Retaining High Potentials

Name: Retaining High Potentials
Author: KnowledgeCity

Explore methods for retaining high-potential employees

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 4 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

(upbeat music) In these lessons, you'll understand the importance of creating an inclusive, employee-focused workplace. You'll learn different methods to create an inclusive environment and understand the importance of work-life balance. We'll also demonstrate how you can implement a strong performance management program to provide feedback to your high-potential employees. Finally, you'll learn how to effectively support professional development and personal growth. There are many strategies your organization can use to retain high-potential employees. In general, many of the strategies we'll discuss are considered best practices because they have the potential to improve the employee retention rate across your organization. Like many employees, high potentials want to work for organizations that value inclusivity and a healthy work-life balance. Establishing a workplace culture that supports employees' efforts to achieve this balance is a good first step in reducing turnover and improving workplace productivity. Your organization can use several strategies to develop an inclusive and employee-friendly workplace. Some ways to further these goals are to ensure all company messaging uses inclusive language, offer benefits that support physical and mental health, and ensure your managers model behaviors that reflect your goals. Let's start with reviewing the messaging your company uses. It's a good practice to review all company signage, documentation, and manuals to ensure they don't contain any potentially divisive language. This might include looking at signs posted in the workplace such as those at the entrances of the restrooms, reviewing organizational policies, and reviewing job descriptions. As you review your company's messaging, you should ensure that all language is gender neutral and no discriminatory terms are used. As an example, consider the wording of a family leave policy. Instead of referring to it as maternity leave, which exclusively applies to women, consider offering a general caregiving leave. This term would be more inclusive since it could apply to all employees who may need to care for children, siblings, spouses, or elderly relatives. To further expand your workplace inclusivity, you could also consider offering floating holidays to accommodate employees with varying cultural and religious beliefs. Your organization should also review your employee benefits to ensure they provide sufficient resources for both physical and mental health. Offering appropriate levels of medical coverage as well as sufficient paid time off sends a strong message to employees that their wellbeing is important to your organization. While providing these benefits is a step in the right direction, it may not be enough to demonstrate your commitment to a healthy work-life balance. Your organization should also ensure that your leadership and management staff model behaviors that reflect an inclusive and employee-focused workplace. For example, it's not enough for your organization to provide employees with paid time off if you don't ensure that your employees' workloads can be adequately covered in their absences. Managers should be discouraged from contacting employees who are using their paid time off. High-potential employees will likely notice if managers encourage team members to schedule time off but then call during their absences to discuss non-urgent matters. This behavior can create a disconnect between what your organization promotes and what your high-potential employees actually experience. Another example of this inconsistency could be managers who never use their paid time off and regularly work beyond their normal hours while also encouraging team members to practice healthy work-life balance. When your managers' behaviors contradict your organization's messaging, it may lead high-potential employees to question whether your organization truly values work-life balance. High-potential employees may begin to question if their own advancement will be negatively affected if they don't replicate your managers' behaviors. If you want to demonstrate your support for a healthy work-life balance, be sure your management team is sending a consistent message with their behaviors. It should support an inclusive, employee-focused culture that fosters the retention of high-potential employees.

Intermediate Provider : KnowledgeCity 4 Lessons · 13m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Urdu, Chinese

Course Description

Many employees value organizations that promote inclusive, employee-focused workplaces. Establishing a healthy and supportive workplace culture is important for retaining high-potential employees. It’s crucial to keep these employees because they have the capacity to become leaders within your organization. Not only will retaining them allow you to successfully succession plan, but you won’t have to spend money and other resources recruiting their replacements. But how can you accomplish this? What does it take to keep high-potential employees around?

In this course on Retaining High Potentials, you’ll learn how you can best keep these valuable employees. We’ll start by discussing how you can promote a healthy work-life balance and inclusivity for them, encouraging a culture focused on their well-being. You will also learn how to implement an effective performance-management program by using the tried-and-true SMART method. By the end of this course, you will know how you can encourage personal growth and professional development among your employees, investing in their futures.

What You'll Learn

Create an inclusive, employee-focused workplace culture
Foster a healthy work-life balance for high-potential employees
Develop a strong performance-management program using the SMART method
Explore different methods for supporting employee growth and professional development

Key Takeaways

Establishing a healthy and supportive workplace culture is important for retaining high-potential employees.
Retaining high-potential employees supports successful succession planning and avoids spending money and resources recruiting their replacements.
Promoting a healthy work-life balance and inclusivity encourages a culture focused on employees' well-being.
An effective performance-management program can be implemented using the SMART method.
Encouraging personal growth and professional development invests in employees' futures.

Frequently Asked Questions

What will I learn in this course?

You'll learn how to create an inclusive, employee-focused workplace, foster a healthy work-life balance, develop a strong performance-management program using the SMART method, and explore different methods for supporting employee growth.

Why does this course focus on retaining high-potential employees?

High-potential employees have the capacity to become leaders within your organization. Retaining them allows you to successfully succession plan and avoids spending money and other resources recruiting their replacements.

What topics does the course cover?

The course covers creating an inclusive and employee-focused culture, implementing a strong performance-management program, and investing in professional and personal development, and it includes a Test Your Knowledge section.

What skills does this course help build?

It builds skills in people management, employee coaching, employee performance management, high potential programs, high-potential development, and talent management.

How is the performance-management program approached in this course?

The course teaches how to implement an effective performance-management program by using the tried-and-true SMART method.