Leadership agility, effective communication skills, negotiation skills, consistency in results, are some of the desired traits in star performers or High Potential (HiPo) employees.

While no two employees are alike, only 5% to 8% of employees stand out from the rest in most organisations.

Why?

These employees are 91% more valuable to business than others.

The changing dynamics of employment and leadership is pushing companies to adopt ‘Total Rewards’ programs as their core policy. These programs work beyond providing compensation and benefits to their employees and involve – a motivating work environment, larger scope for learning and development, recognition, professional growth, etc.

As per a survey by Times Jobs, nearly 43% of 442 employers across India have Total Rewards policy in place. Most of the respondents agreed that the policy helps them to not only increase their employees’ potential, but also meet their business goals.

High Potential (HiPo) Employee Quiz

Are you a high potential employee?

Check out these five key traits of high potentials, and select between ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ for each option. Check the score at the end of the quiz. The higher your score, the higher chances that you are a HiPO performer.

1. Do you have a high level of aspiration?

• I have an innate desire to learn – Yes/No
• I often seek feedback from my senior/teammates – Yes/No
• I pursue new opportunities beyond my fixed KRA – Yes/No
• I like taking new courses – Yes/No
• I look forward to attending training and development programs – Yes/No

2. Do you feel fully engaged at your job?

• My personal goals are aligned with my company’s objectives – Yes/No
• I am passionate about my work – Yes/No
• I act as an ambassador of my employer brand – Yes/No
• I love my company’s work environment and culture – Yes/No
• I have impeccable social skills in terms of engagement with customers, colleagues, leaders and other stakeholders – Yes/No

3. Are you an asset to your organisation?

• I am usually the one to take initiative of new tasks – Yes/No
• My skills and expertise make me highly resourceful – Yes/No
• I am proactive in assessing challenges and addressing risks at work – Yes/No
• I remain motivated to move forward despite roadblocks in work or differences with colleagues – Yes/No
• I come up with creative and innovative solution to problems – Yes/No

4. Do you have leadership acumen?

• I am able to apply cross-functional thinking to tasks – Yes/No
• I am seen as a thought-leader in my area of work – Yes/No
• I exercise both inside-out (organisational strengths) as well as outside-in (customer experience) thinking – Yes/No
• I take a futuristic approach while handling projects – Yes/No
• My motivation to perform drives my team members as well – Yes/No

5. Do you exhibit strong interpersonal skills at work?

• I am good at both written and verbal communication – Yes/No
• I am often entrusted with tasks involving other teams/vendors, etc. – Yes/No
• I organise/participate in social activities at my workplace – Yes/No
• I take ownership of getting my team to reach a consensus – Yes/No
• I am well-liked by my manager as well as most team members – Yes/No

(Yes – 1 point, No – zero; total score = 25 points as each ‘Yes’ accounts for 1 point.

Score 1 to 9 – You will have to improve your skills and build on your strengths to become a HiPo employee. Score 10 to 19 – You have the potential to become a Hipo employee. You need to work on the areas where you selected ‘No’. Score 20 to 25 – You have most of the characteristics of a Hipo employee.)

Who is a High Potential (HiPo) Employee?

High potential employees are those who stand out from the crowd and are distinguished by their ability to deliver high-quality outputs and the value they add to their team. These individuals go the extra mile to find opportunities and take risks which increases their value in the organisation.

It is also noted that high-potential employees make a greater effort at work compared to non-high potential employees, and they also have a higher percentage chance of excelling in job roles that are critical to business performance and success. These factors make them front runners for promotions to leadership roles.

What are the Characteristics of High Potential (HiPo) Employees?

High performers can be identified by certain behavioural qualities and characteristics that they possess. The top ten characteristics of high potential employees are listed below.

1. Extremely talented
2. Possess the ability to consistently produce high-quality work
3. Volunteers to take up leadership
4. Can work and deliver results without constant supervision
5. Are invested in the success of their team and the company
6. Have the ability to perform and thrive under stressful situations
7. Believes in asking the right questions
8. Works on reskilling and upskilling themselves
9. Maintains a calm demeanour that is backed by confidence
10. Are ready to accept their mistakes and learn from them

How to Identify High Potential (HiPo) Employee in your Company?

Without the right insight, it will be challenging to identify the high potentials in your organisation. With technology-backed high potential employee assessment tools, you will have the data needed to differentiate between an employee who would stick to doing their job and a high performer who would venture out of their comfort zones and look for avenues to grow.

• High Potential Employee Assessment:  Online assessment tools can be used to quickly identify the top performers in your organisation. These tools come with inbuilt tests that feature questions to evaluate communication skills, cognitive abilities, domain skills, and more. The results are auto evaluated, and reports with detailed insights are provided for informed decision making and for planning high potential employee training programmes.
• High Potential Cognitive Tests: Learning agility is a crucial characteristic of top performers. These characteristics can be identified through a cognitive ability test. An online cognitive test makes way for a fast and accurate test administration and helps you identify high performers who are learning agile.

How to treat High Potential Employees?

High potential employees voluntarily take initiatives and ambitiously pursue new challenges. Their skills and abilities will eventually help them climb up the leadership pipeline. Retaining and supporting such resources is of the utmost importance.

You can nurture the high potentials by giving them challenging tasks to prove themselves. It is also essential to communicate with them at regular intervals and understand their career goals and ambitions. Such interactions can help you devise opportunities for them to explore and develop their leadership skills.

High Potential (HiPo) Employees’ Development Programmes

Hiring top performers can be a costly affair, so companies are looking for talents within their organisation whose skills can be nurtured with the right training programs. High potential employee development programs can be curated to meet your high potential performer’s career goals.

For the programs to be impactful, organisations must do a complete evaluation of their skills and abilities. This will help to create training programs that can bring out their hidden potential.

When the organisation gives priority to high performers and uses step-by-step development programmes, then it becomes easy to train high potential employees to become future leaders.

Conclusion

HiPo employees are more prone to disengagement if their needs are not met, making it important to leverage scientific assessments for early identification.

Studies show that participants who are formally identified through scientific assessments are more likely to consider themselves high potentials than those who were informally identified.

For a HiPo performer, personal growth is as important as career growth. They like to be challenged with tasks that often seem difficult to achieve, and thrive in a work environment where their efforts are recognised and valued.

For instance, several Tata companies conduct a monthly dialogue or a two-way webcast to engage their workforce. Another great example where the leadership prioritises talent development and growth is – American Express India which runs a ‘People Leader Learning Path’.

This program provides a stage-by-stage development plan for leaders e.g. new leaders, tenured people leaders, first level people leaders, and second level people leaders, to prepare their HiPo employees for future leadership.

This is an indication that merely hiring HiPo employees is not enough in today’s economy. It is a must that organisations also foster an environment where high performing employees can be promoted and retained.

Sources:

• forbes.com
• economictimes.indiatimes.com
• ccl.org