Build and Implement a 9-Box Talent Grid to Assess Employee TalentIf you want to successfully develop talent, you’ve got to start by effectively evaluating it.Talent management leaders are responsible for heading up the success of programs such as succession planning, high potential identification, leadership development, and overall employee development. Without a solid internal assessment of talent levels, talent management leaders risk the failures of these programs, as talent assessment directly feeds into their development.The classification of talent using the 9-Box Grid will provide a clearer picture of talent distribution, effectively improving targeted development success rates, and decreasing disengagement and turnover, which ultimately enhances the organization’s bottom line.According to the 2014 McLean & Company HR Trends and Priorities Survey, only 27% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that internal talent assessment was effective. However, business respondents ranked it as the sixth-most-important trend for the year out of 21 HR areas. There is a disconnect between the importance and effectiveness that can be reconciled by using the 9-Box Talent Grid.The McLean & Company 9-Box Talent GridPerformance is fairly straightforward to assess, but potential is less concrete more trickier to measure without large amounts of bias. Assess performance and potential by using observable criteria so you can reduce the biases involved and consistently evaluate employees to better level-set their placement across the organization.To ensure your talent review meeting goes smoothly, review each manager’s assessments prior to the talent meeting. This will allow you to get a feel for what to expect during the meeting, help you begin the calibration process early, and advise managers if their employee placements are way off the mark, saving them time and embarrassment.Whether you tell an employee that they are high potential or not is dependent on the type of culture your organization has. Only open, collaborative cultures will be ready for this transparency. The quality of the development discussions your managers have with their employees is what is really important. These conversations and development plans will send the right signals to employees.Review research and project metrics to make the case for building a 9-Box Talent Grid process into the organization, to gain project approval.Understand how the 9-Box Talent Grid is constructed and what each box in the grid means.Align the use of the Grid to assess employee talent with the unique needs of your organization by addressing the target audience, talent grid profile definitions, and a tool to help managers assess their employees.Get the Grid ready for use by communicating with stakeholders and training managers, and put it into action using guidelines for a talent review and calibrating meeting.Begin the process of funneling results from the Grid placements into talent programs, development discussions, and action planning with employees.Check in on the process after implementation by gathering feedback and updating metrics to continually improve the success of the Grid.

http://hr.mcleanco.com/research/ss/build-and-implement-a-9-box-talent-grid-to-assess-employee-talent