High-potential (HIPO) employees are critical to your organization’s success in every single step. They are highly valued and organizations tend to invest heavily in them. Numerous strategies are formulated to develop high potential teams. In fact, many organizations trade away from various other talent investments, just to fund their HIPO programs. However, 73% of HIPO development programs show no return on investment and 69% do not build an effective succession planning. Also, as per a recent study by Gartner, 64% of HIPOs are not even satisfied with their development experiences and one in four plans to quit within one year cycle.

Why are most of the HIPO development programs underperforming? Let us look at top 3 reasons behind it with some recommendations that can address the challenges to some extent.

Getting over the myopic view

The leadership roles of tomorrow will be significantly different than what exists today. In fact, more than 40% of these roles will be altered within five years. The evolving talent needs and the dynamism of the business environment are the two prime reasons for it. Keeping this in mind, organizations must assess HIPOs against competitors and make decisions based on external benchmarks. Apart from correctly benchmarking, creating more agile HIPO strategies are equally imperative for the success of every organization. Reports from CEB suggest that organizations with an agile HIPO strategy are seventy percent more likely to have a strong leadership bench.

The right process

Forty-six percent organizations lack an effective and systematic process to identify their high potential employees. Organizations need to accurately identify HIPOs by measuring the factors critical for success. Use of objective measures can help address this issue. Not only this, most of the HIPOs learn more through on the job training than formal training. It is important to imbibe the 70-20-10 principle of 70% learning from experience, 20% from others and 10% from formal training while creating HIPO development strategies. Research shows that on the job training has 2.5 times more impact on the engagement and performance levels of this group of employees than traditional formal training. 

Optimal blend of numbers 

Only twenty-five percent of leaders use HR data while taking talent-related decisions. Ineffective numbers tend to negatively affect the bottom line. Also, less know how on analytics and incorrect use of predictive modeling creates gap in existing HIPO development programs.  Use the right analytical tool and metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of current existing programs. And select new framework of HIPO development program by using the right tool of talent assessment and analytics. 

If you too feel that your HIPOs are not able to reach their full potential and are seen underperforming, it’s time for you to quickly re-look into the core issues. Realize, re-think and reduce the risk of losing your best employees.  Get into the plan of meticulously carving out an effective development program keeping the above three factors in mind. And help your organization succeed.