Is the 9-Box Model a Successful Performance Management Tool?

Performance reviews are a great way to recognize which employees are thriving and which aren’t achieving their full potential. Performance reviews aren’t just a good idea, either. A recent study found companies that follow performance management best practices can see up to 30% higher revenue growth compared to their peers.

Reviews are critical, but they’re also widely unpopular with employees and their supervisors alike.

Yet Gallup research shows that there’s a strong correlation between meaningful feedback and employee engagement. So, how do you make sure the feedback you’re giving is useful, relevant, and meaningful?

The 9-box grid could be a successful tool for you when it comes to performance management and reviews. This type of performance management framework helps managers provide objective, unbiased evaluations by using nine key data points.

For much of the working world, performance management includes abstract concepts such as initiative and employee engagement. Measuring these intangible factors is challenging enough, and when you consider that every person interprets performance metrics slightly differently, it's clear that organizations need to have a solid plan.

As HR professionals, we rely on performance assessments to help employees achieve their full potential—or spot misalignment as early as possible—and the 9-box grid can provide clear visualization.

Below, we take a deeper look into the 9-box performance review, weigh up the pros and cons and explain how you can create a 9-box grid to use for your employees.

What Is the 9-Box Model?

The 9-box model—also called the 9-block grid—is an effective assessment tool that evaluates an employee’s future with the organization based on two axes.

• Past performance
• Future potential

As its name suggests, a box is divided into 9 sections and evaluates both the employee’s performance and growth. Each reviewer rates the employee's performance on a scale from low to high and plots the result on the 9-box grid.

After determining an employee’s position on the 9-box grid, decision-makers have a frame of reference for continuing discussions about how and where to invest their efforts, including:

• Recognizing high-performing employees
• Supporting employees in improving performance or increasing potential to help them move up and to the right on the grid
• Identifying employees who consistently underperform and show little interest in their potential to offer a better-aligned position—or consider termination

What Are In the 9-Boxes?

Here’s an example of a typical 9-box model:

The 9-box model has an X-axis, representing the employee’s performance and a Y-axis showing potential. Rather than focusing on specific skills, this tool helps HR and leadership teams see a whole picture. It provides a comprehensive view on the key contributions made by a team member.

Companies can easily customize the 9-box model, according to a team's performance metrics and goals.

How Do You Create a 9-Box Grid?

To get started creating the 9-box model, you just need a three-by-three framework.

1. Write down a list of what you expect an employee has the potential to do in the future given their current performance, interests, and talents.
2. Write down details about your employee’s performance. You can consider how they meet deadlines, how they interact with customers, or other relevant metrics.
3. Looking at the potential, you can then plot on the Y-axis where they sit (high, moderate, low).
4. Then plot their performance on the X-axis (low, moderate, high).

You should do a thorough assessment of each employee’s performance, plotting them on the 9-box grid. Going back to our grid, you can see how employees will rank:

• High potential and low performance (yellow): These people have the skills to develop but may lack experience and therefore can’t perform as well as others on the team. If someone is showing high potential, it may be worth investing in them and putting their potential to good use.

• High potential and moderate to high performance (green): These are thriving employees, even being described as “star”. They’re hitting the bar and showing high potential when it comes to growing with the business.

• Moderate potential and performance: These are core players and are fundamental in a business. They have room to improve in potential and performance and grow with a business.

• Low and moderate potential and performance (red): These low performing employees are a “risk, inconsistent player, average performer”.

Although the 9-box model provides an accessible starting point for better performance reviews, it’s not always the most comprehensive. And because it’s a subjective appraisal, it’s vulnerable to conscious or unconscious bias.

In most cases, we recommend combining the 9-box grid with a more robust model. After all, getting as clear a picture of each employee’s performance as possible helps you deliver more relevant recognition and more appropriate support, helping them continue to provide excellent work.

Pros and Cons of the 9-Box Model

The 9-box model has some big draws, but also comes with some downsides. Below, we break down some of the pros and cons of the 9-box grid.

4 Pros to Know

1. It’s fast.  The simple scoring system and uncomplicated format makes the 9-box grid easy to teach, easy to implement, and quick to read, cutting down on valuable time triaging employee performance.

1. It’s forward-focused.  The 9-box grid helps evaluators focus on the employee’s future as much as on their current performance, making the evaluation more than a reaction to recent events.

1. It has a broad application.  The 9-box grid allows managers in different areas to provide leadership with a more accurate understanding of employee performance, even when that performance isn’t based on concrete metrics like sales numbers.

1. It’s straightforward.  As long as leadership trusts managers in their judgements of an employee’s performance and potential, the 9-box grid saves the time and effort leadership would spend learning about the role and the individual before making a decision.

3 Cons to Consider

1. It’s imprecise.  The aspects that make a 9-box grid straightforward also make it imprecise. It can be difficult to define performance and potential. For example, is an employee performing at 67% of peak performance a high performer in the top third, or did they earn a D grade and deserve to be in the Low group? When these definitions don’t match for two different evaluators, it can lead to incorrect assumptions.

1. It’s still vulnerable to bias.  Human bias evolved to help us make quick decisions based on surface-level information like appearance or word association. While the 9-box grid includes potential as one of the measurements to encourage managers to consider the future, using labels for each box runs the risk of fixing employee reputations in their minds for future snap judgments. For example, a manager might dismiss an inconsistent player from consideration for a challenging project before giving the project to an overloaded high performer.

1. It’s a simple measurement.  Evaluating employees is only one small part of an effective performance management process. The 9-box grid gives you an idea of where to begin, but it can’t take the place of an in-depth employee evaluation, much less guide your entire program.

Alternatives to the 9-Box Model

An evaluation grid, like the 9-box, is only as good as the shared understanding it's built on. That understanding is rooted in the knowledge that performance management is a multifaceted, time-consuming, incremental, and (above all) human effort. Developing high performing employees is the sum of many parts—not the number spit out by a simple grid or even a complicated performance analysis formula.

For example, BambooHR®  Performance Management goes beyond the 9-box model by bringing together:

• Regular Coaching.  Managers work with employees to set and achieve personal performance goals.
• Self-Reflection.  Employees record their impressions of their own performance.
• 360-Degree Feedback.  Regular, anonymous peer feedback provides additional perspective from those who work closely with the employee.
• Data-Driven Insights.  Performance management data rolls into reports that capture the state of each team and department, so executives can spot performance trends and adjust accordingly.

Using a performance management system will help draw an even bigger picture on performance. Everyone is kept in the loop, including the employees and managers, so it’s easier to track goals and check whether they’re on target.

Why Is Performance Management Important?

Performance management can help give a clear view of an employee’s position in a business. It can highlight areas where an employee is thriving and if there are any areas for improvement. Effective performance management will also help to keep employees on track with any targets they have, as well as helping guide them to a promotion.

Where Performance Management Can Help:

• Self-assessment and management
• Collaboration
• Problem-solving
• Creativity

With comprehensive performance management, evaluations don’t come from a manager’s most recent impressions—or biases, for that matter. Instead, evaluations are shaped by regular, in-person conversations and software-assisted evaluations from managers, peers, and the employees themselves.

When performance management is done well, there are no surprises. Employees will know their strengths and weaknesses, and managers will have data-driven insights that accurately capture the state of their teams.

At BambooHR, we make it simple for organizations to implement an intuitive, research-backed performance management. Beyond basic metrics, the system is designed to supplement—not  replace—extensive conversations with each employee. Want to explore BambooHR® Performance Management for yourself? Start your free, no-obligation trial today!