Collecting Succession Planning Data in your Performance Management Software

A few weeks ago, we discussed the importance of succession planning at an organization and outlined one way to go about it: the 9-box grid. This week, let’s take a closer look into how you can create a performance review that specifically captures 9-box grid data in your performance management software.

To begin, remember that the 9-box grid asks managers to score their employees on Performance and Potential given the options of Low, Medium, or High. To accomplish this first task in flexible performance management software like Trakstar, we would create two Competencies for the manager to score, as seen here:

The next step in succession planning with the 9-box grid is to place the employee in the correct box based on where they fall in each of the two categories above. It’s recommended to give your managers their options by way of a new competency since we’re looking for exportable and comparable data (and Trakstar makes this easy when a competency is used on the review).

In this example, the employee was given a High performance rating and a Mid Potential rating. We’ve opted to name each box in our grid with a descriptor that helps explain to the manager where their employee falls. Here, this employee would be described as a “High Impact Performer”. Keep in mind these are customizable fields so you’ll have the freedom to name your boxes as you see fit with different descriptors or with the numeric value you associate with each level.

Once your employees and managers have successfully completed their reviews, a quick export using Trakstar’s custom list feature will give you each employee’s level in your 9-box grid so you can quickly identify your top performers and prep them for movement!