Should a particular employee know that you see them as a high potential and want to invest in them more than in others? The answer to this question is not as easy as it might seem at first glance. Indeed, if you tell an employee inappropriately that you want to develop them further and that they will soon be promoted, you may cause unnecessary problems in their team or even in the whole company.
Some HR people and managers believe employees should not know that the company sees them as high potentials because the company has no clear criteria for selecting high-potential workers, which could demotivate other employees. This happens most frequently in companies wihere there is no open discussion.
However, the fact is that silence is no solution as it entails even more serious issues. Steve Newhall from the UK branch of the Korn Ferry recruitment agency discusses the problems in an interesting piece on the HR Magazine website. What are they?
1. Silence solves nothing
Whether you talk about it or not, it is widely known in your company that some employees are more important than others. Everybody knows who is trained or promoted more often than others but nobody knows why. The result is a culture of whispers and gossip.
2. High potentials want development
They seek ways to learn and develop further. If you do not show clearly you count on them, they will join a competitor who talks more openly about their careers.
Telling an employee you consider them a talent with high potential should take the form of offering possibilities for developing their career - if they are willing to work on themselves. It should not sound like the acquisition of some elite position in the company which they will keep forever.
By speaking openly about the talents of your staff, you will help them understand their strengths as well as weaknesses and areas for improvement. So do not ask yourself whether to tell employees you consider them high potentials but rather how to say it.
-kk-