McKinsey 9 Box Talent Review: Pros, Cons & How to Use It

The 9 box model, also known as a 9 box grid, a 9 box matrix, or a McKinsey 9 box talent matrix is widely used in talent management. It was developed by McKinsey & Company and has been around since the 1970s. This management consultancy firm worked extensively with General Electric. It seems like it still has much to offer in the 21st century.

‍

The remarkable thing about the 9 box matrix is that it was used to compare business units, not employees. Also, the criteria used were different. The model quickly proved to be transferable to other areas. HR professionals apply the grid to identify employee growth potential based on current performance scores.

‍

This article will provide a 9 box talent review with its pros and cons and a quick list of dos and don'ts when applying the model. We summarize a quick list of dos and don'ts when applying the model.

‍

Hopefully, in the end, you'll have a clear idea of how to incorporate this model into your talent management strategy.

‍

‍What is the 9 box grid model?

The 9 box model is a way to display company employees' distribution based on two criteria on a two-dimensional matrix or grid. These two criteria are usually performance and potential. It allows managers and HR professionals to identify the employees with the highest growth potential and invest wisely in the company's talent pool.

‍

The 9 box grid is a talent management tool with a common application in succession planning and performance management. Perhaps the most quoted use is for identifying future leaders and preparing them for their critical roles.

‍

In such a case, 9 box talent review tool has been useful for more than five decades. It has proved itself in various scenarios and has helped hundreds of companies. At this point, the crucial part of the 9-box talent review instrument is its use cases.

‍

What is the 9 box grid used for?

The most common use of the 9 box model is for succession planning in talent management strategies. To make a good succession plan, you must identify suitable candidates for future promotions. To find out, you must look at how well your employees are doing and how likely they are to keep up the good work in a role with more responsibilities.

‍

The McKinsey 9 box talent matrix works well for succession planning because it shows how people score on both criteria. To qualify for the leadership team, one must have moderate performance and moderate to high potential. Ideally, your future leaders would be the top performers with the highest potential. Such people attract the management's attention for a reason, but they are rare.

‍

The odds are that most of your employees will fit within the middlebox - moderate performers with moderate potential. This is where you would be looking most of the time in your succession planning process. People at the corners are likely to be a minority. Also, there's only one corner that's critical for succession planning.

‍

Once you have identified your potential leaders, it's time to figure out how to prepare them for their future roles. The 9 box grid is also used for workforce planning and investment strategy.

‍

A succession plan would be useless if your MVPs get bored, frustrated, or feel undervalued. High-performing employees must feel rewarded if you want them to stick around while setting future leadership roles. The 9 box grid indicates where you should invest the most. As a result, with a broad range of the model’s applications, it is no wonder companies have stuck to it for such a long time. Yet, the talent review 9 box is the tool that has even more to offer.

‍

‍9 box assessment grid

The 9 box assessment tool is an evaluation instrument dividing and plotting employees across 9 distinct data points. As a grid-based method, it has various points of employee assessment. These proved to have a major impact on how 9 box assessment questions can be used to evaluate a person’s performance and present potential growth opportunities. At this point, scoring plays a vital part in the overall system, something we discuss further in detail.

How do you score a 9 box talent assessment grid?

There are five main steps for creating a 9 box matrix. They may seem easy at first, but each of them can be a separate progression in itself.

Set up a blank grid.
Evaluate performance, or use already available data.
Evaluate the potential of all employees.
Combine the scores for every individual.
Put the results on the blank grid to draw the big picture.

Let's look at all five steps to highlight the main things to watch for.

‍

1. How to stack the nine boxes?

To prepare the grid, you must first put the two criteria on the X and Y-axis. The most used configuration puts performance on the horizontal and potential on the vertical axis. The next thing is to make three arbitrary descriptive value brackets for both criteria. Traditionally, the model uses Low, Medium, and High. That is how you get the 9 box matrix (3x3 grid).

‍

The main thing is to have low performers on both criteria on the bottom left. High performers on both criteria end up in the top right corner of the 9 box grid. All other combinations fall somewhere above or below the diagonal.

‍

The McKinsey 9 box talent matrix doesn't show precise performance scores. It is up to the management or the HR professionals to decide the boundaries between low, mid, and high performance.

‍

2. Assessing employee performance

Once the blank grid is prepared, we can evaluate performance. Usually, you'd have recent data for most employees. Usually, newcomers are the only ones that don't have a performance score just because it's too early for their first evaluation.

‍

The best thing about evaluation is using your existing assessment system. Also, if you use performance review software, you'll have all the data you need available in an easy-to-use form. Even something as simple as an exported Excel sheet would work.

‍

3. Evaluate growth potential

When you have assessed employee performance, it's time to evaluate the growth potential. This is perhaps the trickiest part of the process. The most pitfalls of using the 9 box grid are at this stage. We discuss this later in the chapters about the pros and cons of the model.

‍

4. Combining the data on the 9 box talent review template

Once every employee has scored for both performance and potential, it's time to place them under the applicable categories. Then, you must plot the data on the 9 box assessment template. This should paint a decent picture of the company's talent pool state.

5. Visualizing data

You can further format the data to visualize the distribution of your workforce on the 9 box grid. For instance, the number of people in every box can be presented in absolute values or percentages. You can color it as a heatmap to show the most common combinations of scores.

‍

Keeping the above insights in mind, it is important to add one more thing - for the 9 box assessment model to operate correctly, you must meet a certain prerequisite. More specifically, all employees must be assessed by matching criteria. It should be done to allow you to cross-reference and compare all of them later. These conditions must be met for both productivity and growth potential factors.

‍

How can Effy help?

Effy.ai is a talent management software that allows reviews and data gathering on employee performance easily and seamlessly. For your convenience, there are pre-made templates for assessing performance and growth potential. At Effy, we strive to empower the building of versatile and high-performing teams. Our main goal is to facilitate the growth of innovative companies by making people management painless and hassle-free. What is more, you can use our services for free.

‍

Besides, in the upcoming release, we plan to add a 9 box talent assessment review template. However, for the system to design and implement this new tool, you need to conduct several dozens of reviews. So, without further delays, sign up and check the platform’s functionality. If you have any questions, you can use our tool and book a meeting with Effy’s representative, who will help with the product’s configuration and answer all 9 box assessment-related questions.

‍

Unlock employees' superpower with insightful analytics in Effy

Increase performance

‍

‍9 box talent review: Advantages

The 9 box model is useful mostly because it relies on two dimensions of employee value. It allows HR leaders to consider a combination of traits in their succession planning process. Here are the top five pros of the 9 box grid:

It is straightforward
It is industry agnostic
It's low in complexity
It's a great visualization tool
It can facilitate growth discussion

‍

Simplicity and ease of use

The 9 box grid is effortless to make. You have only two criteria, with three values each. Combining everything together isn't difficult at all. How you interpret the final result is a different question, though. Another important thing to ask is how to help people move from the least desired boxes to those that promise a future.

‍

Works in any organization and industry

The 9 box model works across all industries. Also, it's applicable in all companies that are large enough to offer growth opportunities. Whatever the nature of your business is, performance evaluations are a part of the company's life. There is no reason to avoid a talent management tool that uses the performance scores of your workforce.

‍

Keep things simple and just use your observation

The 9 box grid doesn't require additional complex systems for people management. You can use your existing solution to source performance data. The model doesn't require additional expenses.

‍

Also, assessing potential requires nothing more than observation. If team leaders and managers know their employees, they would just use this knowledge to estimate potential. This makes the model quite cheap but is also a downside, as discussed later.

‍

Great for presenting the state of the talent pool

The 9 box grid gives an overview of the current state of your workforce. That makes it a good starting point for succession planning. It also shows where to invest if you want to improve the overall performance of your workforce.

The fact that you set a couple of employees for future promotion doesn't resolve the problem with the low performers. You should also take adequate measures for the other segments of the grid.

‍

A useful starting point to discuss future growth

The 9 box grid is meant to identify those who have what it takes to contribute to the company's success in the future. It points you to the people you are likely to discuss future growth with. Remember that the model isn't enough to make the future happen. You have to actually discuss with all potentials to ensure you are aligned on goals and values.

‍

9 box talent review: Disadvantages

Even though the 9 box grid has compelling advantages, it should be taken with a grain of salt. There are pitfalls you should be aware of and avoid at all costs. Here are the cons of the 9 box matrix:

It limits the explored dimensions
It doesn't reveal complex reasons for low performance
It works with oversimplified categories
It relies on subjective and speculative judgment
It uses potentially confusing categories.

‍

Two dimensions are not enough

The 9 box model shows what categories your people fall into regarding performance and potential. The distribution across these two dimensions says a lot, but not everything. There are other factors to consider, such as values.

‍

Also, employees might have valuable skills that didn't count for their scores. Leadership is a good example of a skill that doesn't get evaluated when someone is low in the hierarchy. When the employee climbs up the ladder, their ability to lead others could be critical to future management roles.

‍

What about the reasons for low performance

The 9 box grid uses performance scores to divide employees into categories. It doesn't reveal the reasons for low scores, though. These reasons could be diverse and quite complex. The fact that you aggregate the data to summarize it over the 9 box grid doesn't remove this complexity.

‍

Also, the 9 box matrix doesn't explain how someone scored well. Did they cross boundaries along the way? Do their means justify the goal, and how is this affecting the company culture? The answers to these questions are to be found elsewhere.

‍

Oversimplified categories without gray areas

The most difficult thing with the 9 box grid is to decide how to split the scores into the Low, Medium, and High categories. How low is Low? Below 30th percentile, or 50th? Should you consider individual performance relative to the average, or what is enough to produce meaningful results for the company?

‍

Drawing hard lines to define limited categories eliminates gray areas. People with similar performances may fall on either side of the line just because of where you drew the line. there is potential for misjudgment.

‍

Assessing potential is arbitrary

There's nothing more speculative and arbitrary than assessing potential. It is essentially no different than fortune-telling. Yes, managers might do their best to make an educated guess, but it is still a guess. you may extrapolate based on past performance, but you never know when, how, or why someone may fail at a new critical role.

‍

Piling up responsibilities could be risky. That's why managers should do their best to prepare high potential for the new roles that await them. It's important to assess potential adequately and make sure you'll be able to harness it when the time is right.

‍

Confusion between performance and potential

Managers may dislike the 9 box grid because they don't like speculating about someone's potential. Another pitfall is the frequent confusion between performance and potential.

‍

Someone may think, for instance, that an employee has low potential because they show low performance. In other words, the current value is overwriting the future value, and suddenly, the employee is doomed.

‍

The McKinsey 9 box talent matrix dos and don’ts

We demonstrated above that the 9 box matrix has pros and cons. The potential pitfalls are enough for gigantic and well-established companies like SAP to consider retiring the 9 box grid. We won't go that far. Instead, we prepared a short side-by-side of the dos and don'ts that will ensure good use of the model.

‍

9 Box Grid Dos	9 Box Grid Don’ts
Take the model with a grain of salt.	Be aware of the 9 box pitfalls.
Combine the model with other methods and tools.	Don't allow it to dictate or automate decisions.
Figure out the reasons for the good/bad results.	Don’t forget that results may change.
Use it to identify employee groups that require attention.	Do not overlook the low performers without investigating.

‍

Conclusion

We should point out again that it makes sense to use the 9 box grid as a part of a diverse stack of talent management tools. The model has undisputed advantages, but HR professionals should be cautious about the pitfalls of the 9 boxes.

‍

Relying on the 9 box grid alone wouldn't give a complete picture of the company's future potential. However, the model can be a great weapon in succession planning when used wisely. Also, the 9 boxes work across companies and industries is perhaps the biggest plus.

‍

FAQ: The 9 Box Model in HR

What is a 9 box discussion?

A 9 box discussion is a discussion about employee performance and growth potential. The discussion is facilitated by the 9 box grid model that divides employees into nine categories based on performance reviews and potential estimates.

‍

Is the 9 box grid still relevant?

Even though the 9 box grid has been around since the 1970s, it still has relevance today. The model is easy to use and works across all industries. Nowadays, it is a standard in succession planning and development strategies.

‍

How does the 9 box model work?

The 9 box grid combines scores for employee performance and employee potential. The combined scores are distributed across 9 categories that form a square matrix. This provides a quick overview of the state of the workforce and suggests where investments are needed.

‍

What is the McKinsey 9 box talent matrix?

A McKinsey 9 box talent matrix, also known as 9 box grid, is a well-recognized talent management tool that’s been in use since the 1970s. Most notably, HR professionals use McKinsey 9 box talent matrix to evaluate and identify employees’ growth potential along with areas for improvement based on the previous as well as ongoing performance scores.

‍