Nurturing high-potentials

Retaining talent is one of the major challenges that all organisations face today. However, retaining key talent or high-potential employees – individuals that significantly outperform their peer groups in a variety of settings and circumstances as described in Harvard Business Review – is no mean feat.

A study by Corporate Leadership Council of the Corporate Executive Board in the US with more than 800 high-potential employees revealed that over 25% of the respondents would like to switch jobs. Also, 64% of dissatisfied employees said that their current job does not help them with career development.

As such, organisations realise that it is important to identify talented employees and provide them with development opportunities for career progression, less they lose them to competitors. However, employers agree that not all high-performing employees are high-potential or would like to progress to the next level (managerial roles). Consequently, employers state that they offer this group of employees other opportunities such as lateral career movement, or help them specialise in a chosen field or role.

Identifying key talent

Many organisations have processes such as formal reviews to identify their high-potential employees, and line or direct managers play a big part in helping to single out these employees.

Caroline Bagshaw, Head of HR, Singapore and SEA for Standard Chartered Bank, says that the bank has a company-wide process for reviewing internal talent. “We identify different talent pools across the organisation and all individuals are classified and reviewed once a year. One of those groups is our high-potential pool which is also divided into different categories, depending on their seniority.”

She adds that line managers are important for identifying high-calibre employees. Line managers in Standard Chartered choose the talent classification group into which the employee would fit using the organisation’s talent classification “descriptors”. Subsequently, the organisation’s HR department coaches managers to understand the different talent pools and the development and support required for employees, explains Bagshaw.

In addition, she adds that the bank conducts a calibration exercise across the board that is “facilitated by HR, during which managers challenge each other on the individual classifications; this ensures consistency.”

Global luxury retail store for travellers, DFS Venture Singapore, is another organisation that conducts a formal performance review that “allows the leadership team to discuss the development of employees at all levels”, says the organisation’s director for Talent Management, Patria Hyndman. While discussions are held to find the right development opportunity for each employee, it also helps the company identify its high-potential employees and “discuss career opportunities, timelines and development needs to get them to the next role,” she explains.

A leg up the career ladder

Identifying talented employees is just the first step as organisations need to provide high-potentials with career progression opportunities through various channels such as learning and development programmes, on-the-job training and projects.

Jean-Claude Speitel, CEO of Coface Asia Pacific, a financial services company, says that his organisation provides a six-month leadership programme which helps “candidates understand their management style, improve their techniques and knowledge of leadership as well as daily management concerns.” He states that this course is compulsory for employees who are going to take up a management position for the first time.

Subsequently, employees who have attended this programme are given people management opportunities for another 12 months, “so there is progress in the development of high-potentials” he says. Senior managers are also nominated to be the top management’s links in local functions or projects, notes Speitel.

HR also encourages managers to “propose opportunities for the high-potentials, such as training, projects and short-term assignments,” he adds.

Companies not only identify high-potential employees in senior roles but also those in junior levels. Hyndman states that DFS Venture Singapore has a 12-month Global Management Trainee Programme that is targeted at junior level staff – fresh graduates or employees with two to three years of work experience, who are interested in pursuing a career in luxury travel retail. “The learning opportunities take the form of hands-on experiential learning and classroom-based development programmes.” Management trainees are given job rotations and various responsibilities that include special assignments in different departments such as Store Operations and Global Merchandising.

The organisation also sends its employees to participate in other training and leadership programmes in order for them to understand the direction of the company and lead and manage a team. In addition, it offers stretch assignments and project-based responsibilities.

Bagshaw explains that Standard Chartered provides many development opportunities for its high-potential employees using a 70-20-10 framework – 70% of on-the-job learning, including stretching opportunities within the current role, 20% of learning-from-others, and 10% of formal learning.

The formal learning comprises professional and personal development courses such as leadership and management programmes such as the Great Manager Programme offered to team leaders, she explains.

Offering alternative opportunities

Employers agree that although an employee could be high-performing, it does not mean that the person would be a high-potential as they might lack the traits needed for a managerial or leadership role. Speitel explains that a high-performer will not fit into the high-potential category if there “is no willingness to learn, has fear of new challenges, or the candidate cannot accept and adapt to change.”

Bagshaw states: “Performance is about what individuals are delivering in their current role, whereas ‘potential’ is anticipating how they might perform in future roles and their capacity to progress within the organisation.” She says, for an example, that her organisation has high-potential employees who at times are not high performing, especially if they have moved into a new role.

Employers also note that not all high-potential employees would like to take up leadership positions or move to the next level in their organisations but could be interested in moving into lateral positions or specialising in a field.

Bagshaw says that her organisation offers leadership roles as well as other career opportunities such as lateral employment such as cross-functional moves or overseas assignments. “We are supportive of high-potential specialists moving upwards in their chosen field without necessarily having to move into general management or people leadership roles,” she adds.

Hyndman states that her organisation understands that some of its high-potential employees might not want leadership roles. However, she explains that “it is important to continue to offer and provide development and learning opportunities for this group of talent.”