Generation Y & High Potiential Employees

Going to take a more technical approach with this blog post (the last few have been relatively soft...)  I really want to talk about that group of people called the “high potential employee.” This is the employee that has the perfect, and coveted, blend of ability, aspiration, and engagement to achieve success at high levels within an organization.

According to the CEB, high potential employees are 2x more value to their organization. Yet about 50% of them will leave their developmental programs within five years. Begging questions such as:

§  Why are these employees  choosing new organizations/employers?

§  What can we do as an organization to retain such talent?

Now if the high potential employee is that valuable to an organization, then retaining such talent is vitally critical to the future of an organization. Companies today are facing the war for talent in full force and brand name recognition is no longer enough for great talent to remain with an organization. Now the strangest part about high potential employees is that the newer high potential employees are from a different generation. A generation where their expectations are different; this generation is flexible, connected, love feedback, make collaborative decision makers, is very tech savvy and, best yet, challenge the status quo.

Now, this generations expectations could be the missing piece of the puzzle. The fact that many organizations are simply not attempting to understand this generation (Y) of high potentials in the workforce could be damning.  What is so devastatingly sad about this inability for many organizations to change/grow/understand is that generation Y will be the new face of business. This is one of the largest generations entering into the workforce since the baby boomers. Given the state in which the baby boomers are retiring from the workplace, in 10-15 years (or less...) generation Y will possess many of the leadership roles within organizations. Therefore, a conscious investment in this group of high potential employees would be a wise investment for retaining talent in a competitive market.