Loving the 9 Box Grid
People are social animals, we crave feedback and social interaction. From a young age we judge and learn our thoughts, feelings and behaviours relative to others around us.
We are also empathic, altruistic and gain satisfaction from helping others (well, most people are) working together for mutual benefits. In the workplace this manifests itself as bringing in cakes, watercooler conversations and most significantly, talent management.
Instant feedback.
The current talent management trend is moving away from an annual appraisal process (https://qz.com/428813/ge-performance-review-strategy-shift/). Driven by an increase in the gig economy and freelancers and the perception that business does not work in annual cycles anymore.
It is the millennial trends for ‘the Facebook generation’ that staff do not have the attention span to receive feedback on an event that happened over a week ago.
However, it is not fair to say that in the age of instant social media that staff no longer have a career plan, or indeed need one. It is true that top talent doesn’t hang around. But they are not drifters looking for excitement. They are ambitious and targeted.
Talent Management must harness this.
I remember a conversation with a very good senior developer I was managing about a decade ago that went something like this:
SnrDev: “I’m going to have to leave”
Me: “Why? What makes you say that?” [What have I done!!]
SnrDev: “Our career programme here says my next step (to get a pay rise) is Project Manager. I never want to be a Project Manager”
Me: “What do you want to do”
SnrDev: “Code”
Me: “What would make the business want to pay you more and keep you happy?”
SnrDev: “I want to work on bigger problems”
Talent Management is confined by job descriptions, which are intern confined by business objectives (traceability). Not every organisation is able or big enough to satisfy all employees’ career needs. Sometimes top talent needs to be set free. In this instance the Developer stayed and eventually moved to different department where they worked on more complex technical problems.
You have a Programme Plan for your Business, why not your employees?
Until AI becomes sentient (!) our employees are the key factor in organisations delivering value and business benefit. That means we must put as much structure and thought into planning and managing them as we do customers, tools and resources and our deliverables.
And just like these, if we don’t collaborate with them on our plans then they will originate their own plans; most probably not targeting our business goals. Even the most disengaged employee will have ambitions, they may be personal rather than career or technical, but they are a vision for themselves that an employer should embrace.
Embracing the employees goals means we can tease out that special skill or that nugget of knowledge that the employee was hired for in the first place. We do this by collaborating on development plans. If your week one new starter process doesn’t include this then you are wasting resource and giving your brightest prospect a bad first impression.
Employee management should include:
SMART Objectives — combining professional and personal goals
A Personal Development Plan-setting out the development activities the individual and business will achieve together
Coaching and Mentoring Opportunities — Contact with someone who can influence delivery of objectives and provide timely constructive feedback.
Assessment-Fair, constructive and transparent measurement of delivery relevant to expectations and colleagues. Backed by tangible evidence.
From these you can invest appropriately in your employees and maximise your return on investment. Or cut your losses.
Remember, investing in staff is more than setting a training budget. A good employer will engage employees rather than control them. Just because an annual appraisal process exists, it is not justification for waiting 6 months to provide feedback.
Recipe For Assessment
Force ranking is very difficult. Not just practically, it also takes a high emotional cost on managers. However, a business needs to know the value of it’s assets. The organisation may not go as far as including employees in their annual accounts, but internally this information is at least as valuable as the amortisation of any hardware.
Rather than ranking, grouping staff by potential and performance is less abrasive. This is where the 9 box grid comes in.
Before starting assessment, proper preparation is key so that it can be completed confidently:
- Prepare tangible evidence on an employee’s performance and potential. The result of delivering objectives and constructive line management. 360 degree feedback is another useful tool for understanding how an employee has delivered during the reporting period, but beware of personal bias.
- Bring all the appropriate people together in a confidential and honest environment. It might be a challenge to get all line managers for an organisation into one talent management workshop. But for a department or business function , this should be expected. Don’t leave anyone out.
- Set employee expectations beforehand. Assessment days held in secret fuel speculation, rumours and distrust. Be transparent to staff about the process, the purpose and the expected outcomes afterwards.
The grid below suggests a mapping and definition of how to group employees. Quotas for each box is optional and can be unfair, but expect the majority of staff to be in the Core Employee category.
The value here is identification of those in each of the areas so that the business can invest in them appropriately and avoid waste.
Treating Employees Fairly
Once the assessment activity is completed the grid will be filled with names. The line managers should then collaborate on next steps. They must realises that they have a responsibility to feedback the outcomes and use them to guide future personal development.
- The first thing to check is for gaps. If no Future Leaders have been identified then the organisation may have a business continuity and succession planning risk. If there are no Under Performers then question if the assessment has been too positive or lenient.
- The second thing to check is how the balance of employees fits the goals of the business. A highly technical organisation may target a high proportion of Skilled Professionals. A rapidly growing company may need a lot of Future Leaders.
- If the pattern of employees is adjudged to be a fair representation of the business assets then the next step is to implement outcomes for individuals. Talent Assessments may guide bonus structures, training budgets or just line management effort.
The grid below describes the range of outcomes that may follow a Talent Assessment for employees:
