Identify future leaders with Mercer’s high-potential assessment

Identifying and optimizing human potential is critical to an organization’s long-term success. Mercer’s high-potential assessment solution provides an objective lens on who has the capacity, mindset and drive to exponentially contribute to business outcomes.
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Spot high-potential talent early to unlock the value of your workforce

  • How are you optimizing the potential of your workforce?
    Identifying high-potential talent is critical for building a resilient leadership pipeline that can navigate constant change. An objective high-potential assessment helps companies spot future leaders early, understand what drives their success and tailor development to maximize growth. By combining data-driven insights with real-world relevance, high-potential programs give organizations the foresight to unlock the full value of their workforce.
  • Apply a proven model for identifying high potential
    An individual’s past performance only tells one part of the story; they may have significant potential to achieve more. Companies rely on Mercer’s model to go beyond performance to understand the innate — and often hidden — drivers of potential.
  • Predict future leadership success
    Mercer has identified the behaviors and attributes that predict high-potential leaders in today’s complex and ambiguous world. Looking for objectivity? Mercer partners with organizations so they can feel confident they’re investing in the talent most likely to deliver impact for the business.
  • Tailor development to motivate and retain talent
    People are likely to stay and deliver more when they see opportunities to develop their skills and progress their careers. Insights from high-potential assessments feed into personalized and actionable development plans to help retain and inspire key leadership talent.
  • Spot risks and opportunities in your leadership pipeline
    Understanding the strength of the future talent pipeline is only the first step. Organizations can use insights from Mercer’s high-potential assessment to inform broader talent initiatives — workforce planning, hiring, onboarding, development, succession planning and more — to ensure their business is future-proofed and ready to succeed no matter what comes next.
Your top performers aren’t necessarily your high potentials.

Mercer’s High-Potential Identification Framework

Across the globe, leaders frequently overlook individuals with the potential to step into critical roles because they base their evaluation only on what they can see. 

An individual’s potential is multi-faceted and requires a holistic approach to measure. Mercer’s scientifically developed solution helps ensure the process of identification is fair, objective and robust, and provides targeted insights to shape next steps for both individuals and the organization. 

Innate Potential

It’s the unseen elements under the surface that help drive an individual's behavior and performance. Understanding these elements is important and powerful, because it enables a view of what else the individual might have the potential to achieve. At Mercer, we measure this through a combination of personality, motivation and cognitive ability assessments to objectively evaluate the capacity, mindset and drive needed to develop, grow and apply their skills in new directions. 

Demonstrated Potential

It’s important to understand what the individual is capable of today alongside their innate potential. Demonstrated potential explores the individual’s behavioral and leadership strengths and development areas using a range of exercises, such as business case studies, analysis presentations, role-plays and expert interviews, to further understand the key experiences that have shaped their career so far. 

Overall Potential

Together, measures of innate and demonstrated potential inform the overall assessment of the individual’s potential. 

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