Examples of High-Potential Programs

It can be challenging to find successors to key positions in your company. You may already have employees with the right talent and ambition, but no way to help them make the right moves to new internal opportunities. If you don’t have the right employee development programs in place, these high potential (HiPo) employees will most likely move on to opportunities elsewhere.

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This is where a high potential development program comes in. 

Our team at Together has helped hundreds of organizations launch mentoring programs for high-potential employees with our mentorship platform. 

In doing so, we’ve learned how you and your employees can get the most out of high potential development programs.

In this article, we’re going to unpack four examples and how to implement your own high potential program.

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What is a high potential program?

High potential development programs are usually created so companies can develop and keep high potential employees.

These are employees that not only exceed expectations but are constantly looking for ways to boost the business and others around them. A high potential employee program is designed to ensure they find a position within the company where their skills are best suited. 

At its core, high potential programs are designed to improve employee retention and engagement as well as aid you in leadership succession planning.

For example, you have a sales manager whose team is top in their region. Could she handle a larger team? Would her skills be better used in a different department? You don’t have to know everything right away. It is about looking at their potential within the company.

A high potential program can include mentorship programs, individual coaching, skills-based training, or career management and will vary depending on your industry, company, or employee.

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Examples of high-potential programs

Below is a list of four examples of high-potential programs. Developed by key thought leaders, institutions, and organizations, each works best within different industries and company structures. Which approach would fit your company best?

• Workforce potential assessment: These are tools to help you assess the potential of all your employees. You can use an approach, like the 9 box talent review, to assess individuals to see if they are suitable or could be trained for a different role or leadership. It can also be used to find potential gaps within your company’s workforce.
• Career development programs: This is where high-potential employees work with their managers and HR to fill out a career mapping template and undergo training to reach the next milestones. A career development program requires a very personalized approach.
• 3E approach (Education, Experience, Exposure): This approach says 10% of knowledge comes from education, 70% from experience, and 20% from exposure. This model uses this to support a high-potential employee’s development. Education relates to formal learning. Experience relates to on-the-job learning. Exposure is related to social learning.
• Extreme Blue for IBM leaders: This is an intensive management program created by International Business Machines (IBM) to find a manager’s strengths and weaknesses. The Extreme Blue program is where the employee takes on their first management role. Based on assessments, they then continue on to other programs, depending on their needs.

Learn more about these examples to decide which best suits your company and your goals. To get a better picture on how these can help your company, let’s explore the benefits of high potential programs.

What are the benefits of high potential employee programs?

There are a lot of benefits to starting a high potential program. To help you figure out how to structure your own, decide which benefit is most important to you and your company’s goals. We’ve categorized these benefits into three buckets:

Increased participation from employees

High-potential employees need a challenge. You want to give them stretch assignments where they can learn and drive a positive impact for the organization. 

Challenging them with these employee engagement ideas builds on their enthusiasm for the job. These employees need challenges and activities where they can grow their skillset, along with the tools to complete them. High potential development programs can help these employees stay challenged, interested, and engaged.

Helps train and prepare employees

High potential programs are a chance to find gaps in employees’ knowledge and to build on skills they already have while preparing potential leaders to step into new roles. High potential employees tend to be quick studies who will benefit from ongoing upskilling and reskilling programs.

Increased employee retention rate

High potential employees are ambitious and constantly seeking to better themselves. So without these high potential development programs, these employees will start to look elsewhere for growth. This is evident in the study by McKinsey that shows 40% of employees globally plan to leave their jobs in the near future.

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6 best practices for a high potential program

We’ve covered a lot of the basics of high potential programs. By this point, you understand why these programs are important, how they benefit you, and some HIPO program examples. You’re now ready to get started planning your own program.

Below, we’ll walk through actionable ways you can develop your high potential employees. These best practices aren’t in any particular order but are tactics you should have in your HiPo strategy to keep these employees engaged, learning, progressing, and—ultimately—staying.

1. Frequent assignments

To find the real potential in your employees, they need to be constantly working towards new objectives. 

Frequent and varied assignments will challenge them and test their skills. Rotating their roles within the company (also known as job shadowing) exposes employees to the different areas of your business. A multi-skilled employee is a much more valuable asset.

💡 To learn more about rotating roles, learn more about job shadowing benefits and how to get started.

2. Assess their ability to perform

High-potential employees don’t want to feel boxed into certain roles where they are just following orders. They need the freedom to hone their skills. 

Creating business simulations where high-potential employees have a problem to solve will encourage them to use their initiative and flex their skills.

Employees would have to do research and weigh up the benefits and drawbacks to their solution. They would also be in charge of the final decision and justification. They would be assessed on their decision-making methods as well as their final results.

3. Provide high-potential employees with leadership roles

A high potential program is not only about training high potential people but finding where they fit best within your company.

Many companies lose their high-potentials to other companies because they do not feel valued or have not found their place within the company. 

It’s important to give high-potential employees a chance to prove themselves and use their knowledge and skills to benefit the entire company. It can then be decided what further talent development they need to fill the role in the future.

4. Connect high-potential employees with mentors

High potential programs are often created to find the successor to important roles within the company. So it makes sense for high-potential employees to have access to people currently working in these positions. They can see the inner workings of their potential future roles and gain some insight from the current employee.

Exposure to other high-potential employees who have completed the high-potential employee mentorship programs would also be beneficial. Hearing from others and looking at how they have progressed would help high-potential employees make the most of the high-potential employee program.

5. Give high-potential employees detailed feedback about their performance

Feedback is one of the most important parts of any program and should be a two-way process. Mentors, coaches, or program leaders should provide feedback on the progress the high-potential employees are making, just as participants in the program should feel encouraged to provide feedback on how successful the program is.

Feedback gives employees and employers a chance to examine performance. High-potential employees tend to be competitive and strive to do better. So feedback needs not only to be detailed; it must be personalized to individual employees. Afterall, feedback is a large contributing factor to how engaged your high performers are.

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High-potential employees should also be given a chance to be assessed by themselves and their peers. Self-reflection is an important skill to have if they plan to progress within a company. Peer assessments are key as these are the people who will be working with the employee.

6. Establish networking opportunities

High-potential employees will benefit from networking with like-minded people within and outside your company. Internal networking creates stronger connections, which means that employees are more likely to remain with your company. 

But external connections are also important for employees, such as industry organizations, local professional groups, etc. This will give high-potential employees a larger pool of resources to work with, giving them more networking opportunities.

How to implement a high potential program

Now that you have an idea of different activities to include in your high potential employee program, let’s walk through how to start your own high potential program.

Define what you are looking for in a high-potential employee

The first step in creating your high potential employee program is to find out what you are looking for in a high-potential employee. This can be difficult as there is no one-size-fits-all method. 

Do you want employees that aren’t afraid to take risks, work well under pressure, or members of staff that demonstrate curiosity or creativity? Think carefully about what your company needs, including what roles you may have to fill in the future.

Identify your company’s high-potential employees

The next step is to identify your high-potential employees. You could ask for manager or peer recommendations, review previous appraisal records or conduct new ones. You could even conduct personality tests to see which employees possess the traits you’re looking for.

Once you have some promising candidates, you will need to conduct a selection process. Are employees allowed to apply for your high-potential programs, or will they be individually selected?

Create a detailed outline for your program

It is vital to ensure that your high-potential employees know what to expect during the program, as well as what is expected of them. Provide an outline and set clear goals. You will also need to think about how your program will affect any current roles and deadlines. 

Engage, develop, and keep your high performers

Implementing your high potential program will take time to develop. There’s no one-size-fits-all that suits every company or individual employee, so take the time to learn how to support your company’s goals as well as each high performer through their career development. 

Review your company’s values, goals, skill gaps, or leadership needs to understand exactly what you’re looking for in high-potential employees. Find your employees that fit this criterion and guide them. Remember to be persistent in your efforts. Not all employees who show potential will meet your expectations. But the ones who do will be valuable assets to the company.

Ready to create your own high potential program? Together can help. Book a demo with one of our experts today.