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In my 2016 article Linking Talent Strategy with Business Strategy, I noted that HR practitioners spend significant time creating and implementing talent practices and processes (supported by technology) to enable business strategy. However, before this work begins, it’s critical to articulate the organization’s talent philosophy—a set of guiding principles that define how it manages talent to achieve its strategy. As Marc Effron emphasizes in his newly updated article, it is the executive leadership team—not HR—that should create and agree on the talent philosophy. His article provides guidance on helping the executive team align on key elements such as
- Performance—What are the consequences of higher or lower employee performance over time?
- Behaviors—How much do behaviors matter, and at what thresholds do we start to care?
- Differentiation—How should we allocate our company’s resources and rewards across varying levels of performance and potential?
- Transparency—How open should we be with employees about their performance, behaviors and potential to advance?
- Accountability—To what extent should managers be responsible for increasing the quality and depth of their teams?
As an HR leader, how confident are you that your executive team has a clearly defined and aligned talent philosophy? How many of these five questions would they answer the same way? Understanding this is critical, as the talent practices, processes, and technology we implement in 2025 and beyond must align with this philosophy to achieve the intended talent outcomes.
