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Race to success: Identify and develop high potential employees

Seabiscuit, a legendary racehorse in the 1930s, would have competed in mediocre matches his entire life if his trainer's eye for ingrained potential hadn't developed him into a champion. Because Seabiscuit loved to run, he won races earning sizable purses for his owner, and brought millions of fans and dollars into the racing world despite the Great Depression. High-potential employees in organizations are much like promising thoroughbreds. With the right recognition, training and environment, they will win for themselves and help carry your company to future success.

Identifying and supporting high-potential employees is more important than ever. Rapid economic growth, an aging workforce and increased complexity in business due to regulation, globalization and other factors make it imperative that organizations nurture the talent inherent in their ranks. This can encourage retention, higher productivity and succession planning. Done correctly, it provides future company leaders, encourages overall employee loyalty and contributes to a higher ROI.

Yet according to the 2005 survey, Realizing the Full Potential of Rising Talent, conducted by the Corporate Leadership Council, these trends lead to costly gaps in the flow of talent rising to lead companies. From retirement of experienced managers to movement of service jobs overseas, the pool from which companies can pull able and ready employees appears to be shrinking. While 75 percent of those companies polled said grooming high-potential workers for eventual leadership is a top priority for both the CEO and Human Resources department, 97 percent also said that there continues to be either acute or modest gaps in their leadership. The majority of respondents said that such a shortage has a negative impact on a company's product innovation, ability to attract and retain talent, financial performance and customer relationships.

But while companies spend more money on promising workers, they complain of only modest returns. (1) What is wrong with the process? Does your company know how to identify the most promising employees? Do you have methods and programs in place that effectively nurture these potential stars for the short- and long-term? The answers to these questions often require corporate soul-searching and hard work.

Link high achievers' abilities to corporate strategy
To begin, an organization has to believe in supporting high-potential employees and communicate that clearly. As an entity, it also must understand what it requires high-potential employees for, how those talented individuals' abilities correspond with future leadership roles and how they link to the company's overall strategy. Senior management and HR leaders can start by asking themselves a set of basic questions (2):

• Where is the organization going and why?
• What work needs to get done?
• What are the current and future roles for workers?
• What competencies (knowledge, skills and attitudes) does the organization require to complete that work?
• What competencies does the organization currently have?
• What are the current and future gaps in the competency continuum?

Once these answers are defined, an organization needs to determine (1):

• How do we define and identify employee potential?
• What drives the success or failure of our high-potential talent?
• How can we increase the likelihood that our high-potential employees will succeed at the next level?
• Where should we focus our strategy for developing promising employees for the highest return?

Define "high potential" for your organization
Just what defines a high-potential employee and how should an organization identify those individuals?

"There isn't a single set of traits for high-potential employees across a company, because the requirements for different jobs and departments are so varied," said Dianna Paterline, training manager for employee development at Ceridian. "But, there are three key attributes that all high-potential employees must possess: aspiration, engagement and ability."

Aspiration refers to an employee's genuine desire to progress in their career. Engagement refers to more than just their being enthused about their job. They must also understand the big picture for the company and how their job fits into it. Ability refers to the skills the employee must possess to advance.

Common qualities that help define and drive these promising stars include the (1):

• Nature and variety of an individual's job experiences.
• Presence or lack of a development plan.
• Level of management experience and opportunities to manage others.
• Quality of the managers they report to, their colleagues and the teams on which they participate.

A process for developing promising talent
A simple set of steps can develop an organization's talent, but it has to be followed through upon and even pushed further to benefit the best workers. Assessments, performance reviews and regular communication are important. Perhaps the best way to identify and develop high-potential employees is to support their efforts when they are performing at their best. Defining and establishing clear performance goals; tracking progress and giving relevant, useful feedback; and developing employees to meet or exceed the company's goals and their own personal goals are important for nurturing exceptional talent. (3)

For example, Ceridian uses a combination of approaches with its employees. Performance assessments are a basic tool. "Our HR consultants work with the owners of each business area using a standard assessment to measure leadership qualities, desire and more," Paterline said. "We then hold periodic formal meetings between HR and managers at different levels in company areas where there is already a need for high-potential employees or a need is anticipated in the near future."

Then, through a program called "Keeping Our Best," Ceridian's internal HR consultants work closely with managers of individual groups to ensure that the targeted employees are on a steady track of development. It takes a lot of communication and follow-up to identify growth opportunities for the employees that mesh with the group's needs. HR acts as a liaison between upper management and the line managers, while the senior vice president of HR meets with the executive operations team throughout the year. In turn, through performance management that is used with all employees, managers let high performers know through affirmative feedback that they are headed in the right direction and ask what they can do to support them further.

"We strive to present high-potential employees regularly with new challenges, to push them outside of their comfort level while we also ask them to meet goals," Paterline said.

Indeed, frequent coaching and mentoring are important to the success of high-potential employees. Sometimes a formal program is called for, where more seasoned and experienced employees are assigned to promising individuals. In other cases, informal mentoring relationships develop, whether they are encouraged by management or naturally occur between two people who work together.

"Ceridian's program is informal," Paterline continued. "When we see the opportunity to match a more experienced person with a would-be star, we encourage the mentoring for at least a six-month period. Oftentimes, the relationship continues for a year or more on its own." Ceridian also has leadership development programs including Leading Creatively, which offers formal training, and its serial course, Ceridian University Leadership Certification. This program delivers in-depth training on current leadership topics and allows all Ceridian leaders to learn from one another.

"Many companies are doing similar initiatives to identify and develop high-potential employees," said Paterline. "These companies understand that keeping their best employees is instrumental to the company's success."

External training for developing high-potential employees
Start developing your high-potential employees today! Ceridian can help your organization get a jump start with Ceridian Training and Organizational Consulting Services. We offer hands-on training and coaching to prepare your employees to reach their maximum potential on the job.

Training Services
Training courses and seminars can be an excellent way to prepare managers to work with high-potential employees and arm high achievers for successful careers.

Ceridian offers a variety of relevant seminars including:

• Coaching Employees in Career Development
• Mentoring for Success
• Developing Leadership Skills Using Leadership Assessment Tools
• Keeping Our Best: A Process for Retention of Key Talent

These seminars offer tips and strategies to help employees successfully meet the challenging leadership needs of your organization. These 60-90 minute seminars provide participants with practical techniques, strategies and useful handouts for future reference.

ManagerCoach Developmental Coaching Services
Ceridian ManagerCoach is a great way to offer personalized developmental coaching services to individual managers who, in turn, will coach their own high-potential employees.

Ceridian's executive coaches partner with high-potential managers to facilitate rapid personal and professional growth in leadership roles. Organizationally sponsored development plans and regular individual coaching sessions produce skills, clarity and critical business results through goal identification, detailed action planning, accountability and feedback. Leadership development coaches facilitate discovery, clarification and alignment of client goals; encourage self-discovery and learning elicit client-generated solutions and strategies; and hold the client responsible and accountable for outcomes.

Contact your Ceridian representative to learn more about how Ceridian Training and Organizational Consulting Services can help your organization develop high-potential employees to carry your company to future success.

Sources:

1. Realizing the full potential of rising talent survey, Volume I, Corporate Leadership Council, 2005, Washington, D.C.
2. Briefly stated: Leadership development, Lockwood, Nancy R., 2005, www.shrm.org.
3. SHRM White paper: Leadership development, Collins, Heather, 2003, www.shrm.org.