Potential assessment: exploring opportunities for growth

What is a potential assessment?

A potential assessment maps out which growth opportunities someone has, independent of their current job. It does not look at whether someone fits a specific role, but at the broader directions in which someone can flourish.

The difference from a selection or development assessment is the scope. In selection, you look at a job. In development, you look at the current role. With potential, you look at the future. Which roles, levels and directions are realistic for this person?

That makes a potential assessment especially valuable for organizations that want to invest in their talent. It answers the question of where this employee could be in two to five years.

When do you use a potential assessment?

A potential assessment is valuable at moments when you want to look ahead.

• High potential programs: you select employees for a talent program and want to know who has the most growth potential. The assessment substantiates the selection and determines the starting point for each participant.
• Succession planning: you want to know who the potential successors are for critical jobs. The assessment shows whether someone has the potential for a higher level, even if that is not yet visible.
• Internal progression: an employee wants to move up, but it is not clear in which direction. The assessment explores the possibilities and gives concrete directions.
• Reorganization or strategic change: the organization is changing and you want to know what talent you have in-house. Which employees can grow along with the new direction?

What is measured?

A potential assessment measures more broadly than a selection or development assessment.

• Abilities and learning potential: how quickly does someone learn, how do they deal with complexity and abstraction? This determines the ceiling, meaning which level is realistic.
• Personality, talents and motivators: what gives someone energy, what motivates them, which work contexts fit? This determines the direction. Not only what someone can do, but also what someone wants.
• Behavioral competencies in different directions: how does someone behave in situations that are relevant to possible future roles? Not only the current job, but also managerial, specialist or strategic situations.

The combination produces a picture of directions in which someone flourishes, including what is needed to get there.

From potential to concrete roles

A potential assessment yields directions. Talent matching makes those directions concrete.

If the assessment results are included in the platform, matching can show which specific roles in the job architecture fit the employee's potential. Not only the current job, but all roles for which someone has the aptitude.

That is the connection between the potential assessment and the internal marketplace. The assessment provides the profile, matching compares that profile with the job architecture, and the results give concrete career paths.

Differences between the potential and the desired role become development goals. This makes the assessment not only insight, but also a concrete growth path.

Identifying high potentials

One of the most common applications of potential assessments is identifying high potentials.

What makes someone a high potential? It is not only high performance in the current role. It is the combination of learning capacity, motivation to grow, adaptability and the capacity to function at a higher level.

A potential assessment makes that objective. Not based on whom the manager finds most visible, but based on validated measurements. That prevents talent from being overlooked because it sits in another department or has a less visible role.

People analytics makes this visible across the organization. Where are the high potentials, which roles are they suited for, and what is needed to get them ready?