Leadership Matters: Semler Brossy on People, Pay, and Performance
Aug 27, 2026 · 36 min · 14 segments
Human capital used to be a once-a-year discussion for boards, if they formally covered the topic at all. Now HCM issues are standing items on the board agenda — and AI is accelerating the need for the…
Blair JonesGuest
Bertha MasudaGuestDrewHostNikaHost
Yeah, I think the way you characterize it as the people side of the business is a really good way to think about it because it's everything having to do with the workforce.
It's about attracting the right people, knowing what skills you need, developing those people, having good performance management to further the performance of the business.
Now, in terms of how things have changed, it's been interesting to watch because it went from something that was more one time a year to something that was more continuous.
And then it went from something that was maybe report outs to things that have been deeper dives, particularly at the comp committee level.
Investors were looking for companies initially and boards to do more around succession planning.
They felt like companies were spending too much going outside and not building the bench internally.
In addition, there were requirements around pay equity and around the CEO pay ratio.
But now the conversation is really, in many cases, an existential one for companies, where when you think about AI and the disruption that it is already causing and will cause, it really is about the future of these businesses and how they deploy their workforces.
And as you think about the changes companies have had to go through, even over the last five to 10 years, having an anchor in your culture and understanding who you want to be and what you value has become even more central.
And I'd like to add to that in terms of where it really became to the fore of the board was reputational risk.
That was when there was really more oversight from the board and more asking of questions and challenging of the management as to what are we doing about these sorts of things.
Yeah, I think the way you characterize it as the people side of the business is a really good way to think about it because it's everything having to do with the workforce.
It's about attracting the right people, knowing what skills you need, developing those people, having good performance management to further the performance of the business.
Now, in terms of how things have changed, it's been interesting to watch because it went from something that was more one time a year to something that was more continuous.
And then it went from something that was maybe report outs to things that have been deeper dives, particularly at the comp committee level.
Investors were looking for companies initially and boards to do more around succession planning.
They felt like companies were spending too much going outside and not building the bench internally.
In addition, there were requirements around pay equity and around the CEO pay ratio.
But now the conversation is really, in many cases, an existential one for companies, where when you think about AI and the disruption that it is already causing and will cause, it really is about the future of these businesses and how they deploy their workforces.
And as you think about the changes companies have had to go through, even over the last five to 10 years, having an anchor in your culture and understanding who you want to be and what you value has become even more central.
And I'd like to add to that in terms of where it really became to the fore of the board was reputational risk.
That was when there was really more oversight from the board and more asking of questions and challenging of the management as to what are we doing about these sorts of things.
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