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Retention and talent planning

9-box grid template

A talent review sheet with a rating table, the three by three grid of performance against potential to type names into, and a next step for each person.

TemplateWhat you type stays in your browser.

Rate each person

Low, medium or high for each, with one line of evidence.

Columns: Name, Performance, Potential, Evidence, Next step. 6 rows.

Place them on the grid

Type each name into its box.

A three by three grid. Rows are potential, from high at the top to low at the bottom. Columns are performance, from low on the left to high on the right.

After the review

Last updated

The 9-box grid places each person by performance and potential.

The 9-box grid is a talent review tool that places each employee on a three by three matrix of current performance against future potential. Performance runs from low to high across the grid, and potential runs from low to high up the side.

Its use is the discussion. It forces a shared, explicit judgment in a talent review instead of each manager using a private definition of top talent. This sheet has a rating table with a line of evidence for each person, the grid itself, and space for what you agreed to do.

Here is how to use the 9-box grid template in five steps.

  1. Define the two axes first. Agree what low, medium and high performance mean, and what potential means here, before anyone is rated.

  2. Rate with evidence. Each manager rates their people in the table and writes one line of evidence for each rating.

  3. Calibrate as a group. Managers present their ratings to each other. Challenge the ones that rest on a single event or on likeability.

  4. Place names on the grid. Type each name into its box and look at the whole picture: who is at the top right, and who sits in a box by default.

  5. Agree a next step for everyone. Each person gets a development action, whatever box they are in. Review the grid again in six to twelve months.

Here is a worked example with invented names.

Take an invented company, Osterlow Engineering, where four managers review 14 engineers. Before the meeting, six of the 14 are rated high on both performance and potential.

In calibration the managers ask for evidence. Three of the six stay in the top right box. Two move to high performance and medium potential, because the evidence is strong delivery in the current role and no interest in a wider one. One moves to medium performance and high potential, because she is four months into a new role.

The grid also shows that Elif Demir, in the top right box, has had the same role for three years and no stretch project. Her next step is to lead the plant upgrade project. Each of the other 13 gets a next step as well.

These mistakes spoil a 9-box review.

  • Rating potential on confidence or likeability instead of evidence.
  • Treating a box as a permanent label. People move as roles and circumstances change.
  • Letting one manager place people with no calibration against the others.
  • Spending the whole meeting on the top right box and none on the solid performers who carry the team.
  • Sharing box names with employees as a verdict. Share the development plan.

The grid reads the same way every time: current performance from left to right, low to high, against future potential from bottom to top, low to high. The boxes are the start of a conversation, not a label to keep.

People ask these questions about the 9-box grid.

The 9-box grid is a three by three matrix used in talent reviews. One axis is current performance and the other is future potential, each rated low, medium or high. Placing people on it gives managers a shared picture for discussing development and succession.

These glossary terms explain the ideas behind it.

  • 9-box grid

    The 9-box grid is a talent review tool that places each employee on a three by three matrix of current performance against future potential.

  • Succession planning

    Succession planning is identifying who could step into critical roles, and closing the gaps before the seat is empty.

  • Internal mobility

    Internal mobility is people moving into new roles inside the company, sideways or upward, instead of leaving to get the same move elsewhere.

  • Flight risk

    Flight risk is the likelihood that a specific employee leaves in the near future, based on observable signals rather than a manager's hunch.

  • People analytics

    People analytics is the use of workforce data to answer business questions about hiring, retention, performance and organizational design.

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