HiPO (High-Potential Employees) are the most sought-after employees in the job market today and for good reasons. Studies show that the top 20 percent of your employeesOpens a new window account for about 80 percent of your company’s productivity. This makes HiPO employees an average of 400 percent more productive than your average employee.
With this much potential, it makes sense for employers to want to identify, hire and maintain as many HiPO employees as possible.
How to Identify HiPO Applicants
In an already highly-competitive job market, it can be difficult to identify exactly who the high-performing candidates are. The good news is that most HiPOs possess the same traits. Looking for these traits within your applicant pool can help you filter out your subpar candidates and focus on those candidates with the most potential.
Ability
First and foremost, HiPO must have the right skills for the given position. Without skills, knowledge and aptitude for the given position, the rest really won’t matter.
Ambition
HiPO employees are self-motivators. They set goals and they are determined to meet these goals.
Communication
High-potential employees tend to have both excellent verbal and written communication skills.
Cooperation
HiPO are good collaborators. While they often strive to take a leadership role, they are still good working on a team.
Integrity
Your ideal applicants will have a high level of integrity. Not only do they accept responsibility and take ownership of their job responsibilities, but they also hold themselves accountable to meeting both personal and company goals.
Composure
High-potential candidates rarely get frustrated under stressful situations. Instead, they typically are even-tempered, even in chaotic environments. In fact, many HiPOs perform extremely well in stressful positions.
How to Hire HiPO Candidates
Identifying your top candidates is only the first step. Now, you must entice them to accept an offer of employment. In today’s candidate-driven market, this is not always an easy task, especially when dealing with high-potential employees. HiPOs know exactly what they want, and they have enough ambition and self-confidence to wait until they find the right employer to accept an offer.
This means that employers must find a way to differentiate themselves from their competitors. An EVP (Employer Value Proposition) is the perfect tool to help employers do just that. In short, an EVP is a statement that explains why top talent employees should work for the company. It details the benefits the company offers their employees in exchange for their talents. Benefits, in this sense, is not necessarily medical insurance and personal time off. Instead, it details unique benefits, such as a dynamic workplace culture, the opportunity to work with top name clients, community outreach, training and development programs, the company offers.
Yelp!Opens a new window is an example of one company doing it right. The company career site states, “We’re passionate about connecting people with great local businesses. At Yelp, we’re bringing together world-class talent from different experiences, disciplines and areas of study to produce a world-class product.†This statement shows potential candidates why the work at Yelp! is so important not just to them but to the world around them.
The Yelp! career site goes on to say “We believe in giving our employees the tools and resources to keep them healthy, wealthy and wise. Whether it’s a gym subsidy, unlimited snacks or healthcare benefits, we believe happy employees are success employees.†Here the company shares an array of unique benefits they offer, while also giving candidates a glimpse into their company culture.
How to Maintain HiPO Employees
Studies show that only 50 percent of employeesOpens a new window identified as high-potential stay with the company for more than three years. With a statistic like this, the idea of maintaining the best of the best may seem out of your grasp, but there are things you can do right now to help keep your HiPO employees around a lot longer.
Feedback
HiPOs thrive on feedback. They take constructive criticism and advice very well because they continuously look for ways to improve their skills. Solely relying on annual performance reviews may not be enough for your top employees. They want more and they expect more. It is important to give these high potential employees constant feedback, both positive and negative.
Identification
The last thing you want to happen is for your top performers to slip through the cracks. Identifying HiPOs during the hiring process is a great step, but you also should develop methods of identifying current HiPO employees before you lose them.
Training
There are several studies that link employee training to improved retention rates. While training and development programs can be quite costly, you can maximize the benefit by offering training to your high-potential employees. Not only will advance training work as an incentive to keep your HiPO employees in place but will bring a higher level of skills and talent to your company.
Career Development
Remember that your HiPOs are very ambitious. During the hiring process, this was a coveted attribute. Don’t drop the ball once you bring these candidates on as employees. Your HiPOs will crave career advancement and if you don’t offer them growth opportunities within the company, they will look for career advancement opportunities outside of the company.
Developing an effective strategy to identify, hire and retain these high-potential employees can boost productivity, increase job satisfaction and most importantly improve overall retention rates.