hold

09:05 May 18, 2017 

Certainly, in the first instances, it can only be referring to 'people' — especially wit the uses of quotes. This is very much a buzzword in HR.

However, in the second occurrence, when talking about the 9-box matrix, I'm not so sure; I do find the EN here ambiguous, even unclear, but my reading (and I see that of Abel too) if that it means that any feedback, communication, comments, etc. should be confined to talking about the 'talents' people possess (or not!) rather than veering off topic and saying "she has blue eyes" or somesuch. That is really the only sense I can find for 'to be held to' here — I did wonder about the idea of 'not revealing information to anyone ouside the group of 'talents' direcly concerned, but that seems to me not very likely, not terribly logical — and frankly, a rather weird interpretation of the verb used here!

23:04 May 14, 2017 

example showing "solid talent" as the central position on the grid http://www.employee-performance.com/pdf/Build-your-own-nine-...

23:03 May 14, 2017 

@Tony - the first line seems to me to imply that "talents" are individuals, which makes the sentence being asked about even more odd.