A New Approach for Developing High Potential Employees
Every organization has high potential employees―sometimes referred to as “HIPOs,”―who the organization hopes will form a core part of the future leadership and workforce. They’re a group that tends to disproportionately outperform their peers, and they leave every employer with two broad challenges:
- Realization of that potential: Developing talent typically through targeted professional development.
- Employee retention: A critical problem when competitors are constantly on the lookout for key people to poach with tempting offers. High potential employees have more options when it comes to career mobility, causing 25% of them to leave (CEB, 2016 Beyond the HIPO Hype) with an immediate cost of up to twice their salary, not to mention the hassle it introduces.
High potential employee realization and retention are real and complex problems for employers. As HIPOs are typically trusted with a great deal of responsibility on high priority projects, 86% of them turn out to be at risk of burnout (Global Leadership Forecast, 2021). And despite organizations putting effort into high potential programs, only 11% of organizations are very satisfied with the returns they get from them (Korn Ferry, 2019). Coaching has a particular role to play in supporting both of these critical objectives.
How and why to utilize digital coaching for HIPOs
Delivering coaching to high potential employees provides a personalized opportunity for them to develop skills in the right areas to add the most value to the organization. By giving them a pathway to increase their abilities and improve their performance, you can also increase the chances that the individual will earn the rewards offered at your organization, potentially keeping hold of them for longer.Alongside that, delivering coaching to those who manage HIPOs enables them to lead better, overcoming negative biases and enabling opportunities for the HIPOs to grow and learn in an environment of psychological safety.It matters even more than we might think. If it’s true that 80% of an organization’s output comes from 20% of its employees, it stands to reason that those 20% will sit in the HIPO bracket. Investing in an environment that serves them will benefit the organization directly through results, and indirectly through the positive influence they have on their colleagues.
Changing mindsets, changing results
High potential employees often suffer higher levels of stress. They have to cope with their employer’s (justifiably) high expectations, and they also want and need to focus on developing the skills that will help them succeed in a future role. This is exacerbated for those in a succession planning scheme. Sound familiar?This cycle can sometimes demand a change in mindset. HIPOs are not necessarily always going to be the highest performing colleagues; promoting the highest performing technical expert might seem logical until both they leave for an equivalent job that doesn’t include people management, and the actual HIPOs leave for an opportunity in which they get it.The answer is clear: set high potential employees up for success from the very start of their leadership career. Invest as much in their leadership development as you would for your senior leaders. In other words: democratise coaching. But this is easier said than done. Spotting them is half the battle.
Getting help
Thankfully, there is a solution. Offering coaching to every employee would be one extremely good approach. ile incurring an initial faith-led cost, coaching has been shown over and over again to demonstrate its value and clear return on investment. For those more concerned with short-term finances, targeted coaching at people managers to foster those environments is a great tool to maximize the likelihood of HIPOs being spotted and supported to achieve their potential.
FAQ
Success in leading through change is measured by how quickly performance recovers and how effectively new behaviors are embedded across the organisation.
This includes both early signals such as clarity, confidence, and decision-making and longer-term outcomes like engagement, retention, and productivity. Organisations that track both behavioral and business indicators are better able to understand progress, identify risks, and sustain performance beyond the initial recovery phase.
Ultimately, successful restructuring is not defined by the new org chart, but by how quickly people adapt and how consistently they perform in the new environment.
When the change curve is not actively managed, organisations face compounding performance risks. These include slower decision-making, increased coordination costs, declining engagement and prolonged productivity loss.
Over time, teams may revert to old behaviours, momentum fades, and change fatigue increases especially if multiple transformations occur in succession.
Each additional week spent in the dip increases the cost of disruption and delays the realisation of transformation benefits, making recovery slower and less effective.
Organisations shorten the change curve by actively supporting behaviour change at scale. This requires more than one-off interventions, it demands continuous reinforcement, alignment across leadership levels, and integration into daily work.
Behavioural science shows that change only sticks when it is reinforced consistently and over time. Organisations that provide structured, ongoing support such as coaching, are better able to accelerate adaptation, reduce uncertainty, and restore performance faster.
The goal is not to eliminate the dip, but to reduce its duration and severity.
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