Given the high turnover rates organizations face today, it's essential to have mechanisms in place to identify top employees and ensure they receive the development and follow-up needed to guarantee their retention and growth within the organization.
Looking for an efficient and intuitive way to do this, many organizations are turning back to 9-Box Evaluations, also known as the 9-Box Talent Matrix, to help their Talent teams identify these high-impact employees they can't afford to lose.
What Is a 9-Box Evaluation?
Usually known simply as the Nine Box, or the 9-Box Talent Matrix, this tool plots employee potential and performance on a nine-quadrant matrix.
The Y-axis plots Performance across three levels, while the X-axis plots Potential the same way. Together they form a nine-quadrant matrix that shows potential and performance side by side, as in the example below.
Performance
Performance
Performance
Take quadrant number 4 as an example, which shows High Performance and Low Potential. This describes someone who does excellent work but shows little potential for growth into a higher-level role. Keep in mind, this doesn't mean it's an employee we don't want to keep.
What Is Performance?
An employee's performance is the extent to which they achieved the quantitative results expected for their role.
We often think of performance as the evaluation a direct manager gives an employee, whether based on soft skills or their own sense of how well responsibilities were met.
But performance should really be viewed as how closely an employee's results track against their expected goals. Do they need to keep waste below 5%? Do they need to sell more than US$1,000,000? In either case, we should measure them based on how close they came to that target, or whether they exceeded it.
This is where methodologies like OKRs or SMART goal tracking become essential.
What Is Potential?
Potential refers to an employee's capacity to keep growing within the organization, and to take on roles of greater responsibility or seniority.
This is where we evaluate soft and technical skills, and where the direct manager's perspective is invaluable — but so is that of peers, direct reports, and internal stakeholders.
What Each Quadrant Means
There's no fixed rule for numbering the quadrants correctly, especially the ones in between, so it's best to define this based on each specific case. Using the same 9-Box layout shown above, here's what each numbered quadrant means:
- 1. Top Talent
- A leader who generates momentum around them and shows strong qualities for taking on a bigger role within the organization.
- It's highly recommended not to leave them in the same position too long, to ensure their continued growth and development.
- 2. Developing Top Talent
- Shows all the qualities to become a leader within the company, but still needs development in their area before taking on bigger roles.
- It's important to provide this employee with close follow-up and mentoring.
- 3. Top Performer
- Someone who consistently performs with excellence in their area, but still lacks the skills to lead in roles of greater responsibility.
- They should be encouraged to take a more active, leadership-oriented role within the organization.
- 4. Solid Performer
- Consistently performs with excellence and plays a key role in meeting goals within their area, but doesn't show the qualities needed to grow into a leadership role.
- It's important to keep them motivated so they stay with the company and pass their knowledge on to new employees.
- 5. Key Talent
- This should be the backbone of any organization — employees who show balanced performance and potential.
- It's important to keep an eye on them to see whether they're a candidate for a bigger leadership role, or whether they need a lateral move to continue developing.
- 6. Enigma
- An employee who shows outstanding potential for growth but has significant performance weaknesses.
- If it's a new employee, it's important to guide and develop them. For employees who have been with the organization longer, there may be serious internal or external issues limiting their performance.
- 7. Average Performer
- An employee who does their job satisfactorily but doesn't show the qualities to grow into a more senior position.
- Consider a position change if you believe they'd develop better in another area; otherwise, plan for an eventual replacement when the opportunity arises.
- 8. Inconsistent Talent (Dilemma)
- Shows growth potential but performs poorly in their current role.
- They should be pushed to improve their performance. If that doesn't work, consider reassigning them with a development plan to follow, or plan for their eventual exit from the organization.
- 9. Risk
- An employee who shows very little potential for improvement and performs poorly.
- Unless this is an employee who previously occupied a better quadrant, in most cases you should set improvement deadlines or, failing that, consider a swift exit from the organization.
"There's no fixed rule for numbering the quadrants correctly, especially the ones in between — it's best to define this based on each specific case."
Key Benefits of the 9-Box Matrix
- 1. It's visual.
- Although the questionnaires and criteria used to arrive at a 9-Box score involve lists of competencies and performance evaluations, the final 9-Box result is highly visual, allowing for a quick analysis of results across the entire organization.
- 2. It's simple and objective.
- Being simple doesn't refer so much to the implementation, which always requires careful study and planning. It refers to the small number of possible final results a 9-Box matrix can produce.
- By allowing only nine possible outcomes, it simplifies the evaluation process and forces evaluators to reach an objective result.
- 3. Excellent support for finding replacements.
- When you have 9-Box evaluations on hand along with an employee's tenure information, the results become an excellent first filter for selecting replacements and promotions.
- They help you pinpoint high-potential employees who are already ready to take on a bigger role in the organization.
- 4. Historical value.
- If you keep applying 9-Box Evaluations year after year, they become an excellent way to track each employee's progress and development over time.
- This is especially true when the 9-Box evaluation is paired with a deeper evaluation of the employee.
Common Mistakes When Running 9-Box Evaluations
- 1. Lack of objectivity.
- Although 9-Box results are easy to visualize, the process for arriving at them needs to be consistent across the whole organization, making sure it stays objective and is overseen by the HR team.
- If the evaluation process isn't carefully managed, decisions risk being made inconsistently.
- For this reason, it's always recommended that someone from HR work directly with area managers to apply the evaluations and calibrate the results.
- 2. Not giving access to the results.
- Not every employee needs access to the results, but if you don't make sure directors and managers can review them, you lose much of the benefit of 9-Box Evaluations.
- By seeing the results for an entire area or the whole organization, leadership can more easily make decisions about change and improvement.
- 3. Not staying involved throughout the evaluation process.
- It's tempting to simply ask each manager to run the evaluations for their area and send in the results. But if you want consistency and greater accuracy in the results, it's essential that HR stays actively involved throughout the entire process.
"It's essential that HR stays actively involved throughout the entire process."
