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Introduction
Shortage of leadership talent is one of the greatest concerns for organizations today (e.g. Cappelli and Keller, 2017). To address the growing leadership gap, most companies implemented “high-potential employee” (HIPO) programs (Silzer and Church, 2010), intended to identify the most promising leadership candidates among their employees and develop them into effective leaders (Church and Rotolo, 2013; Collings and Mellahi, 2009; Silzer et al., 2016). Companies deem such initiatives their top strategic priority (Corporate Leadership Council, 2005, 2011; PWC, 2012) and regard HIPOs as an important source of competitive advantage and sustainability (Bush et al., 2016; Casio and Boudreau, 2016; Mellahi and Collings, 2010; McDonnell, 2011).
Historically, when identifying HIPOs, companies focused on their middle and senior managers and considered their employees’ leadership abilities and job performance across a range of responsibilities and roles when making talent calls (Silzer and Church, 2010). Today, companies are increasingly identifying HIPOs at earlier stages (e.g. Dutton, 2015).
In a shift toward identifying leadership talent earlier, some companies are introducing “new grad” programs, designed to detect leadership potential as part of their university recruitment initiatives (e.g. Ciccarelli, 2012). Promising candidates are identified through rigorous interviews and offered “management designate” positions before they graduate. (The term “designate” refers to someone who is officially appointed to a certain position, but not yet officially occupying it). Thus, companies are effectively hiring new grads, with little or no employment track record, and designating them “high potentials” prior to onboarding. Then, they provide these HIPO designates with intensive training and support and fast-track them through management positions.
Little information is available about such programs. On the one hand, identifying leadership talent early can be beneficial for companies, as it may allow them to start cultivating leaders sooner, build leadership capacity quicker (Dutton, 2015) and facilitate more effective deployment of resources to support leadership development (Corporate Leadership Council, 2000). On the other hand, new grad programs present new challenges and uncertain outcomes. For example, accurately spotting leadership potential among young people with little or no work experience poses one of the more significant challenges for organizations, which are more accustomed to identifying HIPOs among their employees who had an opportunity to “prove themselves” by demonstrating their leadership abilities in a company context (Silzer...