8MAP, the methodology we use to assess your team.

8MAP is Escal8's talent assessment methodology. It reads every person across 8 dimensions from 4 sources: the person, their manager, their peers and their direct reports. Each dimension rests on a recognised framework from organisational psychology.

Why the 8MAP measures 8 talent dimensions

Each dimension answers a question the other seven cannot reach.

A performance review tells you how someone works today. To decide who to develop, who to retain and how to spread the workload you need more readings of the same person, taken at the same time. The 8MAP organises them into four questions.

What do they do and what can they do?

Performance · Skills · Digital fluency

The three readings of observable work: the results they deliver, what they know how to do, and how fluently they move between digital tools and AI.

How far can they grow?

Growth potential

Without this dimension you would only see current performance and would not know who is worth developing or promoting.

How do they experience their work?

Culture & engagement · Workload

Culture precedes performance, risk and potential, and team engagement is consistently associated with business outcomes (Harter, Schmidt and Hayes, 2002).

What could you lose and what can be improved?

Risk · Automation

Risk crosses the other readings to anticipate an exit or burnout, and Automation shows which part of the work can be automated.

Each dimension rests on a recognised framework, and the value shows up when you cross them.

A configurable assessment methodology: engagement, 360 or bespoke

Your first assessment does not have to be the full 8MAP.

With the same methodology you can run only what your team needs this quarter. You adjust the weight of each dimension, see in a simulator how the results change before applying it, and Kova runs every conversation over WhatsApp.

1 dimension

An employee engagement survey

One reading of culture and engagement, without opening the rest of the methodology.

3 dimensions

A 360 review

All four sources on performance and skills, with upward feedback always aggregated.

5 dimensions

A bespoke assessment

The dimensions your team needs this quarter, weighted the way you decide.

8 dimensions

The full 8MAP

All eight dimensions crossed, with the Workforce Intelligence Score at the end.

AI-led 360 assessment: the 4 voices

Each source sees behaviour the others do not. The 8MAP asks all four about the same person, at the same time.

The person

How they see their role, their workload and their environment, how structurable their tasks are and where they want to grow.

Their direct manager

Quality, volume, deadlines and reliability, plus their potential, their skills and how well documented their knowledge is.

Their peers

Skills they observe, how the team works and how disagreements get handled.

Their direct reports

Clarity of expectations, recognition, autonomy and what they need from their leader.

This voice is always aggregated: the leader never sees individual comments.

What Kova does in the interview

Kova asks the questions that match the role of whoever is answering, follows up when an answer is ambiguous or contradicts something said earlier, and asks for concrete examples when an answer is generic. If harassment, violence, mental health or a formal complaint comes up, Kova does not dig further and points to your company's formal channel.

What every person knows before starting

  • That they are talking to an AI.
  • That the interview is not a reporting channel, and which channel is.
  • That someone else will see the result, and that they can leave unanswered anything they would rather not have seen.

8MAP design decisions and the evidence behind them

Every rule in the 8MAP answers a known problem in assessing people. This is the list, with the research behind each one.

01

4 sources instead of 1

The manager, peers, direct reports and the person see different behaviour. Each source contributes information the others do not have.

02

Upward feedback is always aggregated

People who rate their manager with their name attached tend to rate higher. Anonymity protects the honesty of the answer.

03

Fixed questions per role

Everyone in the same role answers the same catalogue of questions, and Kova asks for concrete examples when an answer is generic.

04

Task and contextual performance kept apart

If everything collapses into a single score, whoever stands out in one aspect ends up rated outstanding across the board.

05

Potential from 2 sources, without assuming growth means leading

The 9 box is usually built on a single rater's opinion, and many potential models penalise people who want to grow as specialists.

06

Risk is calculated by crossing variables, not adding them

Burnout shows up when job demands exceed the resources to meet them, not because one variable is high.

07

Automation is measured by task, not by job

Almost no job is fully automatable; what changes is which tasks inside the job are.

08

A doubtful data point does not get in

An ambiguous answer turned into a number contaminates the group's result.

09

Human review before anything is shared

Kova runs the conversation, but a person reviews the result before it reaches your company.

What the Workforce Intelligence Score (WIS) is

The Workforce Intelligence Score sums up in a single number, out of 100, the state of talent in your company, a department or a team. By default it combines 6 dimensions: culture, performance, potential, digital fluency, skills and workload.

Every company defines what the WIS means for them. If performance weighs more than digital fluency in your operation, HR adjusts the weight of each dimension and sees in a simulator how the results change before applying it.

Only HR sees the WIS. Leaders do not, because it includes dimensions they have no access to.

WIS

74

out of 100

Dimensions it is built from

  • Culture & engagement
  • Performance
  • Growth potential
  • Digital fluency
  • Skills
  • Workload

Risk and automation are read separately.

Questions about the 8MAP methodology

What is the 8MAP?+

It is Escal8's talent assessment methodology. It reads every person across 8 dimensions from 4 sources (the person, their manager, their peers and their direct reports) and delivers an individual development plan plus a map of the team's gaps and strengths.

Which dimensions does the 8MAP measure?+

Performance, skills, digital fluency, growth potential, culture and engagement, workload, risk and automation.

Is the 8MAP a psychometric test?+

It is not a clinical psychometric test and it does not replace a psychological assessment. It is an AI-led 360 assessment that combines 4 sources and rests on organisational psychology frameworks for each dimension.

What is the Workforce Intelligence Score?+

It is a score out of 100 that sums up the state of talent in a company, a department or a team. Every company adjusts how much each dimension weighs in their WIS.

What is people analytics?+

It is the use of data about a company's people to make talent decisions: who to develop, where there is exit risk, or how to spread the workload. The 8MAP is the methodology Escal8 uses to generate that data.

Is the assessment run by an AI?+

The conversation is run by Kova, Escal8's AI, over WhatsApp or on the web, in about 15 minutes per person. No result is shared without human review, and HR makes the decisions together with each leader.

Can I use only part of the methodology?+

Yes. You can run an engagement survey, a 360 review or a bespoke assessment, and adjust the weight of each dimension.

Review the methodology with your Talent team

We walk you through the 8MAP with a sample team and answer your Talent team's questions.

Contact sales