According to Harvard Business Review, succession planning can potentially increase company valuation by 20%. It can also influence investor returns with a 25% growth.
When you as an HR/ Leader define succession planning for your organization, you need to make sure that the tools and methods being used are fair and transparent. A manual system where the managers and team leaders record their responses may not be free from bias.
As a result, using software tools is going to be a much more efficient way to monitor your employees, seek feedback, and provide reviews. 9 box succession planning is one such tool.
Understanding Succession Planning
To make sure a business runs smoothly without any disturbance or lull in the operations, the next generation of management needs to be effectively trained. To identify the employees who have the potential to take up management positions, companies need to undergo succession planning.
Why is it Necessary?
Let’s start by evaluating a few statistics:
- 370 billion dollars are spent per year on success planning
- 94% of employers claim that succession planning has a positive impact
- 86% of the management and leaders recognize the importance of succession planning
However, only 13% say that the succession planning program in place is effective.
Hence, a well-defined plan using 9 box succession planning might be an efficient system to suit your business needs.
Importance of Succession Planning
The following reasons will better explain the importance of succession planning:
- Provides a career path for employees who have leadership potential
- Ensures continuity of operations
- Talent identification
- Designs training and development programs for employees
- Identifies future leaders
- Increases employee retention
- Improves morale
- Increases employee engagement and productivity
- Responds to unforeseen circumstances
- Ensures diversity and inclusion
When companies define succession planning with respect to their parameters, they can create an effective plan to train their employees.
Understanding the 9 Box Grid System
This is a performance evaluation tool that uses 9 key data points to evaluate an employee as per their performance and potential. The method employs a 9 box grid which is made as per the following:
- Identifying the talent and reviewing the work done
- Assessing the potential of your employee
- Merge this into a 3 x 3 grid
Want to better understand this? Refer to the below picture:
9 box succession planning can be useful in the following ways:
- Identify talent
- Decision making vis-a-vis:
- Additional roles
- Leadership training
- Promotion
- Bonus
- Cultivating talent
- Re-evaluating work roles
- Identifying gaps in skill set and training
Pros
Using the 9 box grid system has become popular due to:
- Ease of use
- Having a fair evaluation system
- Using set parameters to assess employees
- Helps decide rewards like promotions and incentives
- Effective workforce planning
- Identifies the difference between potential and results delivered
- Helps identify training and skill gaps
A report by Zivvia stated that with regular, constructive feedback, employee turnover can be reduced by 14.9%.
Cons
While simple and effective, using the 9 box grid has a few flaws:
- Too simplified
- Assessment may be influenced by the managers’ opinion
- May ignore employee goals and values
- Employees may get labeled as unmotivated or an underperformer
- Can have unclear justifications for a review
As a result, a report by Forbes stated that only 14% of employees felt motivated after they received their performance reviews.
To overcome the cons, you can go for Success Circle which is a specialised tool that not only accounts for potential and performance, but also effective communication, development, leadership, and cultural alignment.
Using 9 Box Succession Planning
The 9-box grid will help identify those employees who have the potential to be a leader. Further, it helps provide a clear and concise system to promote employees to leadership positions.
With 9 box succession planning, the HR/ managers can define succession planning in their companies based on set parameters that are uniform for all. This creates a fair system that motivates employees to do better.
Further, 9 box succession planning helps employees gain confidence in the review process that they have to face. It helps them chalk out their career plans and improves engagement.
Best Practices
When taking up succession planning, some best practices that you can implement are:
- Proactive training of employees with potential
- Involving all relevant stakeholders in the planning process
- Selecting employees based on their skill
- Having a fair and transparent evaluation process
- Rewarding achievements and providing constructive feedback.
According to a Gallup study, employee turnover can be effectively reduced by 14.9% if employees are given proper appraisals and feedback. This holds true for succession planning as well since being included in leadership programs can act as additional motivation.
How to Proceed?
In the day and age of AI-aided software designs, the few cons of the 9 box succession planning can be easily counteracted.
- Employ a scalable software
- Ensure that it is user friendly and customizable
- Make sure to use well defined, objective parameters for evaluation
- Integrate the software with your existing systems.
- Adopt a budget friendly option
- Check the client feedback
- Ensure that the data stored is secure
- Round the clock customer support availability is a definite pro
Make sure that you define succession planning in a way that best suits your organization. This will help you identify the software that aligns with your needs.
Alternative to the 9-Box Grid
While the 9 box grid may have been a valuable tool 50 years ago, succession planning in 2023 needs a more intuitive process.
But what is the alternative? Is there a tool that can make succession planning more effective?
We struggled to find one. So, we decided to build one.
Use Success Circles to improve succession planning
Success Circles make succession planning simple.
An intelligent AI-powered tool, they are automatically generated during the employee lifecycle.
Every objective completed, every award received, every piece of feedback given.
Success Circles analyses it all.
Combine engagement, performance and development
Every piece of feedback your employees receive through the StaffCircle platform is tracked.
Success Circles automatically condense the data. They document the steps of progression from every interaction.
And then automatically create a visualisation.
Make succession planning personal
Let’s stop labelling employees. It’s irrelevant and no one likes being put in a box.
What do they like?
A simple way to understand their performance and progress. At a glance.
This is the power behind Success Circles.
No longer a tool for HR leaders to complete in private. No need to gather potentially biased opinions on potential.
Data isn’t biased. And Success Circles helps you to own it.
You can choose what you want to track across the board.
Each segment of a Success Circle displays employee performance and potential.
- Development
- Performance
- Culture and brand
- Communication
- Leadership
The segments grow over time. They can be viewed at any time.
You and your team can get a real-time view to accurately evaluate progress of performance and progression.
To Conclude
Having a fair, transparent evaluation process along with 9 box succession planning can ensure that your employees are effectively motivated. Further, it is essential to define succession planning to ensure that your views are in line with organizational priorities.
With succession planning and 9 box grid evaluation software, ensure greater employee retention, and engagement, and create a positive work environment.