How to Identify High-Potential Employees Using Work Data

This blog is for all managers who want to see their best employees grow their careers also without favouritism only on the basis of data.

What Does High-Potential Employee Mean?

While all employees perform their work a high-potential employee will consistently deliver both quantity and quality in their work.

• Always completes work on time.
• Ready to learn new things.
• Has a very good nature and gets along well with everyone.
• Can handle responsibilities in many companies in the future.

All this information is obtained from the employee work data. An employee who performs well today and can do even better tomorrow.

Why Companies Fail to Identify High-Potential Employees

Many companies fail to identify their high-potential employees because they don’t have the right processes.

• HR or managers make decisions based solely on the boss’s preferences.
• They make decisions based only on attendance.
• Decisions based on just one project.
• They always consider the loudest employee to be the best.

The results are also not good, for example:

• Genuine talented employees become demotivated.
• The wrong people get promoted, which is not beneficial for companies at all.
• Team trust is destroyed.

What is Work Data?

Work data refers to information about how much work an employee is doing and the reports generated from this information are called work data.

• When does the employee start work each day?
• What level of focus does the employee use to complete their work?
• What tasks does the employee complete on a daily basis?
• In which tasks does the employee show improvement?
• How well does the employee understand and complete new tasks when they are assigned?

When we perform calculations based on all this data, we can identify the high-potential employees. This data is derived naturally without any pressure.

Finding High-Potential Employees by Consistency

Consistency is the most important quality of any high-potential employee.

• Such an employee is always stable.
• They don’t just perform well for one day, but consistently do good work.
• They never miss deadlines.

There are certain things that distinguish an ordinary employee.

• Employees will always do the same amount of work.
• During very busy days an ordinary employee will simply balance the workload and won’t put in any extra effort to finish the work quickly.

Such an employee should never be given a leadership position in the company and they will never be a strong candidate for leadership roles in the future.

High-Potential Employees & Focus Time

Whenever an employee works with focus, their output is always good.

• High-potential employees utilize their work time very effectively.
• They don’t switch between tasks frequently.
• Their attention is always on important tasks, and they try to complete them as quickly as possible.

Task Ownership and High-Potential Employees

High-potential employees always complete their work with a sense of ownership.

• They try to complete any task assigned to them independently.
• If a problem arises, they immediately look for solutions instead of wasting time on unnecessary discussions.
• They are always ready to work.

An employee who never takes ownership of any task will never be able to become a good leader for the company in the future.

Improvement Trend Strongest Indicator

You can’t identify a high potential employee based on just one day’s performance. There are certain qualities that can help you spot top performers who can eventually become great leaders and help to increase in company growth

• You will see a high-potential employee’s performance gradually improve.
• The output quality gets better day by day.
• The occurrence of mistakes in their work becomes almost impossible, resulting in consistently high-quality work.

High-Potential Employee Behavior

Treating teammates well is a sign of a high-potential employee. Without good temperament, future leaders fail to build trust. They won’t be able to build trust with their employees in the future which will always lead to frustration among the staff.

• Not only should you focus on your own work, but also help solve your teammates’ problems.
• Stay updated regularly.
• Communicate directly with your teammates about work without any manipulation so they can understand the tasks better.

Bias-Free Way to Identify High-Potential Employees

When selecting a high-potential employee from an entire team the decision should always be bias-free because that’s how a better leader is identified.

• This reduces favouritism allowing real talent to be chosen and also increases trust among team members.
• Employees always feel secure because the top performer is being chosen fairly.
• This also creates the belief that if I do good work, I will get a promotion.

There are several ways to identify top-performing employees. However, doing it manually can be very time-consuming and you might even end up choosing the wrong employee someone who only appears productive. The best way is to use WorkDesQ’s employee work monitoring software as it easily tracks employee login/logout times, productivity, and time spent on tasks.

With this tool, you can download work data for high-potential employees with just one click, and it also helps employees get promotions.

Common Mistakes While Using Work Data

Many managers and HR professionals make these mistakes when they are checking an employee work data

• They only look at the employee’s hours.
• They look at and judge employees based on a single instance of performance.
• They compare the employee’s work to that of others.

Proper Use of Work Data by Managers

Whenever managers review employee work data, they need to keep certain things in mind to identify high-potential employees

• The data shouldn’t just be viewed but also understood.
• The data should be checked on a weekly or monthly basis not just yearly.
• Always maintain open communication with employees regarding the data.

How to Check Employee Data for Promotions

Whenever you select an employee for promotion, you should always:

• How quickly do they learn?
• How responsible is the employee in their work?
• You also need to consider the employee’s impact on the team.
• How is the employee’s work performance?

Conclusion

Identifying high-potential employees isn’t a difficult process; there’s a very easy way, but that method needs to be applied in the right direction. I’ve already explained all of this above, and I’ve also shown you how you can use a tool to identify your high-potential employees who can become great leaders in your company in the future. When decisions are based on data the right employees end up in the right positions.

High-Potential Employees: Key Questions Answered