What is a talent review?
Talent reviews are thorough and structured evaluations of the people on your team, with three primary areas of assessment:
- Skills. What skills does the individual have, regardless of whether those skills are being utilized in their current position?
- Potential. What potential does the individual have for a future within the organization? This may be in their current position or in another job or department entirely.
- Performance. How is the individual performing in their current role? Are they meeting the existing demands of their position?
Unlike a performance review, talent reviews typically take a more holistic approach. You’re looking at each employee on their own and as part of the bigger picture. Talent reviews give you the chance to:
- Pinpoint employees who deserve recognition
- Ensure employees are on the same page regarding the company’s direction and mission
- Identify talent gaps to help support skills-based hiring, leadership gaps or issues with training that could be leaving talented employees without guidance/goals
- Implement cross-training and build a more agile/adaptable workforce based on employee skills
- Create tailored career paths for the employees
5 steps to performing an effective talent review
As you build your own customized talent review process, keep these steps in mind. Even if you tweak each step to fit your organization and management style, these guidelines can help lead you in the right direction.
1. Create a well-defined and repeatable talent review process
Plan how you want to conduct the reviews, record data and analyze each employee to help streamline the process and make it easier to make comparisons.
Some companies use the 9-box talent matrix. This templated grid can be used to evaluate talent and identify potential leaders, with one axis measuring performance and the other measuring potential. The far, upper-right square is considered the goal placement, while the lower left square may indicate a need for evaluation.
Other review teams prefer a basic rating scale: For each category or criteria, the employee is rated:
- Far below expectations
- Below expectations
- Meets expectations
- Exceeds expectations
- Far exceeds expectations
Those designations may vary, and you can include a zero (or adjust the levels) to account for an unsatisfactory or far below-expectations rating.
Whatever system you choose, you should use that same system for every review.
2. Hold meetings in advance with those conducting the reviews
Your review team should be on the same page before you start reviewing and rating. But before that can happen, you must decide who will be conducting the actual reviews. Often, the makeup of these teams depends on the level of each employee.
C-suite executives under review may receive feedback from their peers, managers who report directly to the executive level and even stakeholders. Junior employees may sit down with a panel of supervisors or a combination of supervisors and peers.
You may also choose to outsource the talent review process entirely. Third-party consulting companies are experienced, impartial and already have the infrastructure in place to conduct reviews without taking away from your internal resources. But they also won’t know your company and employees as well as an internal team would. Depending on your goals and bandwidth, a hybrid team could be beneficial.
As the team plans, decide what you’re looking for and what criteria you want to evaluate. For example, you might assess each employee for:
- Productivity
- Attitude
- Timeliness
- Quality of output
- Suitability for role
- Problem-solving abilities
- Long-term potential
In addition, you may want to weigh each criterion and consider room for growth. Does the long-term potential surpass the employees’ current productivity?
3. Schedule and hold the actual reviews
Starting with a lower seniority level, conduct your talent review meetings department by department. This will help you assess employees’ merits and how they work with their team. Keeping each batch of reviews focused on a similar leadership level can make it easier to compare colleagues/peers.
It may be helpful to start each department review by having the review team sit with the departmental leader. This way, you get an overview from someone who works closely with those employees on a day-to-day basis. That manager or supervisor can highlight their top performers, point out who may need some help and offer insight the review team can use to guide their questions during the actual review.
4. Collect and analyze your data
Next, review and discuss the results of your rating grids and/or notes from 360 feedback sessions.
This is where your original review game plan comes into play.
- Know exactly what you’re looking for.
- Allow for open discourse, while keeping the meeting focused.
- Have a deadline for your report and action plans and stick to it.
If you can’t come to a consensus on the potential of an employee, try to agree on an action plan. It may be that you need more data gleaned over the upcoming weeks or months to make a more definitive decision.
5. Create action plans that fit the employees and the organization
Once you’ve compiled all data, put together action plans to help each employee align with their respective expectations and set your organization up for success.
As you build action plans for each person, consider what’s best for every team member. Would they benefit from:
- A trial period in a new role where their skills and experience could be put to better use
- A mentorship with a higher-level employee who excels in areas the employee has shown deficits
- Continuing education to help them reach the next level
- Ongoing coaching sessions and regular mini reviews to track progress
- Changes in work schedule or environment, like flexible or hybrid scheduling
- Other creative accommodations, like pop-up reminders, that help them feel more supported and increase the likelihood of staying on task
The information and insight gained from talent reviews can be priceless. By learning who is excelling, who needs help and who is somewhere in between, you can renovate your hierarchy and give every team member the tools they need to achieve their potential.
