Identifying High Potential Employees

By Author: Nishtha Shukla Anand
Total Articles: 66
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The success of any business unit depends on the quality of workforce that the organization has developed and nurtured over the years of its establishment. Identifying and nurturing high potential employees is imperative for success of any business initiative be it related to any niche segment or general work environment in the organization.
This search for identifying high potential employees needs to be based on multiple factors and suitable HR strategies have to be designed to achieve this objective. Human resource managers need to assess the present position and future needs of the organization before devising talent planning methods for identifying high potential employees and effective talent retention strategies in the business unit.
The vision to comprehend the future needs will enable them to identify suitable workforce and design talent planning techniques, which can be implemented to meet the impending needs of the organization in the long run.
The changes that that talent retention strategies will have is sure to contribute to the well being of the employees and the organization alike and will lead ...
... the business establishment to new heights.
A host of talent planning methods can be initiated to bring about a comprehensive change in the outlook of the organization and promote the talented workforce.
Long serving employees
Employees who have contributed their working years to the betterment of the organization develop fair understanding of the present scenario and future needs of the organization.
Identification and promotion of high potential employees from amongst this talent pool by the management in consultation with human resource department has two-fold advantage.
The employees get to contribute in their specialization segments simultaneously ensuring increased productivity as they have suitable knowledge of the specified area.
This not only boosts their morale but work efficiency of people working under them is also enhanced and they can benefit from the expertise of these employees, thus ensuring increased productivity in the unit.
Promoting talent
Senior management in discussion with the human resource development department needs to ensure comprehensive talent retention strategies, where employees performing exceptionally get to be noticed and are promoted accordingly. Segregating employees and organizing them based on their skill set is the best method of talent planning and ensures that the right talent is noticed.
Dividing the workforce into small teams will work wonders and the skilled employees will be noticed without fail. Having a talent pool of such resourceful employees at hand will ensure quality services, thus ensuring increased productivity.
Effective managers
Effective planning is half the work done. This holds true for management sector also. If the organization has effective managers in place, identifying high potential employees is comparatively easier.
As these managers are specialists in their niche segments, leaving talent planning to the judgment of managers can work wonders, as they are competent enough to identify the suitable employees that can be relocated to specialized segments based on their professional competence.
Monthly review meetings
Holding regular review meetings enable the management to short list and identify high potential employees who can contribute effectively in implementing planned strategies in an effective manner.
Human resource department needs to keep check on performance index of the employees and should be able to identify and prioritize a list of skill set on which the performance of employees can be based.
Initiating mock target achievement assignments can be used as a tool by the human resource department to short list suitable high potential employees. The employees who perform exceptionally in any such mock target achievement exercise should be considered for promotion.
Regular group discussions
Effective human resource management not only entails one to manage selection process but also nurture this talented pool of high potential employees. Having regular group discussions on various ideas relating to project assignments of these employees will work wonders and will contribute significantly to the talent retention strategies being followed.
Workforce from varied segments of the business unit needs to be brought on one platform for having such comprehensive discussion. Sharing ideas with their colleagues and management alike will enable the employees to develop a vision for target assignment, as suggestions from all segments of the employees will be incorporated in the assignment.
This not only gives an opportunity to the employees to better their career prospects but the management also gets to identify potential performers. Nurturing such high potential employees will work wonders for the employee and the organization alike.
Customer feedback
Customers will offer you an honest opinion. It will in your favor to interact with your customers on a regular basis. They can give you a fair assessment of the quality of your product range.
By identifying, the high performing units based on quality and customer satisfaction index, one can short list the high performing employees who need to be promoted to meet the market demands effectively.
Having an effective customer satisfaction policy in place will not only ensure loyal clientele base, but also by promoting talented workforce meeting the requirements of these customers you ensure quality service for the brand.
Criteria based promotion
One needs to priortize their objectives to follow this approach for talent planning. Having a clear vision of future requirements of the organization will enable one to develop talent retention strategies based on criteria.
Suitable high potential employees can be identified from among the selected department, based on managerial feedback, review-meeting results and customer feedback for the product range.
This policy of talent planning and promotion can be followed for impending needs when one has to develop product range based on the need of the market and requirement of the customer.
By having such talent retention strategies in place you not only ensure timely service for your clientele base but are also able to maintain the leading edge in the market as employees with skill set will perform with utmost efficiency and professional vigor.
Understanding the market needs
The human resource development section of the organization needs to have fair assessment of the market requirements. This will enable them to devise a talent planning policy based on the needs of the market.
Having a skilled set of employees in key positions in various departments of the organization will not only streamline the working of these sections, but will also ensure correct knowledge dispersal across various segments of the business unit.
This will enable the business managers to devise comprehensive product development policy keeping in account the needs of the market and the interests of the customers.


Work habits of your employees
The human resource department professionals need to test their professional competence in order to identify talented employees based on their work habits.
Talented high potential employees have a distinct personality and offer creative suggestions and worthy feedback to the colleagues and senior management alike on issues concerning the betterment of the organization.
With time, they develop professional competence in matters assigned to them and offer creative suggestions and authentic technical solutions on assignments issued to them.
Such employees are open to criticism and take every comment in positive way, thus fine-tuning their professional skills with every assignment they complete.They not only utilize the organizational resources in the most competent manner but also ensure increased productivity with effective contribution of resource skills they have gained in the organization.
The need to identify such skills lies with human resource department, as having talent retention strategies for such talented workers does wonders for the organization.
Transfer policy
In a large business establishment, certain units tend to lag behind owing to multiple reasons namely absence of talent retention strategies, non-development of comprehensive customer market and lack of proper advertisment.
To bring uniformity amongst all segments of the business establishment, human resource department should ensure comprehensive transfer policy among various units where selected talented pool should be rotated amongst various units of the establishment.
This will ensure proper synchronization amongst various departments of the establishment thus bringing rapid improvement in the functional efficiency of the business unit.

Talent identification across multiple levels
To improve work efficiency, the management needs to look across various levels to identify employees at all levels who can contribute effectively to the prosperity of the organization.
Human resource department needs to identify and short list senior managers and entry-level employees based on the requirements of the organization. Suitable methods of talent planning for various categories of employees also need to be in place to enable them to contribute significantly to the fortunes of the establishment.
For senior management it could be a random interaction with leaders of the industry, where these selected managers can offer their creative suggestions on the topics selected for discussion. Based on their performance and interaction with the business leadership, the management can short list the managers who are competent to lead specified segments in the establishment.
Entry-level employees can be put through a well-laid assessment procedure including components as mock customer management and product development assignments.
Promoting talent not only speaks well for the future of the organization but also encourages multi level investments on part of investors, which goes well for the individual employees and the organization alike.