A Pocket Guide To Identifying High-Potential Employees

A skilled workforce is a major asset that gives a company a competitive advantage over its opponents in the industry. This is why businesses invest in enhancing employee skill sets. But there are certain employees in every company who are shining stars and always motivated to take on any challenge.

If these employees excel in their individual roles and are capable of achieving business goals, they can be termed as high-potential employees. Such employees thrive in leadership roles and can enhance the overall performance of their team.

It is crucial to nurture high-potential employees as they are highly productive and majorly contribute to a company’s growth. But for that, you need to first identify such prized individuals. Here are some of the most important traits of a hi-po employee that make it easy to identify them:

1. Have great soft skills:

A hi-po employee has more than just technical competence. They possess strong soft skills along with emotional intelligence. They have the ability to communicate efficiently with others and express their opinions in the correct way.

At the same time they are critical thinkers and possess good-decision making skills. These skills make them capable of successfully working with all kinds of people and navigating any difficult situations with ease.

2. Enthusiastic about learning new skills:

High-potential employees strive to better themselves and are always keen to grow in their career. This shows in their enthusiasm to learn new skills and reflects in their training assessment results.

With training tools like LMS providing automated reports highlighting top performers, it is easy to spot high-potential employees through the assessment results. The best part is, almost all LMS have an automated reporting feature regardless of the LMS pricing.

3. Do not panic under pressure:

A great quality that distinguishes hi-po employees from others is their ability to stay calm in all kinds of situations. They are not scared of taking risks and therefore, don’t panic under a difficult situation.

They use their critical thinking abilities to find solutions rather than panicking. This allows them to perform well regardless of a stressful situation and come up with a way to resolve it.

4. Collaborate effortlessly:

Working with a team is impossible without collaboration, but not everyone is able to work successfully in unison. Managers often try to facilitate collaboration, but it’s up to the employees whether they want to help and work together with their team members.

High-potential employees understand the importance of teamwork and try to help their team members in order to win as a team. By doing so, they build trust amongst their team members and increase the likelihood of the project success.

5. Ready to take on new responsibilities:

Every employee knows their responsibilities and tries their best to excel in their roles. But what makes hi-po employees stand out from the rest is their eagerness to take on responsibilities beyond their role.

They want to expand their knowledge and learn through informal training experience which is why they don’t mind taking on work that is beyond their role. This allows them to venture into new areas and makes them more adept at dealing with challenges.

6. Invested in the company’s growth:

A significant trait every hi-po employee possesses is their investment in the company’s growth and the will to achieve company goals. They don’t work just for the paychecks, they work to see the company succeed.

Since they care about the company’s future, they proactively work towards providing more value to the company. At the same time, they are also eager to learn more about the company so they can contribute in the best possible way.

Conclusion:

Identifying high-potential employees and nurturing them is vital to ensure they become future leaders of the company. If they are not provided the necessary recognition, you may lose a great employee to the competitors.

Also Read: One Stop Solution To Train Your Employees