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There’s a point where hiring better people isn’t enough.
We can keep trying to find another great employee. Replace the person who left. Fix the latest performance issue. Recruit a stronger manager.
But if the business keeps dealing with the same people problems over and over, the issue probably isn’t the individual employee anymore.
It’s the system around them.
That’s what the talent maturity model is designed to show us. It looks at five areas of the business that directly affect commercial performance and, ultimately, enterprise value: workforce planning, recruitment quality, performance management, retention, and the maturity of the people function itself.
And for a founder who wants to eventually sell the business, this matters a lot more than simply having a good team today.
The Talent Maturity Model Measures More Than Hiring
A lot of owners think about talent almost entirely through recruiting.
Who do we need?
Where do we find them?
How quickly can we get them in the seat?
Those questions matter, but they’re only one part of the talent maturity model.
A company can recruit good people and still struggle because workforce planning is weak. It can hire well and lose those people because retention is poor. It can retain people for years while still underperforming because performance management is inconsistent.
That’s why we have to look at all five dimensions together.
Workforce planning asks whether we understand the people the business actually needs.
Recruitment quality tells us how effectively we bring those people in.
Performance management deals with what happens once they’re there.
Retention tells us whether we can keep the people we want to keep.
And people function maturity looks at how developed the overall capability is across the business.
Most owners don’t experience those things as five neat categories. We experience them as daily problems.
The wrong person gets hired.
A good person leaves.
Performance slips.
We scramble to replace somebody.
Then we go right back to running the company.
The talent maturity model gives us a way to stop treating each problem as an isolated event.
Most Founder-Led Businesses Are Still at Level 1 or 2
Here’s the part I think founders should pay attention to.
Most founder-led businesses between $3 million and $10 million in revenue sit around Level 1 or Level 2 across most of these dimensions.
That means a business can grow to several million dollars in revenue while its people systems are still relatively immature.
We tend to assume revenue growth means the company underneath it is becoming more sophisticated.
It doesn’t always work that way.
The business can get bigger while hiring remains reactive. Performance management can stay inconsistent. Retention problems can continue. The founder can simply carry more and more of the burden as revenue climbs.
That works for a while.
But there’s a difference between building income and building an asset.
The talent maturity model starts exposing that difference.
Moving From Level 2 to Level 4 Can Affect EBITDA
The interesting part isn’t where most companies are today.
It’s what happens when the business matures.
Moving from Level 2 to Level 4 across the talent maturity model is achievable over roughly 12 to 18 months of consistent investment.
And the benefit isn’t simply that the company feels better organized.
Better performance can improve EBITDA.
Lower regretted turnover can improve EBITDA.
Lower recruitment costs can improve EBITDA.
That matters because we aren’t investing in better people systems merely to make HR cleaner.
We’re trying to build a stronger business.
Sometimes founders look at people investments as overhead. Another cost. Another function we need to fund before we can get back to the “real” work of growing the company.
But if better performance, lower turnover, and lower recruiting costs improve earnings, then the people side of the business is part of the economic engine.
That changes the conversation.
The Talent Maturity Model Also Reduces Buyer Risk
EBITDA is only half the story.
The same improvement can also create a multiple premium by reducing talent-related risk.
That distinction matters.
We can grow earnings and still have a business that carries significant risk around its people. If the company depends on weak planning, inconsistent recruitment, poor performance management, or fragile retention, that risk doesn’t disappear simply because revenue is growing.
A buyer has to inherit whatever we built.
That’s why the talent maturity model matters so much to enterprise value.
A more mature business isn’t just producing more. It has reduced some of the risk tied to the people required to keep producing it.
For founders thinking about an eight- or nine-figure outcome someday, we have to hold both ideas at the same time.
What improves earnings today?
And what makes those earnings less risky to someone else tomorrow?
Those are different questions.
The best investments often help with both.
Revenue Can Hide an Immature Business
This is probably the biggest trap.
We see the company growing and assume the business is becoming more valuable at the same rate.
But revenue can hide a lot.
A company can reach $3 million, $5 million, or $10 million while still operating at Level 1 or Level 2 across the talent maturity model.
That doesn’t mean the company is bad.
It means there’s still work underneath the growth.
If we want to move from owner-operator toward owner-investor, eventually the company has to become more mature than the founder’s ability to personally hold everything together.
That’s where this stops being an HR conversation.
It becomes a wealth conversation.
Because the goal isn’t simply to build a company that throws off income while we own it. The goal is to build something whose value can survive beyond our daily involvement, become transferable, and eventually contribute to wealth that extends beyond the business itself.
The talent maturity model gives us a simple place to look.
Workforce planning.
Recruitment quality.
Performance management.
Retention.
The question isn’t whether we have employees.
The question is whether we’ve built the people capability required for the company we say we want.
Because eventually, growth alone won’t cover the cracks.
And if the business is going to become part of our generational wealth instead of simply the place where we earn our income, the company has to mature before the exit forces the issue.
Justin D Maxwell provides family office and investment bank services to the lower midmarket to founders who want 8 or 9 figure net worths. You can learn more here: www.justindmaxwell.com or take our free assessment here: https://fielding.global/articles/diagnostic.html