbers into a spatial pattern. Rows are people (or teams, or roles). Columns are competencies. Each cell is coloured by the gap between the person's current proficiency and the role target.

The point of the heat map is to reveal structure that tables hide. A column that is mostly red tells you the entire team is missing a competency. A row that is mostly red tells you one person has a systemic gap. A diagonal pattern tells you a different story entirely.

Without the visual, HR teams stare at spreadsheets of scores and miss these patterns. The heat map does not add information. It makes existing information visible.

How to read the colour scale

On Huneety, the default colour scale maps gap size to colour intensity.

  • 1Green (gap = 0 or positive) The person meets or exceeds the role target for this competency. No development action needed for this specific competency in this cycle.
  • 2Yellow (gap = 0.5 to 1.0) A moderate gap. The person is close to the target but not there yet. One or two development actions in the IDP will likely close it within a quarter.
  • 3Orange (gap = 1.0 to 1.5) A significant gap. The person is one full proficiency level below the role target. This typically takes 2 to 3 quarters of focused development. Likely an IDP priority.
  • 4Red (gap > 1.5) A critical gap. The person is more than one and a half levels below the target. If this competency is core to the role, it should be the top IDP priority. If it is peripheral, consider whether the role target is realistic or whether the competency should be reassigned.

The scale is relative to the role target, not to an absolute standard. A Level 3 score that looks red on a Senior PM heat map (target: 4.5) would look green on a Junior PM heat map (target: 2.5). Always check what the target is before interpreting the colour.

Four patterns and what they mean

Heat maps produce a small number of recurring patterns. Each one points to a different action.

  • 1Vertical red stripe (one competency, many people) The entire team or department is missing the same competency. This is a systemic gap, not an individual one. The action is a group intervention: a workshop, a team-level stretch project, or a process change. Individual IDPs alone will not fix a vertical stripe.
  • 2Horizontal red stripe (one person, many competencies) One person has gaps across most competencies. This could mean they are new to the role (expected), miscast in the role (needs a conversation), or assessed against the wrong role target (data error). Check the context before creating a 10-priority IDP that nobody can execute.
  • 3Scattered red cells (random distribution) Gaps are individual and varied. This is the normal pattern after a well-calibrated assessment. Each person needs a targeted IDP for their specific top 2 to 3 gaps. No group intervention will cover the spread.
  • 4Green everywhere Either the team is genuinely strong across all competencies (possible but uncommon), the role targets are set too low, or the assessment was lenient. If every cell is green, raise the question: are the targets challenging enough? A heat map with no red is not a celebration. It is a signal to recalibrate.

See your skills gaps in one visual

Huneety generates heat maps from every assessment. Filter by team, level, or country. Click any cell to see the individual report.

Book a demo

Segmenting the heat map for C-level conversations

A heat map that shows 200 employees and 12 competencies is useful for HR. It is not useful for the CHRO presenting to the board. Segmentation turns a busy visual into a decision-ready slide.

  • 1By department Show one heat map per department. Compare department averages side by side. The CHRO does not need to see individual names; they need to know that Engineering has a systemic leadership gap and Sales has a systemic analytical gap.
  • 2By job level Filter by seniority. A leadership competency gap at the VP level has a different urgency than the same gap at the manager level. Segmenting by level lets you match the development investment to the business impact.
  • 3By country or region For multi-country organisations, segment by location. Cross-country comparison shows whether a gap is local (a hiring or training problem in one geography) or global (a framework or process problem that spans the organisation).

On Huneety, the skills analytics dashboard generates segmented heat maps with one click. Filter by department, job level, country, or any custom tag in the organisational structure. Export to PDF for the board deck.

Heat maps on Huneety

Huneety generates heat maps automatically from every assessment campaign. No manual data wrangling, no Excel pivot tables. The skills analytics module lets you filter by any dimension in your org structure, drill down from a red cell to the individual's assessment report, and link directly to their IDP. The heat map is not a static image. It is the starting point for the action that follows.

FAQ

Quick answers

How much assessment data do I need before a heat map is useful?
One completed assessment campaign with at least 3 raters per person. The heat map needs a current-vs-target gap for each cell. If you only have self-evaluations, the map will show perception gaps, not real gaps. Multi-rater data makes it reliable.
Can I generate a heat map from a spreadsheet?
Technically yes, with pivot tables and conditional formatting. In practice, maintaining this manually across assessment cycles is where teams give up. Huneety generates the heat map automatically from the assessment data and updates it every time a new campaign closes.
What does a heat map tell me that a gap table does not?
Pattern recognition. A table of 200 rows and 12 columns contains the same data, but the human eye cannot spot a vertical red stripe in a table of numbers. The heat map makes structural patterns (systemic gaps, outlier individuals, calibration problems) visible at a glance.
How often should I refresh the heat map?
After every assessment cycle. Most organisations run one or two cycles per year. The heat map from the previous cycle is your baseline; the new one shows whether the gaps you invested in actually closed. Comparing two heat maps side by side is the clearest way to demonstrate L&D return on investment.

Continue learning

How to identify skills gaps

The practical playbook for running a first skills gap analysis cycle. Data sources, rater setup, priority rules, and the three failure modes that corrupt the output.

Read the guide

Training ROI measurement

Connecting L&D spend to measured competency improvement over time. The framework that makes the CFO conversation defensible.

Coming soon

Turn assessment data into a visual you can act on

Huneety generates skills gap heat maps from every assessment campaign. Filter, segment, and drill down to the individual report in one click.

Book a demoRead the skills gap analysis guide