Needless to say, having a strong talent management strategy is the key to the success and growth of any organization, especially in the overheating talent market such as today. Without a clear plan in place, businesses face various challenges such as high turnover rates, poor employee morale, and difficulty in identifying and retaining top talent. One effective way to combat or even prevent these challenges is by implementing the 9-box grid model. You’ll have a visual representation of an employee's current performance and potential and easily identify key areas for development. Let’s dive further into what the 9-box model is and how you can use it to strengthen your talent management plan.
What Is The 9 Box Model?
The 9-box model is a talent management tool that is commonly used in organizations for succession planning and assessing employee performance and potential. The model consists of a grid with nine boxes, with one axis representing performance (usually on a scale of low to high) and the other axis representing potential (often ranging from low to high).
The 9-box model is based on the idea that employees can be classified into different categories based on their current performance and future potential. So, plotting employees on this grid helps you identify high potentials who are top performers and may be ready to take a step up, as well as those who may need development to reach their full potential.
Using the 9-box model helps you make more informed decisions about talent management, such as identifying high-potential employees for leadership development programs, succession planning for key roles, and determining which employees may benefit from additional training or coaching to improve their performance.
As a recruiter, it is prudent for you to couple the 9-box model with recruitment software like Manatal’s Applicant Tracking System to ensure solid talent management results. Manatal comes with the AI Recommendations feature, allowing you to have full visibility of the capabilities and potential of each talent you have in your database. Say, if you’re looking to identify talent who are ready for succession planning and rise to take on bigger roles, you can easily set criteria for the role, then Manatal would run through your database and come up with talent who likely fits the positions the most, regardless of biases like ethnicity or gender.
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How Do You Use a 9 Box Grid?
- Identifying high-potential employees: By assessing employees’ current performance and their growth potential, you can use the 9-box grid to identify high-potential workers who may be suitable for leadership positions or key roles within your organization. These individuals can then be given targeted development opportunities to help them reach their full potential.
- Succession planning: The 9-box grid helps you shine the spotlight on employees who have the potential to fill critical roles in the future. By assessing their readiness and potential, you can create targeted development plans to nurture these future leaders and ensure a smooth transition when key positions become available.
- Performance management: You can also use the 9-box model as a performance management tool to assess employees' strengths and areas for improvement. Placing employees in the appropriate box based on their performance and potential is a good jump start to having meaningful conversations with your team members about goal setting, career development, and performance feedback.
- Talent development: The 9-box grid provides a visual representation of the talent within an organization, allowing HR professionals and managers to identify skill gaps and development areas. By understanding where employees fall on the grid, you can tailor training and development programs to address specific needs and support their career progression.
Creating a 9 Box Grid
Now that we’ve learned how you can leverage the 9-box model in talent management, let’s see how you can construct it.
1. Define Performance Criteria
Clearly outline what constitutes high performance within your organization. This could include factors such as meeting or exceeding targets, demonstrating key competencies, and receiving positive feedback from colleagues and clients.
2. Define Potential Criteria
Determine what qualities make an employee high potential. It can be factors like leadership skills, innovation, adaptability, and willingness to take on new responsibilities.
3. Plot Employees on the Grid
Create a matrix with performance on one axis and potential on the other. Plot each employee based on their performance and potential scores, placing them in one of the nine boxes.
4. Identify Top Talent
Focus on the employees in the top right-hand corner of the grid, those with both high performance and high potential. These individuals are usually considered high-potential employees who are ready for development and promotion.
5. Develop Action Plans
For employees in the high-performance, low-potential category, consider ways to enhance their skills and foster their potential. For those with high potential but low performance, identify areas of improvement and create development plans to support their growth.
6. Regularly Review and Update
The 9-box grid is not a one-time exercise. Continuously review and update employee placements based on their progress and changes in business needs. So you can ensure that talent is effectively managed and developed within the company.
9 Box Grid Template & Real World Case Studies
Before we get to the template, let’s be inspired by the real-world cases of big companies that successfully implemented the 9-box grid model into their talent management strategy.
1. Google
Since the early 2000s until today, the search engine Titan has leveraged the 9-box model to spotlight high-potential workers and then come up with development programs for them. Google also incorporates a 9-box grid to help them make informed decisions when it comes to succession planning. [1]
2. McKinsey & Company
McKinsey & Company is another good example. The global management consulting firm developed the 9-box grid model back in the 70s to assist business leaders in prioritizing their investments within a corporate portfolio. These days, the company also utilizes 9-box to evaluate its employee performance and potential to move up. [1]
3. Unilever
Unilever incorporated the 9-box model in its talent management strategy in the early 2000s. The multinational fast-moving consumer goods company uses 9-box to pinpoint high-potential employees and develop them accordingly. Unilever also leverages a 9-box grid to help them navigate through solid succession planning decisions.
Now, to help guide you into having a firm start at implementing the 9-box grid into your talent management strategy, here’s an example of a 9-bix grid template. [1]
Pros And Cons Of the 9 Box Model
Advantages
- Strategic talent management: The 9-box model provides a structured framework for assessing and managing talent within your organization. It helps you identify high potentials, key performers, and individuals who may need development or support.
- Succession planning: By categorizing employees based on performance and potential, a 9-box grid helps you plan for future leadership needs. You can better identify and groom individuals for key roles within your company.
- Objective decision-making: The model uses standardized criteria to evaluate employees, reducing bias in talent management decisions. This leads to more objective and consistent assessments of performance and potential.
- Alignment with business strategy: The 9-box model can be customized to align with your strategic goals and values. This ensures that your talent management practices support the overall business strategy and objectives.
- Development opportunities: By identifying employees who may need additional support or development, the model enables you to create targeted training and development programs. This helps in improving overall employee performance and potential.
Limitations
- Oversimplification: The 9-box model categorizes employees into limited groups based on performance and potential, which may oversimplify the complexity of certain talents. This can lead to overlooking the unique skills and contributions of your employees.
- Subjectivity in ratings: Evaluating employees' performance and potential is subjective, and raters may have different interpretations of the criteria used in the 9-box grid. You could end up with inconsistency in assessments and potentially unfair treatment of employees.
- Lack of flexibility: The 9-box model may not accommodate changes in employee performance or potential over time. They may feel constrained by rigid categorizations and limited opportunities for growth and development.
- Focus on short-term results: The model's emphasis on performance ratings may overlook long-term potential and growth opportunities for employees. This can limit your ability to nurture and retain talent for future leadership roles.
- Limited scope: The 9-box grid model primarily focuses on individual performance and potential, neglecting broader organizational factors that impact your talent management and decision-making. So, this narrow focus may not address systemic issues within your organization.
Conclusion
The 9-box grid is indeed a valuable tool for effectively managing talent in the long run. By providing a visual representation of an employee's performance and potential, you can more informed decisions about development, succession planning, and overall talent strategy. Before implementing the 9-box model into your talent management strategy, there are several key considerations to keep in mind. Firstly, ensure that the criteria used to assess an employee's performance and potential align with your goals and values. Also, don’t forget to regularly review and update the data in the 9-box grid to make sure that talent management decisions are based on accurate and relevant information.
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Citations:
1. LinkedIn
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