Developing a business that’s successful and profitable takes money, time and energy. However, you can have endless deep pockets and all the tangible resources imaginable, but without the right talent, a business won’t be as successful as possible. A high-potential employees program enables HR to strategically foster and grow talented individuals within your company, ensuring viable leadership succession and a strong foundation for growth. The right HiPo development programs help you identify and cultivate these rare talents.
The first step in creating a successful high-potential employee program is understanding what high-potential employees are and why it is so important to develop them.
In their Harvard Business Review article, “Are You a High Potential”, Douglas A. Ready, Jay A. Conger and Linda A. Hill describe HiPos as possessing the following characteristics:
This combination of traits makes HiPos ideal candidates to guide your company into the future. But it also means they need the right guidance and training to keep their vision and goals reconciled with those of your business. Left to their own devices, they can easily get derailed and go rogue. The master trainers at Turnkey Coaching & Development Solutions understand the psychology of HiPos. We can help you build an effective high potential leadership program that strategically grooms them to steer your company to long-term success.
In a recent study by the Harvard Business Review, 98 percent of companies surveyed said that they deliberately identified high-potential employees. However, half of respondents said that they spent less than 10 percent of their time actually developing those potential future leaders. If the HBR study is a reliable indicator of the wider marketplace, then we can conclude that a sizable proportion of all companies don’t adequately leverage their existing talent bases. The first step on the road to high-potential employee development is HiPo identification. Though different companies have different criteria they use to ID talent, most businesses agree that HiPo personnel share the following characteristics:
Our high potential employee assessment and HiPo development programs are nothing like the run-of-the-mill leadership programs you've likely sent your employees to before. We do not host one-day or one-week events where your company leaders mingle with executives from other firms and listen to so-called "trainers" rehash the same hackneyed leadership clichés that, by now, are probably seared into your brain.
Instead, we evaluate your company and its specific needs; then, we build a program from the ground up to meet them. We customize every program using high potential employee development best practices, including:
Your hi potential employees get the opportunity to work with master trainers who specialize in developing high-potential employees. They have helped many businesses get the most out of their workforce and create seamless transitions between generations of leaders. Our master trainers HiPo program experts put their knowledge, experience and vast resources to work for your business.
Recent surveys by Training Magazine and Clear Company shed new light on HiPo employees’ needs and HiPo programs in general. When combined, their data shows an interesting juxtaposition between what high potential employees look for in a job and what they often get when they’re hired. According to the Training Magazine data, for example, 97 percent of all HiPo respondents said that they actively seek companies with Hip Potential leadership development programs while on the hunt for a job. The Clear Company analysis reveals, however, that 55 percent of HiPo employees actually drop out of their companies’ HiPo programs within a couple of years. Why does this happen? Because high-potential employees naturally push themselves toward ever-increasing success — and would presumably want to stay in a high potential leadership development program that helps them achieve this success — the TM and CC data seems to indicate a fault within High potential employee programs themselves.
A critical success factor for effective high potential development programs, is first the ability to properly identify your HiPos and understanding that high performance does not always mean high potential. Many organizations use the nine-block method for high potential identification, while other companies use performance reviews and supervisor nominations. A best practice approach includes these methods and also integrates job-benchmarking assessments and high potential assessment tools. All of these methods are useful and TurnKey Coaching & Development Solutions is happy to recommend a process and advise on best practices. When companies do identify HiPos correctly and then offer them tailored HiPo development programs, the results are often outstanding. According to another Gartner study, high-potential employees exert about 21 percent more effort than their peers, and the more training and learning opportunities they receive, the better they do. HiPos also love working with and encouraging others to fulfil their potentials, whether those other employees are HiPo or not. Inspirational managers are, without a doubt, invaluable wherever they’re found. The long-term effects of high-potential development programs become clear when existing executives retire or resign. At that point, well-trained high potential employees rise to the occasion, filling your executive roster with ready-for-action talent. In short, a well-conceived high potential development program for employees benefits your company now and also in the future.
Traditional day or week-long high potential employee development programs might seem like an easy way to develop your high-potential employees — after all, that's what other companies are doing, right? — but think about how many such programs you've attended in your career. Then ask yourself, "Am I really a better leader because I attended a few formulaic leadership conferences?"
If you want real results, you need a customized HiPo employee development program custom-built just for your company and with high potential development programs best practices. That's what our master trainers and certified coaches at Turnkey Coaching & Development Solutions have to offer. Typically, we work with both large and small groups of high potential employees to create a comprehensive training and HiPo development program crafted around your goals that prime your business for success.
What kind of background do your master trainers have?
Many of our master trainers have 10+ years corporate experience, thousands of hours of executive coaching, and have served as corporate executives themselves or had Fortune 500 companies as clients. In addition, many of them hold advanced degrees such as MBAs and Ph.Ds.
What kinds of results can my company expect?
The goal of our high potential employee assessment and development training programs is to first establish the results you hope to achieve and then design our program to offer the best chance of seeing those results. Perhaps your organization seeks to reduce turnover, or improve innovation, or perhaps your executives are within retiring age and you want to ensure a ready-now bench of competent leaders. We can design a high potential employee development program to address these needs and more. In fact, many of our clients have reported increased productivity, better organizational strength, cost reductions, higher bottom-line productivity and many other positive results.
How much does a high-potential employee development program cost?
Because we custom design each program based on the client's individual needs, it is impossible to quote an exact cost up front. What we can tell you is this: We offer a variety of participation levels that let you choose the intensity and duration of the high potential development program based on your budget and the time your organization has available to invest.
Without the right leaders and skilled innovators, your company can't compete or grow. A high-potential development program is a proven way to find future managers and executives or develop and recognize the leadership you already have. At Turnkey Coaching & Development Solutions, we believe it's important to invest in all your people, but we also know that HiPos perform and react differently from other staff. By customizing leadership programs to account for their inherent talents, we help high potential employees hone those skills faster and most appropriately for use in a business environment. Your customized high potential employee development program may include any number of options, including your choice of the following:
Contact Turnkey Coaching & Development Solutions today to discuss your company's needs. We look forward to helping you take your business to the next level by ensuring your future leaders are prepared to excel.
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