HOW HIGH POTENTIAL CAN SUPPORT SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS GROWTH
How high potential can support sustainable business growth In an era where we’re all searching for talents, can we really identify them in our organizations? What are their characteristics? Do they really add value from day one? The answer is: yes. Increasingly through the last years, more importance has been given to the intrinsic characteristics of a person, rather than his or her professional experience. Twenty years ago no one thought about cultural fit, sense of purpose, etc. Now, in 2009, it seems to be an essential part of our lives. Certain objectives have never changed, like higher profits. But can higher profits be achieved with methods such as cost cutting or organizational restructure? Possibly, but it is not enough, nor sustainable in the long run. Identifying your high potentials and developing them can boost your employee motivation and retention, increase performance, and ultimately create higher profits. With current business conditions being challenging, it is paramount that employee turnover is low and that your high potentials are identified and placed in the correct place for growth. Only like this, and in these conditions, will your business succeed in the long-term.
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“We have good employees, but do we have the right talents in the right place? If yes, how should they be managed for personal growth and business performance?�
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HAVE YOU IDENTIFIED YOUR HIGH POTENTIALS?
TALENT MATRIX IDENTIFICATION - DEVELOPMENT - RETENTION
High potentials are not necessarily the ones that contribute the most today, but the ones who with full potential will contribute the most tomorrow. They feel a sense of belonging, and relate to the mission statement and values like no other. We need these people to succeed, they drive our business and set the example. They are not afraid of new challenges, rather, they face it head on as a new and enriching experience. Most of all they’re learning agile. Learning agility is made up of four quadrants: People, Results, Mental and Change Agility. A high potential possesses a combination of these four factors by being relational, objective-oriented, challenger and a changemanager. Not everyone can be a high potential, it is an innate characteristic which is then fed by your up bringing. Culminating in self-knowledge and professional equilibrium. Furthermore, we cannot survive only with high potentials, we need operational and high performers for our day to day lives, and to ensure business continuum. On the other hand, high potentials will always give their best to the organization, they are truth-seekers and enjoy complex problems. They are eager to learn about themselves and others, and show willingness to learn from feedback and experience. They are adaptable, resilient and philosophical. Genuine communicators and indisputable helpers. These are the people you should look out for in your organization. Once you’ve identified them, they need the right place to grow. In the long term, it’s a sure success strategy.
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Successor
Strategic
High Potencial Potential
Discovering who are your high potentials may be challenging, but definitely worthwhile.
Low performers
Operational
High Permanence
Performance
Talent Matrix High potentials may offer little performance or contribution to the organization right now, but alongside the successors, they’re the only ones who can reach full performance and potential in the long term.
“To deal with change, organizations need to find and nurture those who are easily dealt with it. Identifying those who can learn to do something differently requires a different measurement strategy from those often employed, one that looks at the characteristics of the learning agility.”
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Assessment Approach The best and quickest process to identify High Potential individuals is to perform an Assessment within your organization. But the objective of an Assessment is broader and more involving: it can help you know your employee universe better, to understand the functional relations between them, to help your people know themselves and each other, or even to understand if the perceived culture is the one you desired. The process can be graphically described as follows:
STEP 1 Identify Objectives
STEP 2 Assessment Strategy Definition
STEP 3 Assessment Execution
STEP 4 Results Analysis
Identify High Potentials
STEP 6 Measure Return on Investment
Promote Self and Interpersonal knowledge
Reveal Informal Organizational Structure
Cultural Belief Audit
Depending on the selected objectives, adapt Assessment Methodology and define KPI’s to measure its success
Develop Self-Assessment
Talent Matrix
STEP 5 Reports, Recommendations and Feedback STEP 6 Action Plan Implementation
Map Talent
360Âş Assessment
Competences Analysis
Independent Assessment
High Potential Impact on Business
Recommendations to Management
Development Program
Productivity Increase
How can High-Potentials support Business Growth
Career and Mobility Plans
MBTI
Expectations Analysis
Cultural Fit
Feedback to Employees
Succession Plan
Talent Retention Plan
Customer Satisfaction Recruitment Costs Increase Decrease
Communication Policy
Innovation
Higher Profit
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STEP 1 Identify Objectives
Before you start to implement an Assessment methodology, it’s important that you first identify what your “pain points” are and what you want to obtain with the assessment process. You might want to identify your High Potentials, but you might also want to know your employees better, in terms of expectations or competencies, you might want to know their informal relations better or to boost your innovation level. The main issue you should have in mind is: how is this objective related to my strategy and how will it contribute to increase my profits? For example, you might want to know who your high potentials are, not only to perform an individual development program and to move them to positions where they have a bigger impact on business, but also to increase talent retention and reduce your hiring costs.
STEP 2 Assessment Strategy Definition
Depending on the selected objectives, it is necessary to adjust the assessment methodology and identify what KPI’s will be used to measure the success of the process. These KPI’s should be aligned with the strategic and operational plan of the organization and with the objectives you set for the process: productivity, customer service satisfaction, innovation, etc. For example, if the main objective is to know your employees in terms of interpersonal competencies and develop them, the 360º assessment is an extremely powerful tool that should be used to assess skill gaps and therefore redefine a personal development program. Assessment communication strategy is also extremely important as it should manage output expectations of each employee, adequately inform about the objectives and the way the process will be conducted.
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STEP 3 Assessment Execution There are four main assessments that should be performed in the organization: 1 . Self-assessment: each employee performs a self-assessment, answering a questionnaire that intends to identify his main interpersonal competences, strong points, development areas, expectations, etc. This self-assessment can be done out of the office in a quiet and private place, as it is an on-line tool. It allows people to seriously reflect about themselves and take actions about it.
3. 360º Assessment: the same self-assessment questionnaire is submitted to his superiors, peers, subordinates and/or keyrelations in the organization. The 360º perspective on the variables represent an important tool to understand each participant’s perception of the assessed employee on their competencies, strengths and weaknesses. It can also measure gaps that allow us to understand the assessed employee level of integration in the organizational culture and relations environment.
2. Independent Assessment: an independent entity performs an individual assessment with each employee, with the objective of taking a first “picture”. Face-to-face assessments take normally about two to three hours to complete, depending on the objective and person. Jason Associates’ approach accelerates a trustful relation which allows us to better understand the participant’s profile, not only on a professional level but also at a personal level. Cultural characteristics of the organization, opinions and ideas are also discussed in this assessment. 4.MBTI: the MBTI test should be performed to complement the previous information. It is a physiological evaluation test that measures the attitudes of an individual (extroversion/introversion), his perceiving functions (sensing/intuition), his decision making process (thinking/feeling) and his lifestyle (judgment/perception).
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STEP 4 Results Analysis
STEP 5 Reports, Recommendations and Feedback
After performing the Assessment, Jason Associates interprets and analyzes the results:
Although result outputs are prepared to who’s taking decisions in the process, there are some outputs that are specifically created to the participants of the assessment. For instance, feedback reports are prepared and presented in a feedback session with the employee, where gaps are discussed and people have the opportunity to discuss and reflect about the results.
Employees should be positioned in the Talent Matrix: it is important not only to identify who are the High Potentials, but also to place all assessed employees in the Talent Matrix, since each quadrant has different procedures for career plan, development programs and retention schemes. A Competencies Analysis should be performed, identifying the gaps between the Self-assessment, the 360º assessment and the independent assessment, and what are the sources of the gaps. It might be a question of poor self-knowledge, a question of lack of transparency or even a deficient understanding of the exposed behaviors. Whatever the gap is, reasons must be identified. High Potentials role’s impact on business should be analyzed: since High Potentials are eager to learn, they need the right place to grow and therefore to contribute more. One of the main cause of failure in the career plan or the development programs implementation is the lack of fit with ambitions and expectations of people. Therefore, after the assessment process, there should be a clear understanding of the aspirations of the assessed employees. There should be a comprehensible understanding of what is the perceived Culture. If there is a gap between this and the intended Culture for the organization, and if exists, what is the reason for this gap. Never forget, result analysis should be aligned to initial defined objectives.
Individual Assessment Reports are prepared, as well other important outputs: Talent Matrix, Individual and global recommendations on who to manage and develop the identified high-potentials, what are the most critical issues to address, risks and opportunities, etc. Once again, the results should be well communicated to participants and in some cases to all the company.
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STEP 6 Action Plan Implementation The next step is to implement the recommended actions. Never forget, each individual has his/her own needs and expectations. They aspire different things and have different talents. You should adjust your actions to their profile.
Development Program Map align interpersonal competencies and expectations with innovative development approaches: 1. Rate development programs with higher impact on business and people growth; 2. Put in place adequate mentoring and coaching programs.
Career and Mobility Plans
Succession Plan
Career and Mobility Plans demand hard planning to Human Resources. Start out by understanding the following: 1. Intended talent movements in the Talent Matrix; 2. Employees’ aspirations and mobility (next role desired, direction of advancement, time framing); 3. Rating roles by their critical observation /contribution to the organization; 4. The link to the development program, in order to assure that the gaps in individual capabilities are overcome, and that the employee is being developed for the specified future roles.
The Succession Plan must guarantee that: 1. The organization has the right successors for critical and non critical roles; 2. The identified High Potentials are in accelerated development programs for succession. One of the main benefits of a clear and exhaustive succession plan is the transparency and visibility it offers. This binds employees closer to the organization, having a direct contribution to retention.
Talent Retention Plan
Communication Policy
In the war for talent, there is the need to perform a detailed and effective Talent Plan, that ensures that employees are appreciated and developed. This means regular and frequent reviews / feedback on their performance and updated development plans. Talent retention as a direct impact on recruitment, induction, training and development costs. Take a look at Jason Associates engagement programs.
The best way to ensure employee motivation, retention and alignment is a good communication policy. One that ensures that the organization’s strategy and objectives are correctly understood and that the desired behaviors and intended culture are embedded. By communicating and setting objectives, each employee understands his part of the plan, his role in the strategy.
STEP 6 Measure Return on Investment After implementing the recommended actions it is necessary to evaluate its success. This is done by measuring the KPI’s defined in the beginning of the process, which can include: Productivity Increase
By increasing the retention levels within the organization and by developing the right professionals in the right directions, there is an obvious increase in productivity.
Customer Satisfaction Increase
The development of employees links directly to customer satisfaction. Also, a transparent succession plan allows the company to build relationships with customers, aligned with the predicted succession, therefore reducing substitution difficulties and costs.
Recruitment Costs Decrease
Through a successful retention plan, the rotation and the substitution hiring costs are reduced. Also the induction, training and development costs will be lower.
Innovation
One characteristic of the organizations with successful development and career plans is the increase in employees' contribution to innovation. First because they feel they’re motivated to innovate (they feel their ideas are appreciated and rewarded) and second because they’re better prepared to do so.
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HOW CAN JASON ASSOCIATES HELP YOU Regardless of what your strategies are, the identification and subsequent follow-up of High Potential is an excellent solution for business growth. It helps your organization’s sustainable development, innovation, productivity and most importantly Talent Retention.
Jason Associates can help your organization define and implement an Assessment Strategy, with the possible objectives:
Independently if your are identifying High Potentials or not, we suggest you to take the following key-success factors into consideration:
High Potential identification through assessment methodology; Design and Implement end-to-end High-Potentials development programs; Design and implement specific Career and Mobility Plans for high-potentials; Design and implement Retention Programs for highpotentials Measure high-potentials initiatives’ success;
Guarantee opportunities are given for High Potentials development; Make them autonomous and independent; Offer special projects and challenging situations; Promote a context where they can feel they’re valued;
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JASON ASSOCIATES Jason Associates is a Strategic Talent Management consulting firm that combines deep knowledge of people’s behaviors with expertise in talent attraction, talent development, talent retention and organizational transformation. Jason Associates work closely with organization key-people of the organization to participate in the challenges of building and managing talent, and accelerating organizational performance.
For further information, please contact Jason Associates at: geral@jasonassociates.com www.jasonassociates.com T: +351 213182930 Av. Liberdade, nº299 – 4º 1250-142 Lisboa Portugal
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