How do you define high potential employees in your organization?

1 Assess potential, not just performance

Performance is an important indicator of an employee's current value, but it does not necessarily reflect their future potential. To measure potential, you need to look beyond the results and evaluate the underlying behaviors, skills, and motivations that enable an employee to excel in different roles and situations. Factors such as learning agility, leadership potential, and cultural fit should be considered when assessing an employee's potential. Learning agility examines how quickly and effectively an employee can adjust to new challenges and acquire new knowledge and skills. Leadership potential looks at how well an employee can influence, inspire, and empower others, as well as demonstrate strategic thinking and vision. Lastly, cultural fit evaluates how aligned an employee is with your organization's values, mission, and goals, and how they contribute to a positive and collaborative work environment.

2 Use multiple sources of data

To get an accurate and unbiased understanding of an employee's capabilities, data from multiple sources should be collected and analyzed. This includes self-assessment, manager feedback, peer feedback, 360-degree feedback, and psychometric tests. Self-assessment gives insight into the employee's strengths, weaknesses, goals, and aspirations. Manager feedback provides an evaluation of the employee's performance, potential, and development needs. Peer feedback can provide insight into the employee's collaboration, communication, and contribution. 360-degree feedback gives stakeholders such as customers, partners, or senior leaders a chance to rate the employee's impact and value. Lastly, psychometric tests can help assess the employee’s personality, cognitive abilities, and behavior.

3 Define clear criteria and standards

To ensure consistency and fairness in identifying high potential employees, you need to define clear criteria and standards that reflect your organization's vision, strategy, and culture. This should be communicated to your employees, managers, and HR team, so that everyone is aware of the expectations. Establishing a competency framework outlining the core skills and behaviors essential for success is essential. A potential rating scale should also be developed to rank employees based on their current performance and future potential. Additionally, creating a talent pipeline that identifies the current and future roles that high potential employees can fill can help identify gaps and opportunities in your organization.

4 Provide feedback and development opportunities

Identifying high potential employees is not enough. To help them grow and achieve their full potential, you need to provide regular feedback and development opportunities. This can be done through performance reviews and career conversations that identify strengths, areas of improvement, goals, and aspirations, as well as the support and resources they need. Coaching and mentoring programs with senior leaders or external experts can also guide, advise, and challenge employees. Learning and development programs that expose employees to different projects, assignments, roles, and experiences can stretch their skills and abilities. Lastly, recognizing and rewarding an employee's achievements, contributions, and potential for taking risks is important.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?