9-Box Talent Grid & Succession Planner
Places employees on the performance x potential grid from two scores, counts each box, compares departments and lists the succession slate.
9-Box Talent Grid & Succession Planner is a free Excel workbook: 4 sheets, 375 live formulas and realistic sample data throughout, 19 KB as .xlsx.
The formulas are printed on this page, unedited, so you can check the method before downloading anything. Swap in your own numbers and the whole file recalculates — which is the part no chat window can hand you. Opens in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers and LibreOffice; no add-in and no macro.
A look inside
This is a real slice of the Employees sheet from the actual file — not a screenshot, and not a mock-up. Cells shown in violet are live formulas, exactly as they arrive.
| # | Name | Department | Performance (1-5) | Potential (1-5) | Tenure (yrs) | Salary | Perf band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | George Sharma | Engineering | 4 | 3 | 6.60 | £58,000 | =IF(C2<=2,1,IF(C2<=3,2,3)) |
| 3 | Ava Hassan | Sales | 3 | 2 | 0.90 | £53,500 | =IF(C3<=2,1,IF(C3<=3,2,3)) |
| 4 | Noah Barnes | Operations | 1 | 3 | 6.70 | £50,000 | =IF(C4<=2,1,IF(C4<=3,2,3)) |
| 5 | Mia Okafor | Finance | 2 | 4 | 8.10 | £91,500 | =IF(C5<=2,1,IF(C5<=3,2,3)) |
| 6 | Leo Ahmed | Marketing | 2 | 2 | 8.30 | £47,000 | =IF(C6<=2,1,IF(C6<=3,2,3)) |
| 7 | Freya Fraser | Engineering | 3 | 2 | 4.40 | £75,500 | =IF(C7<=2,1,IF(C7<=3,2,3)) |
| 8 | Arthur Byrne | Sales | 4 | 4 | 6.90 | £87,500 | =IF(C8<=2,1,IF(C8<=3,2,3)) |
| 9 | Grace Jensen | Operations | 3 | 3 | 2.60 | £90,000 | =IF(C9<=2,1,IF(C9<=3,2,3)) |
What’s in the file
What it explains
- Performance is the past, potential is a bet
- The corners are the conversation
- Calibrate, or the grid measures managers not people
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<a href="https://www.datahubpro.co.uk/excel-templates/hr-performance-9-box">9-Box Talent Grid & Succession Planner</a> — free Excel template from DataHub Pro
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