High Potential Moves and Onboarding

Do you have high potential talent identified in your organization?

Do you have assessments, coaching and development plans for each of them?

Do you plan to move these high potentials into different roles to either "stretch" them and/or solve a business issue?

Most mid to large organizations probably have some type of talent review in place that allows them to identify and develop their star employees and next generation leaders. However, most do not include onboarding as a key strategy to smooth the transition between these roles and head off potential failure--failure that could result in the missed opportunities and business objectives, as well as the potential loss of some great talent.

There are some pretty unsettling statistics in the May issue of Harvard Business Review's article, "How to Keep Your Top Talent". The article reports that based on the research HBR did with the Corporate Leadership Council of 20,000 employees, "nearly 40% of the internal job moves involving high potention ended in failure."
The article goes on to point out the most common mistakes that organizations make with their high potential employees. Because many times a role change is used to develop these high potentials, a well-planned and well-executed onboarding experience can and will surface issues before they result in big mistakes or failure.

Internal transitions are the riskiest for an organization and for the individual because so many assumptions are made.

Here are the top five (wrong!) assumptions made for internal moves:
1. The transitioning employee gets the culture. Not necessarily--even different business units, geographic locations and teams can have a culture different from the "corporate" culture.

2. The transitioning employee knows what he/she is supposed to focus on. Not every hiring manager is clear about the job or role. This trips up even the most seasoned employee.

3. No relo, means no personal needs. Just because someone isn't moving to a new location, doesn't mean there won't be personal transition. New hours, longer commute, more travel can create stress and challenge for the transitioning employee.

4. The hiring manager can deal with all the transition issues. Most hiring managers are not focused on transition, especially internal ones. Peers, direct reports and Human Resources contacts can be a hugs support during transition, especially if their roles are defined.

5. No news is good news. Feedback is critical and even more so during transition. These employees are vulnerable and need to hear how they are hitting (or not) the mark in their new roles immediately.

For more on how to successfully onboard internal high potentials, visit our website or call 1.888.793.8805.