Internal Talent Discovery: Opportunity Conversation Worksheet

1. Publish the opportunity brief

Give the person enough information to decide whether a conversation is useful. Use the same current brief for comparable invitations, and link to the authoritative vacancy, project or development process where one exists.

• Opportunity: role, project, shadowing or stretch assignment, with its purpose and current status.
• Work: the main tasks, expected contribution and evidence the formal process will consider.
• Conditions: duration, hours, location, schedule, travel, language and reporting line as known.
• Support: induction, supervision, learning or workload arrangement already approved or still to confirm.
• Process: eligibility, decision owner, formal steps, relevant dates and route for questions or adjustments.
• Conversation boundary: exploration is optional and does not confer preference, nomination or selection.

2. Ask for interest and conditions separately

Start with what the employee wants to understand rather than asking for a commitment. Capture their words faithfully and let them limit what may be passed to the opportunity owner.

• What part of this work, if any, would you like to explore?
• What would you want to learn or contribute?
• Which time, location, workload or support conditions would affect your interest?
• What information do you need before deciding whether to continue?
• Would you like a follow-up, and which parts of this note may be shared for that purpose?
• Would you prefer to stop here? Record that choice without turning it into a capability judgement.

3. Record evidence leads without scoring them

If the employee offers a work example, capture only enough detail for an appropriate reviewer to decide whether it is relevant. Move to the separate skills evidence card when the example needs structured examination.

• Claim: the task or experience described by the employee.
• Context: when, where and under which conditions it occurred.
• Contribution: what the person did and what support or team contribution was involved.
• Reviewable item: an authorised work sample, record or person who could confirm the context.
• State: self-reported, awaiting review, reviewed for a specific task or not available.
• Limit: what this example does not establish about the new opportunity.

4. Create a consented human handoff

The output is a short next-conversation record, not a talent match. Read it back to the employee, correct misunderstandings and send only the agreed fields to the named owner through an authorised route.

• Employee choice: continue exploring, ask for information, revisit later or stop.
• Questions and conditions: preserve open items without translating them into lack of commitment.
• Evidence lead: what may be reviewed, by whom and for which stated purpose.
• Next exchange: named owner, participants, purpose and expected date.
• Feedback: who will tell the employee what happened, including when no next step is available.
• Formal route: application, assessment or approval process the person may choose to enter.

5. Audit access without interpreting silence

After the invitation period, review which roles, shifts, locations and working patterns could access the same opportunity information and conversation route. Check whether questions were answered and handoffs occurred when requested. A missing response does not show missing interest or ability. Improve access or the brief before repeating the invitation; examine the formal process separately for fairness and job relevance.

Why this guide is useful

Use this original worksheet when an internal project, stretch assignment, shadowing arrangement or role is defined well enough for an exploratory conversation. A hidden-skills session starts from a shared work problem and invites possible experience; a skills evidence card examines one task example. This page starts from a specific opportunity and creates a consented handoff to its human owner. It does not rank people or create a parallel selection process.

Open a conversation, not a readiness verdict

Prepare the same factual opportunity brief for everyone invited: purpose, work, time, location, support, eligibility, decision owner and formal process. US OPM’s job-analysis guidance connects role requirements to actual tasks and competencies. In the UK, Acas advises employers to follow a fair recruitment process and use the information and criteria communicated to applicants. An exploratory conversation can identify questions and evidence worth examining; any selection or promotion decision belongs in the organisation’s applicable, job-related process.

Concrete example

Fictional example: a customer-operations team offers an eight-week, four-hours-per-week assignment to improve its handover guide. Sam chooses an exploratory conversation and says the documentation work is interesting, provided the time is agreed with the current manager. Sam describes reorganising a local troubleshooting note, but the note and its context have not yet been reviewed. The handoff records the interest, time condition, example to examine and two questions about meeting times and access. The opportunity owner agrees to answer within five working days and invite Sam to the published assessment step if Sam still wishes to continue. The conversation does not label Sam ready, compare Sam with colleagues or reserve the assignment.

Sources

• Acas: how employers should recruit
• Acas: choosing who to interview
• US OPM: job analysis, tasks and competencies