HiPo or Hippo?
Posted on Monday, January 14, 2008 by Frank Roche
The Institute for Corporate Productivity recently completed a survey of what companies do with their high potential (HiPo) employees. Their survey revealed that 70 percent of companies identify HiPos. Fewer do a lot with that information.
“It’s a good news/bad news type of scenario,” says [Senior VP of Research Jay] Jamrog. “The good news is that companies are identifying and assessing HiPos, which is crucial in an era when leadership churns rates are pretty high and when Baby Boomers are thinking harder and harder about retirement. The bad news is that a lot of organizations don’t really know how effective their HiPo assessments are today.”
How do you handle your HiPos? Nope, they’re not hippos. Although HiPos often have big mouths, they’re not water horses. They’re thoroughbreds.
Michelle Malay Carter
Jan 15th, 2008
Frank,
Hi Pos are a difficult group. Because their cognitive capacity is ahead of their experience level for much of their early careers, they are usually in roles below their capability. This ends up being frustrating for them and their managers, and this, among other things, makes this population an organization’s highest turnover risk.
Hi Pos are a dangerous crowd too. When “let loose” in an organization without proper guidance, they can be like newly walking babies – full mobility and zero judgment. Here’s how one of my clients characterized the situation: http://www.missionmindedmanagement.com/protecting-high-potentials-from-themselves
So organizations must identify, acknowledge, tap, and protect this valuable resource. Unfortunately, they are usually just churned from organization to organization, the lucky ones eventually end up in the executive suite. The others become bitter, wasted, corporate collateral damage. I blogged about this sad situation too: http://www.missionmindedmanagement.com/corporate-collateral-damage-one-in-five-employees-is-underutilized
Regards,
Michelle
Chris Young
Jan 15th, 2008
Michelle has a great point – HiPos can be a dangerous crowd when left to their own devices.
With this group I find that in most cases they realize their high potential and feel that they are not maximizing their potential. This can lead to a variety of problems when it comes to managing and retaining these employees.
Knowing their talent are likely to be desired by other organizations, HiPos aren’t afraid to jump ship if they feel there is a better opportunity elsewhere.
One thing that I have found works well with these high potential employees, especially those in the Generation X and Y cohort, is succession planning and leadership development.
Including these individuals in a succession plan or leadership development plan of an organization indicates that their potential is recognized (very important to HiPos) and that there are plans to put their knowledge, skills, and abilities to work in a greater capacity with greater responsibilities within the organization.
Leaving these intelligent and talented individuals without much direction and assurance of their future role within an organization can be disasterous and help to drive them to one’s competition.
It all boils down to communication, which is really the essence of management.
Chris Young
Dave Polacheck
Jan 16th, 2008
This one’s near and dear to my heart. For me the way to engage your hi pots is through the opportunity and challenge of their roles, and the forward view of what might be coming next. Yes to training, yes to comp, but give them a shot at solving the tough problems of your business and you’ve got their engagement.
The bigger challenge is identifying them imo, especially when they’re out in the field or deep in one of your corporate functions. I’m not a big fan of arbitrary “promotability” ratings or hipot flags assigned by their manager or HR… to much of a crystal ball approach for my taste. So we’ve developed a process where promotability is “calculated” from how they’ve been rated on their business results and the various competencies we’re assessing for. As with anything in this process it requires discussion and can’t be purely a data exercise, but using a system to drive it and the calculation I described, we’ve been able to flush out great potential talent from the four corners of our organization.
Happy to discuss it further if anyone’s interested.
Dave Polacheck
Frank Roche
Jan 17th, 2008
Wow, some really great discussion here, folks.
Identifying HiPos is a trick…and then keeping them interested, motivated, and at your company is another thing.
It’s interesting what you say, Michelle, about HiPos being “dangerous” in a way. That’s so true — they’re often thoroughbreds and can be disrupters when they’re not listened to. Chris describes what needs to be done — or watch out!
Dave, that’s so true about IDing HiPos. A lot more has to go into the identification of that group than a finger in the wind…I think some companies do it well, but there’s TONS of room for improvement.