Before you start

• The review must include the Manager to direct report review type. The potential questions are only asked to managers.
• The review must be a Draft. This feature can't be turned on or off after launch.
• To appear on the 9-box grid, a person also needs a performance score, so use Final question or Custom weights, not Without score

Step by step 

1. Go to Performance > Reviews and open the draft review (or use the New review wizard).
2. Click Edit and open Features.
3. Turn on Add potential score.
4. In the Questionnaire, open the Manager tab. An Overall potential section appears with the question "How would you evaluate this person's potential?" and the note "Visible only to managers and performance review process owners. It won't be visible to the evaluated person."
5. Optionally, customize the potential questions. See Customize the potential questions.
6. Launch the review as usual.

Customize the potential questions

1. Open the draft review, or open a custom template in Performance > Reviews > Templates and click Edit.
2. In the Questionnaire, open the Manager tab and scroll to the Overall potential section.
3. Edit the questions like any other part of the questionnaire:
   • Click Add new question to add a question. Any answer type works: Rating, Free text, Number, Single choice or Multiple choice.
   • Click Add section to group potential questions, for example "Learning agility" and "Ambition".
   • Use the menu (…) on a question or section to Edit, Duplicate or Delete it, and drag to reorder.
4. Keep at least one Mandatory Rating question. New rating questions in the potential section are mandatory by default.
5. Changes save automatically.

How the potential score is calculated

The potential score is the average of the rating questions the manager answered in the Overall potential section. Other answer types are shown in the review but don't count towards the score.

Example on a 1–5 company scale: the manager answers 4 to "Learning agility" and 5 to "Ambition". The potential score is (4 + 5) / 2 = 4.5.

Rules and behavior

• If Add potential score is on, then every manager review ends with the Overall potential section.
• If you save the potential questions without a mandatory rating question, then the change is rejected with "At least one mandatory rating question is needed to calculate the potential score".
• Rating questions in the potential section always use the company score scale, not the questionnaire's Scoring range.
• If you create a review from a custom template, duplicate a review or save a review as a template, then the potential questions are copied too.
• If a review was launched before custom potential questions were available, then it keeps its single Overall potential question.
• If you are the evaluated person, then you never see your potential score in the review or in your results.
• If you are an admin, a review owner or the person's manager, then you can see the potential score.
• If a review is Finished and has potential scores, then Talent Analytics uses the latest completed review to place people on the 9-box grid. Talent Analytics is available to admins only.
• If a person has a performance score but no potential score, then they don't appear on the 9-box grid.

Troubleshooting

• Symptom: "The 9-box grid says 'We could not get any data'." → Cause: the last completed review didn't have Add potential score on, or has no performance scores. → Fix: turn on Add potential score and a score mode in the next review.
• Symptom: "I can't delete a potential question" or "At least one mandatory rating question is needed to calculate the potential score". → Cause: the change would leave the Overall potential section without a mandatory rating question. → Fix: add another mandatory rating question first, or mark an existing rating question as Mandatory.
• Symptom: "I can't edit the potential questions." → Cause: the review is no longer a draft, or you are looking at a predefined template. → Fix: edit them in a draft review or a custom template. Duplicate a predefined template to edit it.
• Symptom: "I can't find Add potential score." → Cause: the review is no longer a draft. → Fix: it can only be set before launch.

FAQ

1. How many questions measure potential?
By default, one: "How would you evaluate this person's potential?", answered by the manager. You can replace it or add more questions, as long as at least one is a mandatory rating question.

2. Do free text questions count towards the potential score?
No. Only rating questions count. Use other answer types to collect context for the score.

3. Why does a person have a potential score of 4.5 on a 1–5 scale?
The score is the average of several rating answers, so it can fall between two values of the scale.

4. Can employees see where they are on the 9-box grid?
No. The potential score is never shown to the evaluated person.

5. Which scale do the potential questions use?
The company score scale from Settings > People > Reviews.