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Model 02 of 74 · Leadership & People

People & Talent Maturity Assessment

Assess how well your organisation attracts, develops, and retains its people across the full employee lifecycle.

Pillars & areas

Attract

Find the right people

  1. 01Workforce Planning
  2. 02Recruitment & Hiring
  3. 03Onboarding

Develop

Grow their capability

  1. 04Performance Management
  2. 05Learning & Development

Retain

Keep your best people

  1. 06Engagement & Retention
  2. 07Succession & Workforce Sustainability

Levels

  1. 1InformalReactive & inconsistent
  2. 2ManagedDefined & consistent
  3. 3StrategicData-driven & personalised

01 Workforce Planning

Do you know what talent you need now and in the future, and do you have a plan to get there?

0/4 answered

WP-1How does your organisation identify the skills and roles it will need in the next 1-3 years?

Think about whether you're hiring reactively to fill gaps, or proactively planning for future needs.

WP-2How well does your organisation understand its current workforce capabilities?

Consider whether you have a clear picture of what skills exist across the organisation, or whether it's guesswork.

WP-3How does your organisation balance building internal talent versus hiring externally?

Think about whether internal candidates are genuinely considered for roles, or whether the default is always to hire from outside.

WP-4How does your organisation identify and manage workforce risks?

Workforce risks include key-person dependencies, hard-to-fill skills, upcoming retirements and heavy reliance on contractors.

02 Recruitment & Hiring

How effectively do you attract, assess, and hire the right people?

0/4 answered

RH-1How structured is your hiring process?

Think about whether every candidate goes through a consistent, fair process, or whether it varies by manager.

RH-2How effective is your organisation at attracting diverse, high-quality candidates?

Consider whether your roles attract a broad range of strong candidates, or whether you struggle to get applications.

RH-3How long does it take to fill a role from the point the need is identified?

Think about whether hiring timelines are predictable and reasonable, or whether roles sit vacant for months.

RH-4How well do your new hires perform and stay beyond their first year?

Quality of hire is the ultimate measure — consider whether your hiring process actually predicts success in the role.

03 Onboarding

How well do you set new hires up for success in their first weeks and months?

0/4 answered

OB-1What experience do new hires have in their first week?

Think about whether day one feels planned and welcoming, or chaotic and neglected.

OB-2How long does it take for a new hire to become fully productive in their role?

Consider whether you actively accelerate time-to-productivity, or whether people are left to find their feet.

OB-3How well does onboarding integrate new hires into the team and culture?

Think about whether new hires quickly feel like they belong, or whether they feel like outsiders for months.

OB-4How does your organisation gather and act on feedback from new hires about their onboarding experience?

New hires see the organisation with fresh eyes — their feedback is invaluable for improving the experience.

04 Performance Management

How do you set expectations, track performance, and have honest conversations?

0/4 answered

PM-1How clear are performance expectations for each person in your organisation?

Think about whether every employee could clearly describe what 'good' looks like in their role.

PM-2How frequently do managers and their reports have meaningful performance conversations?

Consider whether performance is discussed only at annual review time, or whether it's a continuous dialogue.

PM-3How fair and consistent is your performance evaluation process across the organisation?

Think about whether performance ratings depend more on the individual's work or on which manager they have.

PM-4How well does your performance process distinguish and respond to different levels of performance?

Consider whether high performers are genuinely rewarded and underperformers are genuinely supported or managed out.

05 Learning & Development

How do you grow people's skills, knowledge, and careers?

0/4 answered

LD-1How accessible are learning and development opportunities across your organisation?

Think about whether development is available to everyone, or only to certain roles or levels.

LD-2How well does your organisation support career progression and internal mobility?

Consider whether people can see a clear path for growth, or whether the only way to progress is to leave.

LD-3How relevant is the learning your organisation provides to what people actually need?

Think about whether training addresses real skill gaps, or whether it's generic content that people sit through to tick a box.

LD-4How does your organisation measure whether learning and development is making a difference?

Consider whether you know if training actually improves performance, or whether you just track attendance.

06 Engagement & Retention

How well do you understand what keeps people, and what drives them away?

0/4 answered

ER-1How does your organisation measure employee engagement?

Think about whether you have real data on how people feel, or whether you assume things are fine because nobody is complaining.

ER-2How well does your organisation understand why people leave?

Consider whether you have honest exit data, or whether people leave and nobody really knows why.

ER-3How competitive and fair is your total compensation and benefits offering?

Think about whether people feel they are fairly paid for their work relative to the market and to their peers.

ER-4How effectively does your organisation recognise and reward good work?

Consider whether recognition happens regularly and meaningfully, or whether people feel their efforts go unnoticed.

07 Succession & Workforce Sustainability

How prepared are you for key departures, and is your talent pipeline healthy?

0/4 answered

SS-1Does your organisation have identified successors for critical roles?

Think about your top 10 most critical roles — for how many of them could you name a ready or near-ready successor?

SS-2How effectively does your organisation develop its next generation of leaders?

Consider whether emerging leaders are given structured development, or whether leadership ability is left to natural talent.

SS-3How well does your organisation retain institutional knowledge when people leave?

Think about whether departures result in knowledge loss, or whether critical knowledge is captured and shared.

SS-4How sustainable is your overall workforce model for the next 3-5 years?

Consider whether you are building a workforce that can adapt to future needs, or whether you're just filling today's gaps.

Self-assessment report

People & Talent

Answer the questions above and your report builds here: an overall score, a score and target for each area, and the three changes that matter most.

About this model

About the People & Talent maturity model

An organisation is only as strong as the people it attracts, develops, and retains. This model assesses the full employee lifecycle — from how you hire, to how you grow people, to how you keep your best talent engaged and performing. It goes beyond HR process maturity into how well the organisation treats people as its most valuable asset in practice, not just in policy.

The best organisations don't just fill roles — they build a workforce that is capable, motivated, and aligned to where the business is heading.

28 questions across 7 key areas, covering the full spectrum of people and talent management. Takes approximately 10-15 minutes to complete.

Suitable for organisations of any size — from startups hiring their first employees to large enterprises managing thousands.

Who this assessment is for

  • HR and people leaders
  • Hiring managers and department heads
  • Chief People Officers and talent teams
  • Senior leaders responsible for workforce strategy
  • Small business owners managing people directly

The three maturity levels

  • Level 1 — Informal: People management is reactive and inconsistent. Hiring is driven by urgency, not strategy. Development is ad-hoc or non-existent. Retention depends on luck, not design. There are few documented processes, and the experience people have varies wildly depending on their manager.
  • Level 2 — Managed: People processes are defined and consistently applied. There is a structured approach to hiring, onboarding, performance, and development. Roles and expectations are clear. The organisation invests in its people, though the approach may still be one-size-fits-all rather than tailored.
  • Level 3 — Strategic: People and talent are managed as a strategic capability. Workforce planning is forward-looking, development is personalised, and the employee experience is deliberately designed. Data informs decisions, high performers are grown and retained, and the organisation is known as a great place to work.

The 7 areas assessed

  1. Workforce Planning — Do you know what talent you need now and in the future, and do you have a plan to get there?
  2. Recruitment & Hiring — How effectively do you attract, assess, and hire the right people?
  3. Onboarding — How well do you set new hires up for success in their first weeks and months?
  4. Performance Management — How do you set expectations, track performance, and have honest conversations?
  5. Learning & Development — How do you grow people's skills, knowledge, and careers?
  6. Engagement & Retention — How well do you understand what keeps people, and what drives them away?
  7. Succession & Workforce Sustainability — How prepared are you for key departures, and is your talent pipeline healthy?

How this model relates to other frameworks

  • Bersin Talent Management Framework
  • CIPD People Profession standards
  • Gallup Employee Engagement research
  • Google's Project Oxygen (management behaviours)
  • SHRM Competency Model

Frequently asked questions

What is the People & Talent maturity model?

Assess how well your organisation attracts, develops, and retains its people across the full employee lifecycle. It is an original, simplified model with three maturity levels (Informal, Managed and Strategic), assessed through 28 questions across 7 areas: Workforce Planning, Recruitment & Hiring, Onboarding, Performance Management, Learning & Development, Engagement & Retention and Succession & Workforce Sustainability.

How long does the People & Talent assessment take?

Most people finish in 11–17 minutes. Each of the 28 questions has three concrete answer options. Your progress is saved in the page URL, so you can bookmark it and come back later.

How is the score calculated?

Each answer scores 1 (Informal), 2 (Managed) or 3 (Strategic). An area's score is the average of its answered questions, and the overall score is the average of the area scores, so every area counts equally. Scores run from 1.0 to 3.0.

Is my data stored or shared?

No. Your answers are never sent to a server. They are stored only in the page URL, which you control. Copy the link to share results with colleagues, or export a PDF or CSV report.

How should I use the results?

Start with "Where to focus" in your report. It lists the questions with the biggest gap to the target you set for each area, and shows what the next level looks like in practice. For a fuller picture, ask several people from different teams to complete the assessment and compare their links. Differences in perception are often as revealing as the scores themselves.