.svg)
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.
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.
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.
High potential vs high performer: What’s the difference?
Though the terms “high potential” and “high performer” are often used interchangeably, it’s important not to conflate them.
High performers are employees who consistently meet or exceed their current job requirements. They are reliable, productive, and often excel in their specific role. High potentials are employees who show the potential to grow into leadership positions or take on roles with greater responsibility. High potentials demonstrate adaptability, ambition, and a learning mindset that prepares them for future challenges.
Some other characteristics of high potential vs high performer include:
Though every high potential employee should be a high performer, not every high performer is a candidate for future leadership or strategic positions—nor do they always want to be. Some high performers would prefer to remain in individual contributor positions, remaining the backbone of operational success and delivering consistent, dependable results.
Organizations benefit from recognizing and developing both groups to ensure these employees' job satisfaction and overall impact in the company.
Examples of high-potential programs
Below is a list of three 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.
Real-world enterprise program examples
Here is a list of high-potential leadership programs run by top companies around the world:
- BMW, one of the largest industrial organizations in Germany, runs their AcceleratiON program for high-potential employees. This 18-month program rotates participants through departments and locations, completing projects that align with BMW’s core business areas.
- BP has a place as one of the world's largest energy companies. Their Euro Graduate Program offers a unique 2-year program where graduates engage in job rotations that span different teams and functions, providing a broad view of BP’s operations and a comprehensive foundation in both technical and business skills.
- Phillips has been in existence since 1891 when they introduced their first product, an incandescent light bulb. Their Leadership Talent Identification and Business Courses aim to cultivate management and strategic skills in emerging leaders.
- 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.
- The last one we will mention is Rolls-Royce, which offers its Leadership Development program, crafted for mid-career professionals with demonstrated leadership potential. Rolls-Royce partners with institutions like the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College to offer in-depth executive training programs.
Essential components of a high-potential development program
A high-potential development program is key to keeping talented employees engaged and ready for future positions. What are the key elements to ensure a measurable ROI on your HIPO program? We discuss them below.
Mentorship from leaders
Your HIPO program should include mentorship. Pair high potentials with executives or senior leaders within the organization to learn from their managerial skills and experience.
You can have a brief training session where mentors and mentees learn their roles in the relationship. Mentors can provide guidance and help them define their paths.
Learning and accountability from peers
Peers within the HIPO program can hold each other accountable and provide relevant feedback throughout. A tool like Colleague Connect can help match HIPO program participants for peer mentoring.
Group sessions
You should have aspects of the program that include group sessions. This enables relationship building and the chance for participants to learn from each other.
Make a mentoring circle with a diverse group of people from different backgrounds, divisions, or departments within the workplace, providing a variety of experiences to share and learn from.
Personal development plans
Personal development plans (PDPs) create a structured approach for talent growth and maximize the long-term benefits of investing in promising employees. They do this through:
- Targeted skill development: PDPs allow high potential employees to focus on specific skills and competencies essential for future leadership roles.
- Employee engagement and retention: Offering a PDP helps engage HIPO employees and shows your organization’s commitment to their long-term career.
- Accountability and progress tracking: PDPs set measurable goals and deadlines that help both employees and HIPO program administrators track development progress over time.
Focused projects to build key skills
Get participants involved in cross-functional projects that help them hone new skills. This includes assigning projects to individuals for the specific reason of helping them gain certain skills and experiences they'll need as leaders.
This is also a way of aligning the employees with the organization's challenges and connecting them with new experiences.
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.
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.
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.
.svg)
