How to Map Employee Locations Fast

There are several reasons why you should map employee locations. For instance, if you're deploying or re-deploying a sales, service, operations, or office-based team. Or, trying to find the best location for an office or service depot.

This is where business mapping solutions, such as employee mapping tools, can help you visualize data from systems like Excel. With improved visibility into operations, sales performance, and market potential, teams can identify inefficiencies, streamline processes, and plan smarter.

Visualize Workforce Distribution

Mapping employee locations lets you instantly visualize where your workforce is based by uploading a simple spreadsheet of addresses or postcodes. The tool geocodes this data and plots each employee on a map, revealing patterns, clusters, and gaps across regions.

What you gain

• Clear visibility into workforce distribution
• Better planning for travel, remote work, or regional coverage
• Smarter decisions around office locations, service areas, or territory assignments
• A fast, shareable visual for HR, operations, or leadership teams

Learn more about spatial analysis for planning and how it can ensure equal distribution of workloads.

Support Business Decisions

Mapping employee locations allows you to unlock valuable data that aids in strategic decision-making.

You can

• Optimize sales or service territories to reduce overlap and improve coverage
• Plan new office or depot locations closer to where employees live, so that resources are used more efficiently
• Cut travel time, lower operational costs, and improve service delivery

Enhance Team Cohesion and Safety

Knowing where employees are based is an important part of employee wellbeing.

• Create smarter territories or schedules that lower travel time and support a healthier work-life balance
• Quickly locate and communicate with teams during unexpected events, ensuring faster, safer coordination
• Build a more connected workforce by understanding where people work and how best to support them

To map employee locations, you need reliable data, starting with their home and office addresses. Once you have all your data, prepare a structured spreadsheet with all the relevant fields.

Recommended Spreadsheet Setup

We recommend creating two tabs in your spreadsheet:

1. Employee home address, with one line for each employee
2. Employee work location, with one line for each employee

If you only want to create one spreadsheet, you can simply add a column showing if the location is work or home.

Recommended Fields for Mapping

• Employee name
• Employee email address
• Employee contact phone number
• Employee department
• Employee job title
• Employee type (office, hybrid, remote) is optional
• Home address, including street details and ZIP code
• State

Whether you're planning office space, managing remote teams, or optimizing regional coverage, here's how to turn a simple spreadsheet into a clear, interactive map in minutes in five easy steps:

Step 1

Collect and Organize Address Data

Start by gathering your employee location data in a spreadsheet. At minimum, include fields like name, address, city, postcode, and department or team. Ensure the information is clean and consistent so you can accurately geocode and map the data.

Step 2

Choose the Right Mapping Tool

eSpatial's mapping software for teams is designed for fast, easy employee location mapping and provides features tailored to workforce planning. These include multi-layer maps, territory management software, and dynamic filtering.

Depending on your goals, these are the best map options:

1. Pin maps: Quickly visualizing individual employee locations
2. Heat maps: Identifying the concentration or density of employees
3. Territory maps: Assigning employees to specific regions or managing field teams
4. Radius maps: Travel-time analysis or proximity planning
5. Filter and layer tools: Sorting and segmenting your map by criteria

Step 3

Upload Data and Customize Pins

Import your spreadsheet and geocode employee locations. From there, customize your pins by color, shape, or category, such as role, region, or department, to make your map instantly understandable.

Step 4

Apply Filters and Analyze Patterns

You can use the filter table to further sort or hone your maps by filtering on any field in your sheet. Clicking a pin on the map uncovers all the details for that employee. You can also use filters to focus on a subgroup of employees to understand, for example, where your service teams are currently working. Read more about filtering.

The visualizations reveal clustering, coverage gaps, or overlap, helping you understand how your employees are spread and where there may be logistical or strategic opportunities.

Step 5

Use Insights for Strategic Decisions

Turn your map into a strategic tool. Identify ideal locations for new offices, rebalance territories, reduce travel time, or support hybrid work decisions. You can also export and share maps with HR, ops, or leadership to support data-driven planning.

From dedicated mapping platforms, like eSpatial, to GPS tracking apps and simple DIY options, there’s a solution for every business need and budget. Here are some of the most common tools companies use to visualize and manage their employee locations effectively:

Mapping Platforms (maptive, eSpatial)

Dedicated employee location mapping platforms like eSpatial and Maptive make it simple to visualize and analyze employee locations on interactive maps. These tools let you:

• Import data quickly from spreadsheets or CRMs to see your workforce distribution in seconds
• Build dynamic maps that update as your data changes, keeping your view current and accurate
• Create territory maps, heat maps, and proximity analyses to support strategic planning and resource allocation

Employee GPS Tracking Apps

Employee GPS tracking apps add real-time visibility to your team’s location, making it easier to manage field and mobile staff. With these tools, you can:

• Track routes and time on-site to reduce mileage and improve scheduling
• Quickly dispatch the nearest employee for urgent jobs
• Boost accountability and keep teams aligned

Popular options like Hubstaff, QuickBooks Time (TSheets), Timeero, Connecteam, and Hellotracks help you see where your employees are in real time, supporting quicker decisions and better customer service.

Office Mapping & Desk Booking Tools

Office mapping and desk booking tools make it easy for office-based teams to visualize where employees sit and manage flexible workspaces. These tools help you:

• Create digital floor plans so employees can quickly see where colleagues are located
• Enable hot-desking and hybrid work by letting staff reserve desks or meeting rooms in advance
• Improve space utilization by tracking desk occupancy and usage trends

Tools like Robin, Envoy, and OfficeSpace combine mapping with booking features, helping businesses adapt to hybrid work while keeping teams connected and organized.

DIY Solutions with Excel or GIS Software

If you’re just starting out, you might use DIY mapping tools like Excel or Google Sheets to plot employee addresses and create simple location maps. This can help you:

• Visualize basic workforce distribution
• Spot obvious gaps or clusters
• Build lightweight, custom maps without extra software

However, as your data grows or your needs become more complex, switching to a dedicated GIS platform like eSpatial makes mapping easier and more powerful.

Creating an employee location map is a powerful way to plan smarter, reduce costs, and keep your teams connected and safe. Whether you start with a simple spreadsheet or dive straight into a dedicated platform like eSpatial, visualizing your workforce makes complex decisions easier and faster. Plus, with eSpatial's pricing plans, it's an investment that quickly pays off.

If you need help, talk to a mapping expert or read our conquering mapping software guide.