Do you have the ability to spot potential in your lower-level employees? If not, you need to find ways to spot potential in lower-level employees immediately. It is better to hire in-house candidates for management positions than outside candidates for many reasons. These can include:
- Lower cost to promote vs. hire new people
- Succession planning with a reduced learning curve
- Creates a more positive and productive workplace
We will discuss the best ways to spot potential in lower-level employees, so you can effectively hire new managers from within your ranks.
Assess Talent During Annual Performance Review
One of the first things you should do in spotting potential in lower-level employees is by assessing talent at your company during their annual performance review. Determine what the qualifications are for employees to finish current projects and if they have the skills and traits to move up in their career within your company. Also consider mentor evaluations, employee assessments, peer reviews and even surveys to determine which lower-level employees have management talent.
Match Talent with Requirements
The next step in spotting potential in lower-level employees is to match talent at your company with future requirements. You must layout the time for replacement, the readiness of the candidate and the assignment of individuals. A team of management employees from the company need to discuss all potential candidates for promotion and determine a slew of factors. Those factors include the promotability of the candidates, ratings based on performance, readiness for other roles in the company and any other strategy used to analyze talent within the organization.
Measure Regular Progress
Step number three in identifying potential in lower-level employees at your company is to measure regular progress of employees. This begins by figuring out which candidates are up for promotion and which jobs they are being groomed for so your candidate pool at the company does not get stretched too thin. Measure the progress of your current employees with how they complete projects, meet deadlines, deal with clients, handle issues in the office and much more.
Ask Employees What They Like
Another option is to ask employees what they like to do at work, what their strengths and weaknesses are and what type of role he or she thinks they would succeed in within the company. These questions need to be asked at annual performance reviews so you can add the information to their employee file for future reference.
Allow a Test-Drive
Our final step is a little outside the box, but it involves allowing the employee to test-drive the position. This does not mean promoting an employee into a new role and then removing him or her if it does not work. Instead, create an internal internship program that allows current employees to shadow managers within their department for a day or two to see what gets done at the higher levels. This will let you know if the person likes the idea of working that job and if he or she has the experience to work the position.
