Welcome to Excel Highway, where we dive deep into all things Excel! Today, I’m excited to share with you a tool that many HR professionals swear by — the Nine Box Grid for talent management. This is a simple, yet powerful way to analyze employee performance and potential in a visually engaging format. And what’s even better? You don’t need to be a data expert to build it. I’m going to walk you through how I built this interactive grid using just Excel tables, pivot tables, and a bubble chart. No complicated formulas or macros — just good old Excel at work.
A Tale of Team Assessments
Let’s set the stage. Imagine you’re in charge of evaluating your team — trying to figure out who’s performing well, who has growth potential, and who might need extra coaching. It’s a task that requires a lot of data — but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. That’s where the Nine Box Grid comes in. It’s a framework that plots your team members on a 3×3 grid based on two key factors:
- Performance: How well an employee is currently doing
- Potential: How much an employee could grow
Each of the nine boxes represents a different combination of these two factors, allowing you to see, at a glance, who’s thriving and who might need some attention.
Building the Grid
The first step was to create a clear and simple dashboard in Excel — something that would allow me to visualize my team in a way that’s both intuitive and actionable.
I set up a bubble chart that plotted performance (X-axis) and potential (Y-axis), which is where the Nine Box Grid magic happens. The size of each bubble represents the number of employees in that category, and the color of the bubble represents risk: green for high performers, yellow for mid-level, and red for those underperforming.
The Power of the Pivot Table
Now, here’s where the story gets a little more technical (but don’t worry, it’s still simple!). I needed a way to feed the bubble chart with data. So, I built a pivot table that summarized the information for each employee. This table includes:
- Employee Name
- Performance
- Potential
- Department, Job Level, and Location
The twist here is that bubble charts can’t be directly linked to pivot tables in Excel. So, I had to create a helper table to pull the data from the pivot table, which could then feed into the chart. This process allowed me to get dynamic updates every time I refreshed the data — a real time-saver when dealing with large teams.
Making It Interactive
One of the most fun parts of building this tool was adding slicers. I wanted to make sure that the dashboard was flexible — allowing me to easily filter the data by department, location, or job level. With Excel Tables in place, adding slicers was a breeze. Now, I can click a slicer to filter just for the marketing department, or just the managers in the US, and watch as the bubble chart dynamically updates.
Data Validation for Accuracy
To keep things consistent, I set up data validation on the performance and potential scores. Employees can only be rated between 1 and 3 for both performance and potential. This keeps the grid clean and ensures that no one accidentally enters an invalid score.
The Result: A Clear View of My Team
The final product? A clean, interactive dashboard that shows exactly where each team member stands in terms of performance and potential. Whether I’m looking at the team’s overall performance or drilling down into a specific department, this tool makes it easy to see who needs attention, who’s excelling, and who’s ready for a bigger role.
This tool is invaluable for HR professionals, team leaders, and anyone who’s involved in talent management. It not only helps you assess your team but also gives you a clear, data-driven way to make decisions about promotions, training, or even restructuring.
What I Learned Along the Way
Building this Nine Box Grid wasn’t just about creating a fancy chart. It was about learning how to take raw data and transform it into something meaningful. Along the way, I gained a deeper understanding of how performance and potential should be viewed not just as numbers, but as valuable insights that can guide better decision-making.
And that’s the beauty of Excel — with the right setup, you can turn data into action. The Nine Box Grid is more than just a tool; it’s a roadmap for better understanding your team and their potential.
Final Thoughts
Creating this Nine Box Grid in Excel wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. With a few tables, pivot tables, and a bubble chart, I now have a powerful talent management tool right at my fingertips. It’s a simple, yet effective way to visually track your team’s performance and growth potential, making it easier to identify where you need to focus your attention.
If you’re a team leader, HR professional, or just someone interested in streamlining talent management, I highly recommend giving this a try. It’s easy to build, easy to use, and offers valuable insights into your team’s performance.
Want to try it out for yourself?
You can start building your own Nine Box Grid right away. And if you want more tips, guides, and tutorials on how to make the most of Excel, subscribe to the Excel Highway channel. I’ll be posting more videos and blog posts just like this one, where I share my journey through Excel — from basic tips to advanced techniques.
Thanks for reading, and I hope this tool helps you manage your team more effectively. Let me know in the comments how you use the Nine Box Grid in your own work!