Talent and Performance Management Fundamentals Training Course

Course overview

Talent and performance processes often fail for practical reasons: roles are not defined consistently, managers apply rating scales differently, succession discussions rely on opinion rather than evidence, and development plans are disconnected from business priorities. HR professionals and people managers need a repeatable way to connect workforce capability, individual contribution, performance conversations, and future talent decisions without creating a bureaucratic annual-review exercise. This course addresses the operating foundations required to make talent and performance management credible, fair, and useful.

Participants examine the full talent and performance cycle, from role profiles and competency frameworks through objective setting, continuous feedback, performance reviews, calibration, potential assessment, succession planning, and development planning. They learn to write measurable objectives using SMART and OKR methods, build behaviour-based rating criteria, prepare calibration evidence, identify critical roles, use the nine-box grid responsibly, and translate talent-review findings into focused development and retention actions. The course also covers people metrics, governance controls, bias risks, employee communications, and the practical use of HR technology platforms.

Teaching combines instructor-led explanation with realistic HR cases, manager-conversation practice, spreadsheet-based talent data analysis, and group talent-review workshops. Participants work with sample performance records, competency profiles, succession data, and calibration packs rather than abstract models. By the end of the week, each participant produces a Talent and Performance Management Action Plan containing a draft performance cycle, rating guidance, calibration process, succession approach, core measures, and a 90-day implementation roadmap for their organisation or business unit.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Map an end-to-end talent and performance management cycle aligned to business priorities and workforce needs
• Write SMART objectives and OKRs that connect individual accountabilities to team and organisational goals
• Design competency-based performance criteria and behaviourally anchored rating guidance
• Conduct evidence-based performance calibration using rating distributions, contribution data, and moderation questions
• Apply the nine-box grid to distinguish performance, potential, readiness, and development risk
• Build a succession plan for critical roles using talent pools, readiness categories, and development actions
• Analyse performance and talent data in Microsoft Excel to identify rating patterns, capability gaps, and retention risks
• Produce a 90-day Talent and Performance Management Action Plan with governance, communications, metrics, and implementation milestones

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• HR Business Partners — who need to advise leaders on consistent performance, talent, and succession decisions
• Talent Management Specialists — who design or improve talent review, succession, and development processes
• Performance Management Leads — who administer appraisal cycles and need stronger calibration and rating controls
• Learning and Development Managers — who must convert capability gaps and talent-review outcomes into targeted development plans
• People Managers — who set objectives, conduct reviews, and make development decisions for their teams
• HR Analysts — who report on workforce performance data and need to interpret trends for talent discussions

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have working familiarity with core HR processes, such as job roles, employee records, performance reviews, learning plans, or manager support. Experience participating in an appraisal cycle, talent review, or succession discussion is helpful, as is confidence working with basic tables and charts in Microsoft Excel. The course assumes participants can discuss their organisation's current performance process and business priorities. No prior experience of Workday or SAP SuccessFactors configuration is required, and no advanced statistics, psychometrics qualification, or specialist organisational development background is needed.

Training methodology

The programme uses short instructor-led modules to establish the operating model, followed by hands-on application in a continuing organisational case. Participants draft objectives, assess sample performance evidence, challenge rating decisions in a calibration panel, populate a nine-box talent matrix, and build succession slates for critical roles. Small-group work tests alternative approaches for different business contexts, while facilitator feedback focuses on defensible decisions and usable documentation. The final session converts course outputs into an individual 90-day action plan for implementation in the participant's workplace.

Course outline

Day 1: Building the talent and performance operating model

• Business strategy, workforce capability, and the talent management value chain
• Components of an integrated performance, talent, succession, and development cycle
• Role profiles, accountabilities, and critical-role identification
• Competency frameworks and behavioural indicators for performance assessment
• SMART objectives, OKRs, and outcome-versus-activity measures
• Performance cycle governance, roles, policies, and escalation routes
• Employee communication principles for transparent performance processes

Workshop: Participants map their current or case-study performance and talent cycle, identify process breakpoints, and define a target operating model.

Day 2: Managing performance through evidence and feedback

• Continuous performance management and structured manager check-ins
• Evidence collection from goals, outcomes, behaviours, and stakeholder feedback
• Behaviourally anchored rating scales and rating-definition design
• Performance review documentation and quality-assurance checks
• Feedback models including SBI and feedforward conversations
• Managing underperformance through improvement plans and review milestones
• Fairness, bias, consistency, and documentation risk in appraisal decisions

Workshop: Participants conduct a simulated performance review, document evidence against a rating scale, and draft a performance improvement plan.

Day 3: Calibration and talent assessment

• Purpose, scope, and preparation of performance calibration sessions
• Calibration packs: performance evidence, ratings, demographics, and decision logs
• Rating distribution analysis and outlier identification in Microsoft Excel
• Facilitating calibration discussions and challenging unsupported assessments
• Performance, potential, readiness, and aspiration as distinct talent measures
• Nine-box grid methodology, limitations, and responsible application
• Talent segmentation for high performers, specialists, emerging talent, and retention risks

Workshop: Participants facilitate a calibration-panel case, reconcile proposed ratings, and create a documented nine-box talent matrix.

Day 4: Succession, development, and retention action

• Critical-role risk assessment and succession planning criteria
• Successor identification, readiness categories, and bench-strength analysis
• Talent pools versus named successors and their appropriate use
• Individual development plans using the 70-20-10 development model
• Stretch assignments, mentoring, coaching, and targeted learning interventions
• Career pathways and internal mobility as retention mechanisms
• Talent-review action tracking, ownership, and follow-up governance

Workshop: Participants build a succession slate and development actions for three critical roles, including readiness and retention risk controls.

Day 5: Measurement, technology, and implementation

• Talent and performance scorecards: leading, lagging, and diagnostic measures
• Metrics for goal quality, completion, rating patterns, mobility, succession coverage, and retention
• Using Workday and SAP SuccessFactors workflow concepts for performance and talent processes
• Data quality, access controls, confidentiality, and responsible use of employee data
• ISO 30414 human capital reporting measures and practical reporting boundaries
• Implementation planning, stakeholder mapping, and manager enablement
• Change communications, pilot design, and continuous process improvement

Workshop: Participants complete and present a 90-day Talent and Performance Management Action Plan with measures, owners, risks, and implementation milestones.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, ISO 30414

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions