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A High-Potential Employees Program Cultivates Future Stars in Gainesville, FL

Identify and Effectively Train Your Company's Next Superstars with a High-Potentials Leadership Development Program in the Gainesville area

Wise entrepreneurs and seasoned executives know that prosperity depends upon a solid company infrastructure, an efficient business plan and talented employees. Turning a profit and staying successful takes insight and careful planning. Effective, engaging staff training and leadership development programs can help your company establish a positive atmosphere and can lay the foundation for genuine long-term success. Well-designed high potential leadership development programs for hi potential employees are vital because they teach your HiPos how to channel their gifts, work well with others and inspire their peers.

Who are High-Potential Employees?

High-potential employees are a relatively rare breed. They’re people who rise successively through multiple management levels, inspire the individuals in their departments and achieve consistently good results. When business owners identify high-potential employees — also known as HiPos — early on, they can develop their most promising leaders via HiPo programs. While all employees deserve effective training programs, high-quality High potential development programs are especially vital to success because they strengthen company structure and prepare businesses for the future.

What Do High-Potential Development Programs Do?

Essentially, well-conceived HiPo development programs take individuals with great leadership potential and develop those management skills to the max. Department heads and other leaders identify high-potential talent, typically through proven employee potential assessment tools and then invite the HiPos to enter a leadership development program in which they are granted access to interdisciplinary learning opportunities, given real-world challenges to solve and are coached and mentored on a one-to-one basis. Your high-potential candidates then use their newly honed skills to excel in their existing roles and advance smoothly through the ranks.

One of the best peripheral payoffs of a great high potential employee development program is its effect on other employees, who reap many benefits when their managers go through advanced training and development initiatives.  High otential development programs frequently cause positive paradigm shifts when they’re properly implemented, making both individuals and the companies they work for more successful.

Why Are HiPo Employees So Hard to Identify?

All employees play vital roles in their employers’ successes: Naturally, some people outperform others, and they tend to be seen in a more favorable light by line managers and HR personnel. “High potential” and “high performance” are not interchangeable descriptors, however. High-potential employees form about 3 to 5 percent of any company’s workforce, and the following characteristics can make them easier to identify:

• Though high-potential and high-performance employees both achieve consistently good results, only high-potential individuals reliably perform well when they’re promoted.
• High-potential employees have a deep-seated desire to learn and then to use what they’ve learned to tackle challenges.
• High-potentials, also known as HiPos, have dynamic instincts, which make it easier for them to assess situations and avoid risks in real time.
• High-potential employees aren’t afraid to travel off well-beaten paths to find new ways forward and to discover new solutions to old problems.
• HiPos have an almost compulsive drive to succeed, even if it means that they have to stay late, put in more effort than teammates or even exhaust themselves.

When managers and existing executives identify high-potential employees, and create a high potentials employee development program to help those individuals succeed. In turn, they stand a much better chance of promoting from within when vacancies arise.

Why Are HiPo Development Programs Vital?

Naturally talented people are tremendously useful and add value to any corporation. But talent isn’t enough to guarantee either personal or overall success. Talent is a tool: when used correctly, it can broker deals, cut through red tape and break quarterly sales records. When neglected, however, talent alone doesn’t breed accomplishment.

High Potential employee development programs help kindle talent and drive success in three distinct ways, particularly if HiPo employees are identified early in their careers:

1. High potential leadership development programs focus on methods for success as well as results. In the regular business world, bonuses and accolades frequently depend upon results alone, but in the high-potential world, methods matter too. High-potential managers don’t use negative reinforcement or bullying to make staff members work harder, for example — even if those tactics break sales records.

2. Effective high potentials leadership programs help guide early-stage high-potentials as they make developmental decisions. The earlier high-potential employees go into a HiPo development program, the more quickly they’ll develop and the further they’ll go. When companies develop high performing individuals expediently, they set themselves up for ongoing success.

3. High potential employee development programs help prevent burnout. When left to their own devices, driven individuals often push themselves to the brink of total exhaustion. High-potential development programs help HiPo employees pace themselves, so they stay healthier in the long term and remain loyal to the company.

When companies are able to identify high-potential employees, HR professionals and those involved with talent management can reduce dropout rates associated with people leaving the company and also save money on wasted resources and needless expenses.

When you can use a high-potential program to target these employees, this results in satisfied individuals who are more likely to stay with the company over the long-term. Of the current crop of millennial workers, who made up 53.5 percent of the labor force in 2015 according to U.S. Census Bureau data, 91 percent said they plan to stay at their current job fewer than just three years. With such high turnover rates, it’s vital that companies first identify talented individuals and then invest in HiPo leadership programs to combat attrition. When a company is able to engage in accurate high-potential employee development programs, they benefit from:

• A stronger bench of high-potential employees to fill key positions
• Shorter learning curves when transitions are made
• A larger pool of key talent and flexibility within it
• Consistently high performance from a steady supply of talent

Systematic high-potential employee identification also erases the perception from other employees that high-potential employees programs are not applied consistently, or that only a few employees are targeted for HiPo programs. To ensure high-potential programs are applied consistently and that appropriate participants are identified from all levels and departments, companies can engage in the following steps:

• Ensure existing leadership understand what HiPo employees look like
• Create a mechanism by which leadership, HR, and other stakeholders can tract potential HiPos
• Pay attention to both performance metrics and an employee’s interaction with team members, leadership, customers, problems and the work in general; metrics alone do not accurately identify HiPos
• Invest in high-potential employee training programs to best cultivate HiPo talent

It’s certainly easier said than done, and that’s why your company can benefit from a high-potential leadership program to help you identify specific criteria, find ways to make it measurable and learn how to assemble a talented pool of high-potential employees. Keeping high-potential employees engaged within your organization is important, because 55 percent of these key potential leaders are prone to leaving your company if they don’t feel engaged. Participating in our high-potential program helps ensure your most talented employees don’t decide to take their expertise and knowledge elsewhere.

When to Hone High-Potential Employees

Most businesses identify high-potential employees at two key points: early in their careers and when individuals are promoted into senior management positions. Opportunities for growth abound at both junctures, though a high potential development program and corresponding training methods used may vary.

• Early-stage HiPo development courses leverage technology, internal mentoring, cross-functional exposure initiatives and existing resources to hone skill in a cost-efficient way. The earlier high-potential individuals begin training, the further they may go.
• Succession planning initiatives that include middle-management and later stage high potentials can embrace high potential development programs best practices by leveraging the experience and knowledge of more senior employees.  Often this type of program requires more customization and thus a little more investment, but can reliably help talented managers and even executives excel in senior management positions. An effective high-potential employee program does not exclude late-blooming high potentials. In fact, the more experienced hipos add significant value and depth to an executive potential program. We encourage our clients to consider a customized, top-down development approach to capture the wealth of experience gained in a lifetime on the job.

In either case, effective HiPo development programs help drive company growth and give businesses unique competitive advantages.

High Potential Leadership Development FAQs

Q: Why are high potential employee development programs so important?

A: Whenever possible, all employees at a business should be given access to high-quality training programs. Having said that, high-potential employees require special attention because they function as key players in your company and hold the power to influence others. Furthermore, developing high potential employees has been shown to reduce turnover, improve innovation, and positively impact the bottom line.

Q: What makes a HiPo development program great?

A: Superior high-potential programs are tailor made for your particular company and built to help your particular batch of HiPo employees succeed. An effective high potential program should consider your company’s mission, values, leadership competencies, and strategic trajectory.  

Additionally, a qualified high potential program partner will customize the program to meet the needs of any level of employee while still challenging your most experienced HiPos.  

Your high potential employee development program should be built using best practices and include various components such as high potential employee assessment tools, feedback and development planning, one-on-one coaching and/or peer to peer coaching, leadership competency instruction, real-business simulations, shark tank style capstone projects to build business acumen, internal mentoring, and cross-organizational introductions, etc.  

There’s no such thing as a ‘one-size-fits-all’ HiPo program.  Instead, we encourage you to give TurnKey a call at 281-469-4244 to explore the right components for your employee development needs, budget, culture, and strategic priorities.

Q: How do High Potential Leadership Programs benefit my business?

After a successful high-potential employee development program concludes, participants return to their roles with renewed vigor, tackle challenges with fresh enthusiasm and advance to new management positions with greater confidence.   The comradery built within the program, amongst their peers, continues to thrive and supports greater networking and interpersonal effectiveness.

Providing your high-potential employees with a career plan and development opportunities fosters a happier culture. And, according to a recent Columbia University study happy company cultures have a turnover rate of 13.9 percent on average; compared to their counterparts with lower morale, where turnover is more likely to be in the 48.4 percent range.

Furthermore, according to the Department of Economics and the University of Warwick, happy employees are 12 percent more productive than average employees.  The research also showed that unhappy employees cost American businesses more than $300 billion annually.

The case is strong to take your high potential employee development goals seriously.

HiPo management isn’t without struggles. Aside from being hard to identify, HiPos can be difficult to keep because they need to be challenged. High potential employee assessments and high potential development programs let you identify and cultivate gifted individuals within your organization, providing them with relevant skill sets and practice so they’re ready to take on new challenges with your company. Our high-potential employee programs let you take advantage of proven, high potential employee development best practices and our experts who understand what works and what doesn’t. We engage with our clients to create custom training for your HiPo teams that include any number of unique components. Including:

• 360 feedback or personality assessments (including high potential employee assessments)
• One on one Coaching / Group Coaching
• Active Learning / Training / Lunch and Learns
• Shark Tank Style Capstone Projects With Mock Investor Panel
• Manager Input / Facilitated Supervisor Benchmarks
• Job Benchmarking for High Performance
• Team Development and Team Building
• Career Planning
• Development Planning and Competency Benchmarks
• Proven leadership models
• Integration with Internal Training / Leadership Models
• And, more

 

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