How do you select for potential in graduates?

Posted by Anne Hamill

How much does potential change from entry level, to senior positions?
As part of building potential models for blue chip companies, we have done research into how senior managers spot potential. We asked them to describe real people they had picked out as high potential, and talked through the ‘critical incidents’ that had made them decide that the person had high potential. We’ve also done research into graduates in 6 organisations who were highly regarded by the business 3-7 years into their careers, and again looked at the behaviours they showed. One interesting result from this work is that the qualities/behaviours were similar – there’s good evidence that potential shows itself in the same way even at very different levels, so it is possible to create a potential model that applies to all. Right at the top, however, the picture can change. The challenges are harder with very large responsibilities, particularly due to increasing complexity, ambiguity, and incomplete data; and the need to lead people through increasing layers.

Assessing potential in graduates
One of the key things about assessing potential in graduates is that we are assessing a group that includes graduates straight from university who are only starting to understand the work environment (and their strengths in that environment), ex-interns who have a strong hold on the corporate culture, and mature graduates or second jobbers with much more political experience. So you need to look for things that all groups can compete on, without one group having an experience advantage that overwhelms the raw potential you are looking for.

There are 2 important requirements to succeed in being seen as high potential at work.

1. Focused drive and energy – people who will get down to the hard work, and push important things forward despite a busy day job. This isn’t easy to see at assessment centres because the time is structured with a focus on sequential exercises taking place at scheduled times. It’s easier to spot this on tasks which require discretionary energy. For example, what does a graduate do on a task they have to get done in their own time – for example, prior to shortlisting or prior to assessment centre?
   
   
2. A strong ability to learn, when you don’t get it right the first time. At this early stage you are getting rough diamonds. If they learn rapidly from feedback, they have higher potential to become polished gems.

For (1) consider setting tasks that require a bit of grit and focused attention before they arrive for assessment. For example, give them the name of an employee who is willing to have a 20-minute conversation with them, and ask them to find out key bits of information and come prepared to talk about it (e.g. what motivates the employee in their job, what do they find challenging about their role, how do they deal with this?). One supermarket asked applicants to go to a store and evaluate it and a competitor store, and discuss this at interview. Look at how much discretionary effort they put in as well as the outcome. You can also set information gathering tasks at assessment, and look at the quality and coherence of the questions asked, the quality of listening and retention etc. A word of warning though – make sure these are tasks that require real world action, and not just armchair internet research!

For (2) include feedback in the assessment process after each exercise. Then at the end of the day ask them to write a summary of what they have learned and would do differently next time. If you don’t tell them you are going to do this, you get a good picture of their natural ability to remember feedback and take action on it.

Another approach you could take, however, is to think about whether you can actively shape people to become high potentials once they join your organisation. Our experience is that a substantial number of middling graduates can become high potentials if people take the time to shape their understanding and behaviour – and this can be an excellent social mobility initiative. We worked with National Grid, using our research to define the high flier behaviours of the best graduates, and develop a graduate-specific appraisal system to track and reinforce these. This is getting great results – and no doubt played a small part in National Grid’s 2 AGR awards this year! We are also starting work on a new initiative to train managers to shape high fliers – watch this space!

Take Away
If you want more high fliers, think about 2 ways of going about it.

1. Select high potentials by looking at drive and learning ability.
   
   
2. Create more high fliers, through being explicit about the behaviours you want and focusing manager feedback on these.

In other words – take an equal focus on selecting rough diamonds, and the cutting and polishing needed to turn them into high value gems! Talk to us about assessment that selects for raw potential, graduate appraisal, and training managers of graduates.