Performance and potential matrix

There are several ways to review talent in the organization. Performance and Potential matrix is the
most frequently used tool. It is simple to understand and apply. It helps in making a talent inventory for
the organization. It is 3*3 matrices where each box has its own definition and developmental
challenges. It is 9-box matrix. Each managerial employee would be reviewed on performance and
potential and assigned to one of the nine boxes. On the ‘X’ axis performance would be plotted using 3
point scale, 3 being high performance, 2 medium performances and 1 low performance. On the ‘Y’
axis potential in the form of competency framework would be plotted using scale of C, B and A. ‘C’
being competencies demonstrated in the current career stage and ‘A and B’ would be the
competencies demonstrated for the next 1-2 career stage.

Talent pool:
Based on the performance – potential matrix, talent pool would be created at the organizational
level. Talent pool would be divided into 3 categories:
Leadership Talent: Individuals identified / assessed as 3A in performance–potential matrix.
Management Talent: Individuals identified / assessed as 2A, 2B, 3B in performance– potential
matrix.
Support Talent: Individuals identified / assessed as 1A, 1B, 1C, 2C, 3C in performance – potential
matrix.

Talent pool description

Leadership Talent
• Consistent exceptional performer in the current role / career stage and demonstrated potential to
grown in to Leadership role.
Key characteristic are:
• Person is committed to make quantum leaps.
• Questions status quo – situations, assumptions, the way things are done & leverages the situation
through innovative ideas and solutions.
• Redefines the role today and tomorrow regardless of circumstances; goes beyond expectations.
• Builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical combination of personal humility and professional
will.
Management Talent
• Consistent high performer in the current role / career stage with adequate / reasonable
demonstrated potential to grow to next career stage.
Key characteristic are:
• Consistently delivers high performance by optimal usage of all resources, to deliver required output.
• Organizes people and resources towards effective and efficient pursuit of pre- determined
objectives.
• Very dependable.
• Leverages strengths of self and of others, in a judicious manner.
• May not be able to cope with complex/stretch assignments.

Support Talent
• Good / acceptable performance in the current role / career stage but with limited potential to move to
next career stage.
Key characteristic are:
• Delivers output as directed through standardized methods & systems.
• Is motivated to perform well on the current job.
• Contributes to achievements of group objectives by working effectively with others.
• Keep current skills sharp.
• Demonstrates little efforts to build skills for next career stage.
• May confine themselves to requirements and hence, occasionally assigned stretched targets.

Methodology for Functional

competency Mapping
Process flow for Competency Mapping(CM)
Competency model are position models which are at the heart of every competency-based HR
application. The bases of generating competency models are processes. Thus questions that needs
to be raised:

 What does the employee have to be able to do?

 What does the employee have to know in order to do it.

Road Map for Functional Competency Mapping:

Background information about the organization

 Product and Services provided by the organization

 Process Flow-chart( From Raw material to Finished Product)
 Sister units and Sub-units(within the organization)
 Hierarchy level followed

Decide on the Job Positions that need to be assessed

 Finalization of Hierarchy Level to be covered

 Grouping of certain Levels into one group

Career stages categorization

Level 3 – Senior

Technical leader or guide to a group of Manage Managers

professionals

Level 2 – Professional

Technical professional or guide to a Manage Others

group of entry level professionals

Level 1 – Entry Level Professional  Manage Self

New Entrants/Entry Level professional
Description of career stages
Career Stage -- I: Manage Self
• Accountable for own actions.
• They are usually new to culture and work environment and learn from others.
• Responsible for their own work and limited actions.
• Activities like communicating, enabling, building relationships, etc comes into focus
Career Stage – II: Manage others
• First time manager and accountable for others actions.
• This stage requires a major transition – the responsibility is for getting work done through others, in
addition, to own.
• New managers recognize this intellectually and reject it psychologically. Typically they overpower
their direct reports with their expertise.
• Giving up tasks and responsibilities that earned them a manager’s title in the first place is
tremendously difficult aspect of this stage.
• Managerial activities like planning, organizing, delegating, monitoring, communicating, enabling,
building relationships, etc comes into focus.

Career Stage – III: Manage Managers

• Important middle-management position for managing and developing support managers.
• False assumption that there is very little difference between the previous stage and this one.
• This stage calls in for different skill sets which include selecting and training first line managers,
holding them accountable for managerial work, deploying/redeploying resources, etc.
• Managers, who fail to become proficient at this stage display poor performance management, fail to
build a strong team, have difficulty in delegating, etc.
• This person is the ‘management’ for the greatest number of people in the company who do ‘hands
on’ work.

Presentation for Head of Departments(HOD's)

 To discuss the purpose and applications of the exercise

 To validate the categorization of various hierarchical levels
 Suggestions for improvements(if any)
 Assigning of coordinators from different units and different section.

Presentation for coordinators:

  Complete competency exercise discussed
 Discussion about competency dictionary, Road map and forms to be used
 Discussed plans for data collection to frame competency dictionary

Circulation of Employee Information Form (EIF)

 To be filled by individuals
 Carries information about past work experience
 Key trainings attended
 Key Responsibility Areas in previous organization
 Special Assignment handled

Data Collection:

1. Source of Primary Data

Brain storming session with the coordinator of particular section in a particular unit

2. Source of Secondary Data

    a) Job Descriptions
    b) Resumes/ Bio-data/ CV
    c) Dictionaries used by other organizations of relevant Industry downloaded from internet.

Organize Data:

 Organize collected data to give final shape

 List top 8 to 12 broad competencies
 Splitting Broad competencies into small branches to get insight of the competency
 Validation of competency dictionary by HOD (Both by HR and Sub-unit).

Assessment centre
The assessment team which consists of subject matter expert from similar industry, the HOD and the
supervisor, will assess the individuals by means of an interview to check the knowledge domain.

For skills, field test is considered as appropriate. This would give the assessor a fair idea of the
practical aspect of his/her job. His/her on the job skills would be assessed. This is the main aim of the
assignment that the present skill can be determined in the most effective manner for easy conduct of
gap analysis

Assessment form(to be uploaded shortly)

The form used by assessors to assess the individuals is posted herein. All the assessors
individually assess them and at the end of interview they standardize the grades awarded into
one final form.

Process Flow for Identification of Talent Pool

Potential assessment:
After identification of employee career stage i.e. managing self, managing others, managing
managers etc, competencies of each employee would be assessed by a panel consisting of his/her
respective plant /functional head, HR head and professional from similar industry.
Following 5 Point scale would be used to assess potential of individuals at each level of the Career
stage:

Potential assessment rating scale

Criteria Scale

Exercises outstanding performance on this competency far exceeds acceptable 5

standards
Exercises very good performances on this competency better than acceptable 4
standards
Exercises quite acceptable performance on this competency and meets requirements 3

Performance on this competency is not quite up to acceptable standards. 2

Performance on this competency fails to meet acceptable standards. 1

Note: If any individual is ‘inadequately equipped’ i.e. he/she shows some gap between his current
competency level and required competency level, for his current / next 1-2 level of career stage his
assessment stops at that particular level and he would be considered only for the immediate below
level career stage where he has ‘exceeded / adequately equipped’ for all the competencies mentioned
for that career stage.
However, If any individual is ‘inadequately equipped’ for his current level career stage he/she will not
be considered for further potential assessment and talent pool segmentation and training will we
arranged for such individuals.

Potential slotting
Based on the above potential assessment for current and next level of career stage, potential slotting
will be done. For potential slotting competency lead is calculated i.e. first the maximum lead that an
individual can take is calculated, then the present lead is calculated i.e. Present level – Required
level. Now Present lead is divided by maximum lead and percentage is calculated. For slotting,
Please use following table and assign A / B / C rating as per the below mentioned criteria and
explanation in talent assessment and Segmentation form:

Potential rating criteria

Rating Criteria
C If individual’s competency lead lies between 0-40 %, it means the individual is
equipped for the present level only.
B If individual’s competency lead lies between 40-80 %, it means the individual
has potential to compete for the next level.
A If individual’s competency lead lies between 80-100 %, it means the individual
has high potential to compete for next two levels.
Note: Please do not assess potential of an individual below his current level of career stage for e.g. If
any individuals current career stage is “Managing Others” then he / she should not be assessed for
career stage below “Managing others” i.e. “Managing Self”.

Performance assessment:
To assess performance of managerial employees, last 3 performance ratings would be considered. 3
point scale (3, 2, 1) would be used to assess performance. Based on following combinations of last 3
performance ratings (01-02, 02-03, 03-04), performance of an individual would be assessed using 3
point scale.
Performance rating criteria

Rating Criteria Performance assessed as per the scale

3 A / 2 A and 1 B 3
3 B / 1 A and 2 B 2
Any other combination of Performance rating 1
with “C” but not with ‘D’ and ‘E”
For e.g. If any managerial employee having 3 outstanding / exceptional achiever or 2 outstanding/
exceptional achiever and 1 Very Good / High Achiever rating in last 3 years would get 3 on the
performance scale. Like wise, if an individual is having combination of 1 Outstanding and 2 Very Good
or 3 Very Good continuously in last 3 years, he would be assigned 2 on the performance scale.
Similarly, if a performance rating of any individual in last 3 years is in the combination of 2 Very Good
and 1 Good or 1 Very Good and 2 Good or 3 Good or 1 Outstanding and 2 Good or 1 Outstanding
and 1 Very Good and 1 Good, he would be assigned 1 on the performance scale.
Individuals having performance ratings below ‘Good’ in any of the last 3 years would not be
considered for Talent Management.

Talent segmentation:
The next important step is ‘Talent Segmentation’ where each manager would be placed in one of the
boxes of performance – potential matrix. Performance and Potential are the two most important
element of talent segmentation. Correct assessment of performance and potential provides the
building block to talent management process. Performance and potential can be best understood as
per following:
Potential and performance parameters

Performance Potential
Linked to Present Job Is capable of coming into being in future.
Is measurable Potential rated low is not a write off case.
Consistent good / high performance is a pre- High potential may represent the
requisite to advancement. organizations inventory of future leaders
 High performance is not a sure indicator of Judgment of senior management in
ability to move to next 1-2 career stages. assessing potential is the most critical tool
for potential identification.

Age, career stage, compensation, Potential assessment examines if an

upbringing, motivation, style of boss, culture individual has “what it takes” to advance to
at workplace etc impact performance. position of greater management
/leadership/ technical skills.

Is relative to others Comes from within

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Functional Competency Assessment

Form
Now when Functional/Technical competency dictionaries are finalized, it is time to assess the
competencies and analyze the lead or lag that exists between the present level of competencies and
required level of competencies. To analyze this, an assessment form has been designed which is
user friendly and anyone can use it. Its easy to understand. The assessment form is a part of my
earlier post where I mentioned the Methodology to assess competencies. There are fields or labels
where data can be entered and final lead/lag may be calculated. Finally we have to calculate the (Y/X)
ratio which will be used further to take necessary action. As this post is a part of my earlier posts, it
should be read like:
1)Competency Mapping(CM)
2)What is competency?
3) Steps involved in Competency Mapping
4)Purpose and benefits of Functional Competency Mapping
5)Performance and potential matrix
6)Methodology for Functional competency Mapping
7)Employee Information Form(EIF)
8)Technical/Functional Competency Dictionary
9)Now Competency assessment form

Functional/Technical Competency assessment form

Name Department
Designation E Code
Grade Grade w.e.f.
Date of Joining Date of Birth
 Qualification
Appraiser’s Name Designation
HOD Name Designation

Criteria Scale
Exercises outstanding performance on this competency far exceeds acceptable standards 5
Exercises very good performances on this competency better than acceptable standards 4
Exercises quite acceptable performance on this competency and meets requirements 3
Performance on this competency is not quite up to acceptable standards. 2
Performance on this competency fails to meet acceptable standards. 1

S.No Required Max. Lead/

Present Level Level Lead/ Lag
Competency Area
Lag
1 2 3 4 5
1 TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE
2 RAW MATERIAL AND PRODUCT HANDLING
3 OPERATION MANAGEMENT
4 BUDGET AND COST CONTROL
5 PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT
6 SOFTWARE PACKAGES & TOOLS
7 RULES AND REGULATIONS
8 SAFETY AND HEALTH
9 HUMAN RESOURCES
10

11

12

                                                                                 Maximum Lead:  X    , Lead/Lag:  Y, Ratio: (Y/X)*100

                                                                                                                             
 
*Note: Individuals lagging in required competency level should note be included in the Talent Pool
Segmentation.