CRF Talent Roundtable – High Potential Talent

On November 28^th CRF and bp convened a roundtable discussion for senior talent professionals on the topic of high potential talent. Topics of discussion included challenges in managing high potential talent and how to overcome them, current practices for managing high potential talent, and ways of leveraging technology. These notes summarise the discussion.

Challenges in Managing High Potential Talent
Participants highlighted the following challenges that they are experiencing in managing high potential talent:

• Lack of consistent identification in defining and identifying high-potential talent (e.g. are line managers using definitions consistently? What do we actually mean by ‘high potential talent?’).
• Cost and resourcing constraints, necessitating creative, budget-friendly approaches to talent development (i.e. not solely relying on expensive leadership development programmes). Time is another key constraint, with respondents sharing frequent difficulties in engaging line managers who are already grappling with many different tasks and responsibilities.
• Placing too much focus on leadership. Organisations need to move beyond only identifying talent at the senior level and for leadership roles, and also consider critical capabilities for the future. Supporting high potential talent at the middle level of the organisation is also a common gap.
• A lack of diversity in the groups of people who are identified, developed or retained as high potential talent. For example, certain groups or cultures may less commonly display the behaviours that are rewarded by the organisation.   
• Disconnect between identifying high potential talent and career development pathways. Several members shared that they need to be more codified in tracking the experience of people in talent pools, and link this to broader career and development pathways.
• Lack of transparency or communication. Employees want to know how ‘high potential’ is defined and, if they are not in a talent pool, what actions they can take to enter one. However, this information is not always clear and line managers may be hesitant to have what they perceive as difficult conversations.   
• Poor talent mobility. Organisations are grappling with facilitating internal talent movement due to internal competition and difficulties in sharing talent across the business.
• Talent identification can be overly process-led, rather than first starting with what skills the business needs.
• Need for greater visibility in where talent is within the organisation.

Managing High Potential Talent – Current Practices and Interventions
Participants shared how they are currently managing their high potential talent processes, which are summarised below.

Focusing on development for everyone, rather than just high potential talent

• Participants shared the various ways they are including all employees in development initiatives, such as focusing on ‘growth potential’ for all employees and sub-dividing this into ‘growth in role’ or ‘stretch growth upwards’. Others shared that they focus on development for everybody, with accelerated development for a pool of high potential (e.g. through coaching or business school development programmes).
• However, some organisations shared that they still mainly focus on high potential talent for leadership or their most senior roles.
• Sustaining high potential talent and supporting employees once they are in their new role (e.g. through coaching) is also an important part of managing high potential talent.

Focusing on development for everyone, rather than just high potential talent

• Participants shared a variety of approaches to talent pools, which included:
• Talent pools for different levels of seniority (e.g. ‘senior’ and ‘first level’ leaders).
• Talent pools for specialist skills areas (e.g. digital, data, sales or marketing).
• Talent pools for underrepresented groups such as women or ethnic minorities
• Small talent pools with a very tailored approach.

Selecting High Potential Talent

• High potential talent is often identified through talent conversations or reviews, with line managers playing a critical role in the process. Empowering HR generalists to have conversations about talent at the local level is also important. Some participants additionally highlighted that they are increasingly returning to using performance ratings to help with his.
• Others shared that they use a self-nomination approach, with the aim of minimising bias in the selection process.
• One member shared that they focus on psychological markers – high potential talent identification is often based on what an individual has done previously, which isn’t necessarily the best indicator for what they might do in the future.

Talent Mobility

• Moving high potential talent around internally to gain experience and breadth is important. This may require cultural change or incentivising behaviours at a leadership level to prevent talent hoarding or internal competition.
• International experience is often important for high potential talent with leadership aspirations, though is not always possible. Exploring how employees can gain international experience through virtual roles is one possible solution.
• One member shared how they support employees to gain different experiences (even leaving the company if necessary) and then bring what they have learned back to the business.

Supporting the talent pipeline

• Several participants shared how they examine their entire talent pipeline and consider what future skills will be most required. This involves starting from the business strategy, rather than being overly focused on any particular process or model.
• When looking at the overall talent pipeline, examining wider talent practices is helpful (e.g. have all employees received mentoring, and do they have a complete and up to date career plan?).
• One member shared how women are represented in their succession plans, though often do not have the traditionally required experience for the most senior roles. They are therefore looking at bringing women forward earlier so they have more time to build the experience that they need.

Transparency and communication

• Members highlighted the importance of being clear about what is needed to be classified as high potential and what employees can do to step into this category.
• It is also important to communicate that the nature of a talent pool means that not everyone can be included and be careful about how narratives are presented, particularly when it comes to removing people from the talent pool due to lack of progression.

Spotlight: Using Technology to Manage High Potential Talent 

• Participants shared a consensus that they are looking to improve the way they use technology to manage their high potential talent. For example, one organisation shared how their data scientists are developing predictive AI tools that examine aggregate employee data to identify career and learning pathways and suggest potential internal job opportunities and learning resources to employees.
• Suppliers mentioned included Workday, Gloat, EVA AI, Eightfold and Phenom. However, it was also mentioned that technology platforms tend to support one area (e.g. succession planning) very well, though do not currently offer a high level of support in all areas. A lack of interconnectedness between tech systems is another key issue.
• AI can help minimise bias through placing a greater emphasis on certain experiences or populations. It can also scan CVs to identify skills and act as a career coach.
• Software can also be used to benchmark skills at an aggregate level, identifying how strong the organisation is at the skills required by the future strategy.