One of the world’s largest hotel companies, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide operates some of the biggest brand names in the hospitality industry, including Sheraton, Westin, Four Points by Sheraton and W Hotels. Starwood operates 1,000 hotels in 100 countries around the globe. Such a sprawling, complex operation requires a lot of manpower; Starwood boasts a workforce of roughly 145,000 employees. And any one of those employees could potentially rise to the top ranks of the company. Allison Barber, vice president of talent management at Starwood, is a testament to that: She started off in housekeeping 26 years ago.

Barber spoke with Talent Management magazine about Starwood’s internal mantra: “Win with talent.”

TM: Describe Starwood’s approach to talent management.

Barber: The travel industry is really central to the global economy, generating $1 out of every $10 spent in the world and employing 220 million people. Between 2009 and ’10, Starwood is creating 24,000 new jobs globally. Our industry provides upward mobility in a wide variety of career opportunities, especially in a high-growth company like ours. So our approach to talent management is to ensure that we’ve got the right talent in the right place at the right time. We take a unique approach to maintaining a balance between core global processes and local or divisional ones. We don’t try to control the development and the movement of all 145,000 associates centrally; I think that would be impossible to do. What we do is to build a common integrated platform across Starwood so that we share a common language and a common approach, and then allow for regional flexibility.

TM: What processes or programs have you established to improve the performance of Starwood’s entire workforce?

Barber: Part of it is taking a step back and really taking a look at alignment. In 2008, we introduced “the journey,” which is Starwood’s shorthand for our strategy and values. We align all of our goals and work to five essentials, which are: win with talent; execute brilliantly; build a great brand; develop global growth; and drive outstanding results. We measure our performance across those goals annually for all of our managers and leaders through an automated performance management process, and then we align our development programs against each of those essentials.