← HR Metrics·Performance & Development
Nine-Box Distribution
Distribution of employees across the 9-box grid
How it’s computed
COUNT(employees) GROUP BY box_position
What the evidence shows
Evidence (effect sizes, priors, validity) is syncing from Principia.
What this metric can show you
Nine-Box Distribution can tell roughly 23 pre-built stories — each a designed scene the data either confirms or it doesn’t. Bring your numbers and the Story Finder runs every one of these shapes against them.
specific to performance & development
It's two companies, split by manager
leadership-quality · T1
Most are fine — a tail is struggling
engagement · T1
The system isn't differentiating
measurement-health · T1
You've quietly stopped promoting from within
development-mobility · T1
Your ratings are compressing
performance · T1
universal shapes — any single metric can take these
A few large values are doing the talking
any focus · T1
A one-time event, not a trend
any focus · T1
It doesn't track — the premise is false
any focus · T1
It's concentrated — one group stands apart
any focus · T1
Scenes are pre-built; your data is the toggle. Browse the full deck or watch one play end-to-end in The Quiet Exodus.
Run it on your data
This metric is computed in the People Analytics Toolbox on your own numbers. See pricing — posted, no quotes.
sources: toolbox:metrics-catalog
What the literature says
The measurement literature behind this signal — sourced, so you can defend it.
“Having employee tenure in years is useful, and yet you can see that almost every employee has a different tenure. If you were to count now by column E, you would not get a useful table or graph. In this example, what you want to do is count those employees with tenure less than…”
— People Analytics For Dummiesmatch 51%
“The following examples show the relative distributions of the most recent performance appraisal ratings of BPD employees in various locations. The first is with three data sets, shown in Figure 3.9 , and the second is with five, shown in Figure 3.10 . One can easily distinguish…”
— Statistics for Compensationmatch 50%
“TABLE 3.14 FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION OF SALARY SURVEY DATA FOR OPERATIONS MANAGERAnnual Salary ($000)No. of Incumbents90–1001100–1102110–1203120–1302130–1401140–1502150–1601160–1700170–1801FIGURE 3.25 HISTOGRAM OF SALARY SURVEY DATA FOR OPERATIONS MANAGER [image "image"…”
— Statistics for Compensationmatch 50%
Resources: People Analytics For Dummies · Statistics for Compensation