Acctg 4243 Performance Management Systems

Module 8 - Career Development, Succession Planning and Reward Management

1. Define Career Development, Succession Planning and Reward Management

2. Differentiate between Career Planning and Succession Planning.
3. Identify and discuss the reasons why reward system is important.

Career Development & Succession Planning: The Need & The Basics

Updated 5/13/2021

Organizations are always facing the alignment juggle—that is, alignment between business and talent
management strategies. This is especially true in post-COVID world where business models may have
changed and the skills of the talent pool may no longer align with the goals of the business.

The question is how to integrate the short and long term objectives, values and culture with actual staff
profile and development plans in order to come up with the desired staff attributes. The current integrated
approach in HR to align with business needs is by giving importance to talent management. The aim is to
foster a process of creating a leadership capability across business functions and to identify key
leadership success factors.

Succession planning may be an expected practice in many organization, but when it’s absent, that
absence is more of a curse than its presence is a blessing.

Succession planning is so valuable because it results in the retention of high potential staff and builds
internal staff capabilities to meet business needs, risk management/mitigation, etc. Of course there are
challenges presented, too. Like any change, it is sometimes resisted; diversity of people, distribution of
the workforce and recognizing best from poor performance all present their own difficulties. But effective
talent acquisition and management practices can resolve these challenges to a great extent.

Fifty years ago, more emphasis was given to individual career planning than on group HR planning. It
started with an occupational choice to job assignment and to performance and then finally to a person’s
retirement. Now this has changed the way we attract people. We match individual needs with talent
opportunities, help individuals perform effectively and prepare them for a satisfying career. The main
inputs for a career management process starts with individual self-assessment, organizational
assessment, communicating career opportunities with staff and, finally, counseling staff in setting realistic
and achievable goals.

Enough Ground Work – What is Succession Planning?

Succession planning is the strategic and deliberate effort to develop competencies in potential employees
through specific and targeted learning, job rotation and training in order to fill key positions. It’s an effort to
ensure leadership continuity, business continuity and risk management.

This is not a one-time project — it is an organization’s journey to constant change planning, identifying
gaps in the talent pool and nurturing future leaders. This should be done with the mindset that the
organization supersedes individuals.

The ROI of Succession Planning

The benefits of succession planning include a low turnover rate of employees, filling executive positions
internally, driving employee satisfaction and the early identification of potential leaders. Succession
planning also helps an organization to integrate them into the mainstream learning and development
(L&D) programs. Even with all the benefits, most organizations lack funding for such change management
practices because it is time consuming. Also with the lack of effective assessment tools, inability to
identify future needs and disinterest from management can hinder the implementation of such a program.

Implementing Business Succession Planning

To adopt the best practices in succession planning, we always need board and CEO-level support. If
management does not believe in this program, it cannot reach its objectives. It starts from top and has to
be integrated or broken down to functional departments and should involve the potential leaders as
process co-owners.

This should always be a transparent program with communication done as openly as possible. The initial
process starts with the development of assessment tools and then in defining proper selection criteria.
Once this is accomplished, a talent pool of prospective leaders can be identified. They should be set on
the journey of continuous and constant development with clear objectives set to them. These are to be
monitored and measured periodically.

In conclusion, succession planning or career development for employees and for organizations sets not
only a clear path of progression, but also enables the entity to move forward while being more resilient to
events that are out of the organization’s control.

We often hear about people moving from one organization to another, but we seldom hear about
organizations without a leader. The need for leaders in the current market place has become a necessity
more than ever as uncertainty rules the day. Succession planning, as such, should always focus on
critical positions of an organization. At the end of the day, all businesses are prone to different types of
risks – but the winner is always the one who knows how to mitigate risks to a minimum.

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planning-the-need-th#:~:text=Succession%20planning%20is%20the%20strategic,business%20continuity
%20and%20risk%20management

Definition of Career Planning

Career Planning is viewed as a systematic process, through which an individual sets a goal for his/her
career and formulate strategies to achieve them. It assists an individual in exploring, selecting and
chasing the life goals, to gain satisfaction with the career.

Career Planning is the elementary step of career management process, in which an individual determines
the type of career an individual wants to pursue and what are the ways to be chosen or steps to be taken
to reach there. It helps in evaluating one’s interest and abilities, identifying alternative career
opportunities, setting career goals and planning development activities.

When the organisation involves in planning, it is known as organisational career planning, which is a
systematic succession of jobs, carried out by the firm, for the development of its employees.

Definition of Succession Planning

Training needs analysis is a systematic process of identifying which kind of training is required and
provide the details related to training implementation. It is also known as a tool to identify the new skills,
knowledge and atitudes which employees need to acquire in order to improve performance.

In this process, the employees are scanned and trained to occupy the major leadership position, when the
existing incumbents are no longer in the employment of the organisation, due to reasons such as
resignation, superannuation, promotion, transfer, etc.

Comparison Chart
BASIS FOR
CAREER PLANNING SUCCESSION PLANNING
COMPARISON

Meaning Career Planning is the process Succession Planning is a process who tends
through which an individual selects to spot and develop the employees, that can
the goals of his work life and finds occupy the key positions in the organization,
ways to reach the goals. when they become vacant.

Subset of Career Management Succession Management

What is it? Individual Planning Organizational Strategy

Position One employee holds different One position is held by different employees,
positions, in his/her work life. over a period of time.

Ensures Success in one's career. Continuity in leadership for all key positions.

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planning.html#:~:text=Career%20Planning%20is%20the%20process,organization%2C%20when%20they
%20become%20vacant.

The Importance of Reward Management

Reward management in a business organisation is basically the way in which that particular business
forms and implements strategies and policies to reward the employees to a fair standard and in
accordance with how the organisation values them. Reward management in a business organisation
usually consists of the business analyzing and controlling the employee’s remuneration and all of the
other benefits for the employees.

The main aim of reward management in a business organisation is to reward the employees fairly for the
work that they have completed. The main reason reward management exists in business organisations is
to motivate the employees in that particular organisation to work hard and try their best to achieve the
goals which are set out by the business. Reward management in business organisations not only consist
of financial rewards such as pay but they also consist of non-financial rewards such as employee
recognition, employee training/development and increased job responsibility.

Reward management in a business organisation deals with the design, implementation and maintenance
of reward practices that are geared towards the improvement of the business organisations performance.

The Importance of Reward Management

The elements of reward management within a business organisation are all the things that they use to
attract potential employees into their business which includes salary, bonuses, incentive pay, benefits and
employee growth opportunities such as professional development and training opportunities. Having a
reward management system in place provides the business with many advantages, especially in small to
medium size organisations where the managers must have a good relationship with the employees.
Reward programmes have proved to be very successful in motivating employees and in turn increase the
performance of the organisation as a whole.

Below are some of the reasons why a reward system is important:

1. Mutually beneficial – A reward system is beneficial not only to the employee but also to the
organisation. The employee will feel more motivated to work harder by having a reward system in place
the employee will feel more committed to their work and their productivity will increase. An increase in
productivity will then benefit the organisation. Therefore a reward system is mutually beneficial to the
employee and the organisation.

2. Motivation – A reward system will motivate employees by reaching targets and organisational goals in
exchange for rewards. A reward system is great at motivating employees but they will also be motivated
to prove themselves to the organisation.

Absenteeism – A reward system will reduce absenteeism in the organisation. Employees like being
rewarded for a job well done and if there is a reward system in place, employees will be less likely to be
ringing in sick and not showing up for work. Also by having a reward system in place the employees will
be clearer about the targets and goals of the organisation as they will be rewarded when reach certain
targets. So by having a reward system as an incentive they will be less likely to be absent from work.

3. Loyalty – A reward system will increase the employee’s loyalty to the organisation. By a reward system
being in place the employee feels valued by the organisation and knows that their opinion matters. If an
employee is happy with the reward system, they are more likely to appreciate work place and remain loyal
to the organization

4. Morale – Having a reward system in place providing employees with incentives and recognition will
boost their morale. By encouraging employees to meet goals and targets it gives them clear focus and
purpose which will their morale. By the employees morale being boosted this will increase the morale of
the entire organisation. This is all down to a reward system in the organisation.

5. Teamwork – The reward system will increase the teamwork spirit in the organisation. The reward
system will promote teamwork to the employees. The employees will work together as part of a team to
achieve their targets in return for rewards. Teamwork within the organisation will help increase efficiency
and create a happier workplace. This is another reason why reward systems are important in business
organisations.

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The 9 Box Grid: A Practitioner’s Guide

What is the 9 box grid? A definition
The 9 box grid is a well-known talent management tool in which employees are divided into nine groups, based on
their performance and potential.
When assessing employee performance, managers often pay attention to two things. First, how well they perform
today, and second, how well they are likely to perform in the future (i.e. their growth potential).
For example, hardworking employees who do well in their role but have little growth potential are great to have in
your team, as well as All-stars who perform well and have great potential. However, low-performing employees
with low potential will require a lot of management attention and are unlikely to improve. They require a different
approach.
The 9-box grid provides a framework that helps to manage all employees in an organization. In the next sections,
we will explore how to assess performance and potential. Then, we will explain how organizations can use the 9-
box grid as a performance management tool.

4 advantages of the 9 box grid

The 9 box grid is a very popular tool, and for good reason. It offers organizations significant benefits, such as:
 Being simple and easy to use – The 9 box grid model is an established tool with a fairly simple and
straightforward structure. During your employee review, all you need to do is match them to the right box
based on their performance and potential. The way the grid is visualized makes it easy to catch on, even for
those completely new to this tool.
 Helping identify valuable talent – The 9 box grid allows you to spot high performers in your organization with
great potential and identify what they need to improve to further develop. You’ll have the data to back up your
decision of where and how to direct resources to engage and develop these employees. Additionally, when
internal promotions come up, you’ll know exactly who to offer these opportunities to.
 A holistic approach to talent appraisal – This tool provides you with a more well-rounded approach to
performance management. You won’t get sucked into a single element of an employee’s performance, and you
will be able to assess both current performance and future potential.
 A versatile tool – The 9 box talent grid is useful not only for talent management, but also workforce planning.
For example, this tool gives you a good overview of the potential of your employees and in which position they
might thrive in the future. In other words, it makes succession planning easier. Or you can also use the 9 box
grid to identify employees with leadership potential and move them onto management tracks.
Of course, the 9 box grid is not a tool without its faults. Later on in this article, we’ll take a closer look at
the disadvantages of the 9 box grid.

Creating a 9 box grid

When we go about creating a 9-box grid, we go through three steps. Assessing performance, assessing potential,
and bringing it together.
Step 1. Assessing performance
The nine-box consists of three performance categories: low, moderate, and high. During their performance
appraisal, employees are scored on this performance scale.
 There are many ways to score performance and each organization uses different methods. As an example, we
propose the following structure:
 Low performance. The employee does not match the requirements of their job and fails their individual
targets.
 Moderate performance. The employee partially matches the requirements of their job and their individual
targets.
 High performance. The employee fully meets the requirements of their job and their individual targets.
The advantage of this approach is that it sticks to the job requirements as defined in the organization’s job
structure. It also relates to the person’s targets. Some organizations may have less defined job structures and work
more with personal targets. In that case, you can put more emphasis on assessing target achievement.
Some authors propose the use of a four-point scale. Managers usually dislike giving negative feedback. A three-
point scale makes it very easy to put someone in a ‘moderate performance’ category even though objectively they
should have been categorized as ‘low performance’. A four-point scale forces the manager to make a more
accurate choice (either above or below average).
Step 2. Assessing potential
The other axis of the 9 box grid is potential. Potential should also be scored during the performance appraisal and
often falls into the following categories.
 Low potential | working at full potential. The employee is working at full potential and is not expected to
improve, either because they are at maximum capacity or because of a lack of motivation.
 Moderate potential | develop in the current role. The employee has the potential to further develop within
their current role. This can be in terms of performance, but also in terms of expertise.
 High potential | eligible for promotion. The employee performs well beyond the expectations of their position
and responsibilities. They naturally and enthusiastically take on leadership roles, and are ready for a higher
position.
Compared to saying that someone is at ‘low potential’, saying ‘full potential’ is less discouraging. We do want
people to have a growth mindset and associate extra effort with improvements in performance. As such,
communicating this requires some tact from the manager. For this reason, some companies decide not to
communicate this potential score to employees.
Similarly, you should also be careful about telling employees they are eligible for promotion. There may not be any
senior-level job openings available at the moment to fulfill this.
There is some correlation between performance and potential. However, there are cases in which someone who
has low performance may be eligible for a promotion in 2-3 years. Take a management trainee fresh from
university. This person scores high on capacity tests but has very little work experience. They may be low
performance but have such great potential that they are expected to grow fast enough to be promotable in 2-3
years.

Growth mindset: “In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through
dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a
resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.” ( Dweck, 2015)

Some companies split up promotability and potential into two separate metrics. Potential is the growth potential
of the employee, while the time until the next promotion is an indication of when a person is ready to be
promoted.
Step 3. Bringing it together
The next step is to plot performance and potential on a 3×3 grid, resulting in the 9 box grid. The brilliance of this
grid is that for each box in the grid, different talent management techniques can be used.
The 9 box grid explained
Let’s go over the different categories in the 9 box grid step by step and look at how our talent
management policies will differ per step.
Talent management is how employers recruit and develop a workforce that is as productive as possible and
likely to stay with their organization long term. When implemented strategically, this process can help improve
the overall performance of the business and ensure that it remains competitive.

Bad hires

In the bottom left corner of the 9 box grid, there are the employees who score low on performance and low on
potential. There are different names for them, which include talent risk, bad hire, underperformer, and iceberg.
Some even go as far as labeling them as ‘useless workers’ who need to be ‘fired immediately’.
We prefer the term bad hires – you should not have hired these people in the first place. But now that you have,
you need to deal with them quickly but fairly.
If these bad hires stay too long, they will become icebergs, threatening the success of your organization. This is
because investing in these employees will take away time, money, and other resources from employees with more
potential to grow. Their work quality will also set lower standards for colleagues, who will spend more time
cleaning up the mess of underperforming team members instead of adding value to the organization.
Action plan
1. Identify personal roadblocks that may cause the low performance and lack of growth. However, be careful to
not over-invest in these people. That would be unfair to the rest of the employees who do perform well.
2. Sit with the individual to see if there is a more appropriate assignment where they (and you) can utilize their
skills better.
3. If the first two options don’t bring quick wins, you should create an exit plan together where you help the
person find a role that better suits their skills outside of your organization.
If bad hires are a common phenomenon in your organization, review your talent acquisition and your selection
process.

Up or out

The next category in the 9 box grid is the up or out category. They include the medium performers with low
potentials (up or out grinders) and the medium potentials with low performance (up or out dilemmas).

The grinders or effective specialists are medium performers but they do a good enough job to not fire them . This
makes them a challenging group. They are low potentials so investing time and money in training them will not pay
off. The best approach is to create a personal improvement plan. With the creation of this plan, you emphasize
that their performance is mediocre, you help them understand where their points of improvement are, and you
give them the opportunity to work on it. If this is not paying off and they are not moving into the high-performance
group, you will have to make a difficult decision, hence: up or out.
 The dilemmas or inconsistent players have some potential to be great but they are not performing. Here the
question is why they are not performing. Here you go through the same process as before and try to identify what
causes their mediocre performance. Are they new hires and did they have a bad onboarding experience, or maybe
they don’t understand what you expect from them? As an intervention, you can enroll them in peer coaching or
other mentoring programs. If this is not working and they are not progressing into a higher performance category,
you will have to make a difficult decision.
Action plan
1. Create a personal improvement plan by going over personal roadblocks and skills required for the role that
need to be worked on by the employee. Provide measurable expectations and clearly define what good
performance will look like. The employee should clearly know what is expected of them.
2. Check in every month and evaluate progress on the plan. Always document these meetings well as this will
help you make a better decision and the employee is likely to benefit from a structured plan and feedback.
3. If performance does not improve within 6 months to a year, you should create an exit plan together where you
help the person find a role that better suits their needs outside of your organization.

Workhorses and dysfunctional geniuses

In the top bottom right corner and top left corner, we find people who excel in only one element in the 9 box.

The workhorses or trust professionals score high in performance but low in growth potential. They are the ones
who you should take care of in your organization. They perform well and have a good work mentality.
However, they don’t have much potential for growth. This means that you should keep them happy and reward
them but be careful of over-rewarding them. This will create a golden cage – something we’ve seen in the global
banking sector. People sat comfortably in their role and had no incentive to switch jobs and develop themselves
further, making them susceptible to recent process automation and digitization of banking processes.
The difficulty with workhorses is that in today’s world their work is bound to change at some point, and they may
not be able to grow with their role. Imagine someone in the ‘90s who was great at their job but didn’t want to
learn how to operate a computer… Some would argue that a growth mindset is key to being a good employee in
today’s world – and they would have a point.
Also, don’t promote these people to roles with extra responsibility. This would invoke the Peter principle, first
identified by Dr. Laurence J. Peter. According to Peter, “every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence”.
If someone performs well but has little growth potential, keep them happy and in their current role.
Action plan
1. Keep workhorses happy
2. Analyze how their work will change in the future and help them prepare as far as possible.
3. Raise salaries nominally but be careful with substantial raises and bonuses. Do not promote.

The dysfunctional geniuses, also referred to as enigmas or rough diamonds, are on the other end of the spectrum.
They score high in potential but low in performance. An example could be a management trainee from a
prestigious university. They haven’t learned the ropes yet but they are eager to learn. Here it is key to continuously
track their performance – they should grow and increase their performance rapidly.
Action plan
1. Give the dysfunctional genius time to develop but monitor their performance. You are not only looking for
improvements but for stable, solid performance. Keep in mind that it is easy to improve if performance is bad;
if they are high in potential, they should be able to perform at a medium to high level within six to twelve
months.
2. Communicate clear expectations for their current role so they know what is expected of them.
3. Communicate that you believe in their potential but also that they should improve their current performance.
4. If they still score low in performance a year onward, you should create an exit plan together where you help
the person find a role that better suits their skills outside of your organization.
Future stars

The next three groups we labeled as ‘future stars’. They already make up the core of your workforce while also
having the potential to grow into more advanced roles.

Your high potentials or growth employees score high in potential and average on performance. Oftentimes, this is
because they haven’t had time to fully grow in the role yet. The priority here is to move them to the right position
in the 9-box grid so they are in the top-right corner. The approach and action plan is similar to your core players.

Your core players are the ones who are reliable performers and who also have the potential to grow further in
their current roles. Your main performance management priority is to bring these people to the right of the 9-box
grid, where they score high on performance. The steps here are similar to those for your high potentials.
Action steps
1. Ensure that expectations and role requirements are clear.
2. Give juniors in new roles the time to develop their performance to the highest level
3. Consistently praise accomplishments, good performance, and initiatives that help to advance organizational
goals. Also, monitor their performance and have regular sit-downs to ensure that they are still happy in their
role.
4. Expose them to short-term job rotation schemes to expose them to other experiences that will help them to
perform better or job enlargement by adding activities that fit the employee.
5. Enable them with peer coaching by a high-performing employee or professional coaching to solve any personal
or professional issues that hold the person back (performance barriers).
6. Provide these professionals with classroom training and on-the-job learning opportunities that help them
develop the skills that they are good at or bring skills that hold them back to a higher level.
Your high performers are already in a good place. They contribute to your organization so the key strategy here is
to keep them happy and engaged while ensuring that they will be up for the job not just now but also for years to
come. If the high performer is ambitious and looking to move upward in the organization, you will want to improve
their potential with different interventions.
Action steps
1. Keep high performers happy and engaged. Regularly check in with them and appreciate the work they do.
2. Not everyone needs to be a star. If your high performer is happy in their current role and does not want a
promotion or extra responsibility, that is also a great outcome. It is not feasible to promote the entire
organization every few years so this may be a preferred outcome.
3. Give them time to grow. If someone is not yet at full potential, it may mean that they need to grow more into
their current role before they can move on to the next.
4. Leverage techniques like job rotation and give them challenging assignments to expose them to different parts
of the business. This will build their business acumen and prepare them for a broader leadership role.
5. Find them a mentor who can help them grow and fulfill their ambition and provide training (and upskilling)
opportunities.
Stars

The stars, also referred to as future leaders, are your high performers who are also capable of taking on new roles.
These are your A-players and most valuable employees. They also play a critical role in succession management.
Action plan
1. Give your stars challenging assignments – they are the most likely of all your employees to pull it off. Examples
are important internal projects, turnaround projects, or more external opportunities in start-ups or spin-off
companies.
2. Check-in with them regularly and assess if they are still happy in their current role. Ensure that you spot early
signs of dissatisfaction. Praise them lavishly and ensure that they feel appreciated for the contributions they
make to the company.
3. Provide mentorship with more senior members of the organization
4. Create networking opportunities with other stars and with senior members of the organization. These
opportunities help to build a network between your top performers and your senior leadership.
5. If they are interested in it, roles in external boards and committees could incentivize them, raise their public
profile, and provide an interesting challenge and networking opportunity for them.
6. Reward them and ensure that they receive competitive compensation. These employees contribute the most
to your organization and you should reward them accordingly.
9 box grid talent management
In the previous section, we have explained how you can apply 9 box grid talent management. One of the key
advantages of the 9 box grid is that it makes talent investment decisions easier.
Select International, an employee screening company, offers an interesting perspective. They propose that your
total talent management and development budget should be allocated based on one’s position in the 9 box talent
matrix.

If you had to invest $100, you should divide it among the different talent categories as is shown in the figure
above. Bad hires who occupy the left bottom corner should be invested in the least, while the stars in the right top
corner should get the most resources.
This also makes sense from a resource allocation and strategic perspective – as a business you will want to invest in
the largest return and that create the biggest competitive advantage. Investing in bad hires would take away
resources from good and top performers.
This does mean that not everyone is equal – a message that not all HR professionals appreciate. We must accept
that some people fit our company culture better than others, and not everyone is equally suited for the same role.
9 box grid for succession planning
In a similar vein, organizations can use the 9 box grid for succession planning as well. Succession planning should
focus on your stars, who score high in performance and high in potential. These are the employees who will build
the future of your organization.
We dive into this topic in much more detail in our full guide on succession planning.
The 9 box grid is a tool that helps in the identification of leadership talent. The leadership talent is then groomed
for more senior leadership positions through leadership development, (performance) coaching, mentoring,
regular 360-degree feedback, and other feedback methods.
The stars are the key employees in the succession matrix, where critical roles are mapped and different top
employees are mapped in terms of their suitability for a role. When these roles become vacant, it means that there
is talent ready to fill these newly opened roles.
9 Box grid Excel template
In our HR data analyst course, we take an employee database and put them into a performance management grid.
Although it is a great exercise to train your Excel skills, we do recommend the use of specialized HR performance
management software that has this function integrated. However, for advanced reporting, Excel may still be a
good tool.
In this overview, you see the employee database on the left (containing 3143 employees) and their respective
potential and performance scores. The pivot table in the bottom right corner shows the performance – potential
distribution and the bubble chart on the top right shows the distribution with the size of the bubbles representing
the size of the population.

This Excel visualization enables additional visual encoding. For example, if you were to plot the
development budget on the 9 box grid and represent this by the color value of the bubbles, the overview
could look like the following picture.
As you can see, there are some discrepancies in how the budget is allocated. Low-performing employees with
medium potential are given more budget per person compared to low-performing employees with high potential.
This should be the other way around. You can download the full 9 box grid Excel template with these
figures here (note: the download starts immediately).
If you want to know more about how you can create compelling reports using storytelling and data visualization
techniques, check out our HR Metrics & Dashboarding Certificate Program.
Critique of the 9 box grid
Although the 9 box grid provides a clear way of managing talent and performance, it is not undisputed.
Its biggest shortcoming is arguably its connection to traditional performance management, characterized by a
once-a-year, subjective rating by one’s manager. Many companies, including Accenture and Deloitte, have moved
away from annual performance reviews, opting for continuous feedback instead. This provides more opportunities
to improve performance as well as more data points to accurately assess performance.
We highly recommend measuring performance using as many objective data points as possible. Continuous
feedback loops, as well as goal setting systems such as SMART goals or objectives and key results (OKRs), can serve
a purpose here.
Additionally, transparency is key. Without clear communication about talent management practices, it can miss its
goal and may result in a “rank and yank” system where employees are ranked against each other and the lowest
end of the ranking being terminated (the yank).
This is not the intention of the 9 box grid. Instead, the 9 box grid should be leveraged to develop and cultivate
talent, and through talent build a sustainable competitive advantage for the organization.
Wrap-up
The 9 box grid can be a useful tool to manage employees with different levels of performance and potential in your
organization. As such, organizations can use it for performance management, talent management, and succession
planning.
Keep in mind that the true value of the 9 box grid is not about putting your employees into certain labels. Rather, it
is during the assessment process and the discussions that you have afterwards that will give you the opportunity to
evaluate employees’ successes and ensure that your organization invests in the right development strategies. As
such, make sure to communicate clearly about the talent and performance management practices that you employ
during the process.
FAQ
What is the 9 box grid?
The 9 box grid is a well-known talent management tool in which employees are divided into nine groups, based
on their performance and potential.

How do you create a 9 box grid?

To create a 9 box grid, you go through three steps: assessing performance, assessing potential, and bringing
those two together.

What can you use the 9 box grid for?

The nine box grid can, for instance, be used as a basis for talent management (i.e. talent investment decisions)
and succession planning.

How to use the 9 box grid?

After you’ve finished assessing the performance and the potential of your employees, and bringing them
together, you can now map your employees onto the grid. Match them with the box that would fit their profile
most. You can then use the result of your 9 box assessment to implement specific coaching, development, and
talent management strategies for different groups of employees.
https://www.aihr.com/blog/9-box-grid/#What