People Review: definition, strategic value, and how to implement it
A key moment of dialogue between the executive committee, HR teams, and managers, the people review (or talent review) plays a vital strategic role within organizations.
The talent review offers a clear, structured assessment of each employee’s performance and skills. It also helps identify top talent internally and map out their growth potential and career paths.
How can you use Zest to optimize your people review?
People review: why implement it?
✅ Optimize skills management and development
How can you effectively align existing skills with your organization’s current and future needs to avoid costly external hires? That’s the core challenge of skills management.
The talent review also lays the groundwork for building skills development plans and anticipating individual training paths. It’s a key driver of employability and retention in today’s war for talent.
What makes zest different: link the 9-box grid to your skills tracking, or not, depending on your needs.
✅ Identify high-potential employees
People reviews also help you identify internal talent with strong growth and leadership potential. They allow you to build a solid pool of Top Performers by assessing their performance, interpersonal skills, technical expertise, and more.
What makes zest different: identify high potentials using the 9-box grid, fully configurable to match your own criteria.
✅ Simplify career management
Regularly reviewing employee performance and potential helps guide their career progression more effectively. Once again, it’s a key factor in retention. Employees need clear mobility plans and development opportunities to stay engaged.
What makes zest different: the People Review feature gives you a macro-level view of employee performance, complementing your one-on-one conversations.
✅ Strengthen employee loyalty
People reviews play a key role in driving employee satisfaction and retention. With Zest, you can recognize and reward contributions by offering development opportunities and meaningful feedback.
What makes zest different: the People Review feature works hand in hand with the Listen pillar, giving you a holistic view of employee engagement.
✅Gather feedback
People reviews are a great opportunity to gather high-quality, multi-source feedback (annual reviews, manager input, N+X insights, etc.), highlighting each employee’s strengths and areas for growth.
What makes zest different: during their reviews, employees can invite any contributor of their choice, regardless of role or position.
✅ Manage your workforce costs
Continuously assessing performance and engagement helps you understand individual expectations, respond to them, ensure alignment with your company’s vision, and anticipate turnover.
What makes zest different: enhance the effectiveness of your People Reviews while strengthening your employer brand with Zest.
How to prepare effectively for your People Review?
Talent review: who should be involved?
People Reviews bring together three key stakeholders:
1
Executive committee members
Responsible for the company’s strategic vision, executive committee members ensure that proposed actions align with organizational goals, while setting priorities for talent management.
2
HR teams
In charge of launching and overseeing the people review process, HR teams collect and analyze data (talent mapping, evaluations, etc.) and provide strategic recommendations to ensure a structured and effective review.
3
People managers
In direct contact with employees, people managers play a key role in evaluating their teams. Their deep understanding of each team member’s skills, performance, and aspirations provides valuable insights.
When should you launch your People Review?
Schedule it at strategic times such as the end of the fiscal year, the start of a new quarter, or any moment when company goals and priorities are being reassessed. Ideally, run it once a year, just after the annual reviews.
Talent Review: define your objectives beforehand
Before launching your people reviews, clearly define your company’s objectives (growth, strategic priorities) and your HR strategy (skills needs, reducing turnover, cutting external recruitment costs, etc.).
Plan the steps of your People Review
A detailed plan is essential for an effective people review process. Outline each key step, such as collecting employee data (performance, potential, engagement, etc.), holding a prep meeting, creating space for discussion, and more.
Plan ahead for what comes after the Talent Review
The outcomes of your People Reviews should actively support talent development and your broader strategy. Share the results, launch tailored development and career management plans, and take action on promotions, raises, or internal mobility opportunities.
How to run successful People Reviews?
Identify your Top Talent:
- Employees (young graduates or more experienced staff) with above-average performance
- High-potential talent identified as future high-performing leaders
- Engaged individuals with strong growth potential and high value for the organization
Set up a dedicated committee: it’s essential to bring together a People Review committee, even if not all members can attend every session.
Collect feedback beforehand: to enrich the discussion, you can gather input ahead of time, especially as a complement to annual reviews.
People Review: a four-step framework
Identifying talent
Start by identifying your top talent, those with strong growth and leadership potential within the organization. Spotting these profiles helps you retain them, reduce turnover, and support their internal development.
Training and follow-up
Guide your talent toward training paths and roles that match their skills and ambitions. The success of your People Reviews also depends on what comes next, so be sure to follow through to avoid disengagement and mistrust.
Evaluation
Once you have identified your top talent, assess their technical skills, interpersonal abilities, and individual performance.
Qualification
Each employee can now be assessed based on their strengths, areas for improvement, and development potential.
How to make your People Review a success?
Here are five key drivers of employee engagement. Each one is a powerful lever to boost team commitment and performance :
Align your People Review with your strategy
Customize it to reflect your company’s unique values and future needs. Clarify its goals and focus areas, define the performance criteria to assess, and align everything with both employee expectations and your strategic priorities.
Involve managers in the process from the start
Operational managers are your best allies when it comes to preparing and launching your People Reviews. They work closely with employees on a daily basis, making them well-positioned to gather high-quality feedback.
Communicate about your People Review internally
Transparent and consistent communication builds trust and highlights the value of the process. It also helps boost employee engagement and loyalty by recognizing each person’s potential.
Use additional evaluation and feedback methods
Complement your People Reviews with other tools such as continuous evaluations and regular one-on-one meetings, to build a holistic and consistent approach to talent development.
Leverage digital tools to run your people review
Finally, simplify, streamline, and scale your People Reviews by using dedicated digital tools.
How to manage the post–People Review phase?
- The importance of post–People Review follow-up: The real impact of a people review lies in how well the decisions are put into action. Turning those insights into concrete steps is essential to creating real value.
- Action plan management: Involve the right people to ensure effective follow-up.
- Different approaches to sharing results: Some companies choose to share People Review outcomes widely with both managers and employees.
- Minimum visibility for managers: It is essential that managers who took part in the People Review have access to its conclusions.
Zest: the solution that supports your People Reviews over the long term
Enrich your People Review with manager-employee feedback
Feedback plays a key role in fueling People Reviews by providing objective, well-rounded insights into technical skills, interpersonal abilities, and individual performance.
The Zest digital suite makes it easy to gather employee data (performance, potential, engagement, etc.) and practice regular active listening. Identify strengths, understand individual expectations, and effectively spot high-potential talent. Empower your HR teams and leaders to make smarter decisions around career development, training needs, and assigning top talent to key roles.
Visualize your talent with a 9-box grid
The 9-box grid is a widely used HR tool for mapping talent across the organization. It helps position employees based on their performance and potential, making it easy to visually identify top talent.
Tailor your 9-box grid to your specific needs
Customize the 9-box grid based on your own criteria by selecting the indicators that reflect your company’s reality and help you assess employee performance and contribution.
FAQ
Do you have any questions?
Who should lead the People Reviews?
People Reviews can be led by HR leaders, direct managers, and sometimes the executive team. This approach combines strategic perspective with in-depth knowledge of individual performance.
What tools should you use to run an effective Talent Review?
Performance matrices, talent management solutions like Zest, and 360° feedback platforms can all be used. They help collect accurate data and track progress over time.
Why use software to run your People Reviews?
A complete solution like Zest centralizes data, standardizes the process, and enables real-time tracking. It improves collaboration and keeps a clear record of past reviews.
What are some examples of successful People Reviews?
Companies like Google with “Googlegeist,” Microsoft with “Connect,” Courir with Zest, and Deloitte with its forward-looking review system have all implemented successful People Reviews. These approaches encourage continuous feedback and help boost employee engagement.
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