Even though high potential employees (HIPOs) are 91% more valuable to organisations, almost 50% of companies lack a systematic process to identify them, according to a CEB global report distributed during the second day of the Innovation in Government conference.
Companies rely on previous performance to identify HIPOs; however, only 1 in 7 high performers are HIPOs.
The report added that 64% of HIPOs are dissatisfied with their development while almost 70% fail to build a strong succession pipeline. The reasons for this failure include the organisation’s inability to take the individual needs of its HIPO into consideration. Another reason is that employees are unable to apply what they learn to better their performance.
The report stressed on the need for exposing HIPOs to the “right kind of experiences” to improve their performance through the extraction of this learning experience.
The report added that within five years, around 55% will drop out of a company’s talent pool. Around 25% will leave for competition and 3% will just leave the organisation. About 20% will drop out due to low aspiration. The remaining 7% will either fail or be misaligned.
