LHH Launches HR & Talent Advisory Practice

Partnering to transform and align talent ecosystems, people strategy, and the AI-era workforce for business impact.

NEW YORK CITY, NY / ACCESS Newswire / January 28, 2026 / LHH, a global leader in integrated talent solutions and a global business unit of the Adecco Group, launches its HR & Talent Advisory practice to partner with executives to optimize people strategies and deliver enterprise outcomes across the workforce.

Why This Matters Now

• Continuous disruption, financial pressures, fragmented workforces, accelerating AI adoption, and persistent skill gaps are constantly driving senior leaders to review and evolve talent strategies at an unprecedented rate.

• LHH HR & Talent Advisory partners across organizations, bringing the full suite of human capital capabilities to support clients in achieving workforce goals.

• By integrating Leadership, Talent & Culture, Organizational Transformation & Change, and Workforce Strategy & Skills, leaders can drive meaningful change with a holistic, enterprise-wide approach to talent.

LHH's HR & Talent Advisory Turns Workforce Challenges into Business Advantage

Organizations increasingly face systemic workforce transformation challenges. LHH's HR & Talent Advisory turns insight into action, supporting clients from strategy through implementation with measurable growth and business outcomes. What sets LHH apart is an end-to-end view of the talent journey across all levels, translating root-cause insight into practical implementation with the human experience at the center.

The new practice leverages 60+ years of talent experience, proprietary global data, and practitioner-led consulting to deliver clear business outcomes across three critical areas:

• Building Capability and Ways of Working

• Enabling Organizational Agility

• Creating a Future-Ready Workforce

Executive Quotes

"Executives are tackling nuanced, high-stakes decisions across the talent journey that directly impact their business performance," says John Morgan, LHH President, Career Transition & Mobility, Leadership Development & Coaching, and HR & Talent Advisory. "Our HR & Talent Advisory team combines decades of hands-on, world-class experience to deliver human-centered guidance in partnership with leaders. By combining deep expertise in leadership, culture, organizational design, and workforce strategy, we help organizations navigate change and drive reinvention that benefits both people and the business."

"Workforce challenges are rarely isolated; they span culture, technology, processes, and talent," says Ben Smytheman, SVP HR & Talent Advisory. "Our role is to help HR and senior leaders view the full picture, identify the connections that matter, and translate complex challenges into practical, actionable solutions. By leveraging the depth and breadth of our workforce solutions expertise, we help organizations enhance performance and achieve tangible business results."

Leadership Announcements

LHH's HR & Talent Advisory practice is led by SVP HR & Talent Advisory, Ben Smytheman, a Chartered Psychologist and Chartered HR Fellow. The team consists of seasoned global experts with more than 60 years of combined advisory experience across talent, leadership, and organizational transformation.

LHH's global Advisory Center of Excellence (CoE) includes senior practice leaders and subject matter experts who will lead LHH's global Advisory expertise, thought leadership, technology, and analytics.

Darren Philpott leads LHH's global Advisory CoE as VP, Workforce Strategy & Innovation, HR & Talent Advisory. Building on leadership roles at IBM, Vodafone, Barclays, and Clifford Chance, Philpott's career spans partnering with business leaders to build and transform organizations, aligning enterprise leadership, people, and culture transformation to deliver lasting business impact. Philpott is a Chartered Psychologist and Chartered Scientist working across all sectors, specializing in technology, banking, and telecoms with expertise in organizational transformation, people and talent strategies, and leadership.

Stephanie DeHaven joins LHH as VP, Regional Director, North America, HR & Talent Advisory. With more than 20 years at Accenture, DeHaven led a $100M+ consulting portfolio and managed global teams delivering complex transformational programs. DeHaven also served as Chief People Officer, advising Fortune 100 executives, and brings experience in leading large-scale organizational change and shaping people-centric solutions to today's toughest business challenges.

Marie Shaw moves to LHH's new practice to lead the European Division as VP, Regional Director, EMEA, HR & Talent Advisory. With more than two decades in strategic HR, business, talent, and client leadership roles at multinationals like Siemens and global consulting firms, Shaw's experience is extensive. Shaw has led complex global portfolios across sectors, notably with specialisms in life sciences, engineering, and manufacturing, advising C-suite stakeholders and shaping integrated people strategies that link talent, commercial growth, and transformation.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q: What is LHH HR & Talent Advisory?

A: LHH's HR & Talent Advisory is a strategic advisory practice that helps workforce leaders optimize people strategies and deliver enterprise outcomes across the workforce, partnering with them from discovery to design and implementation. It provides expert practitioner-led guidance across leadership, culture, organizational design, and workforce strategy, turning insight into action through integrated, executable solutions that shape the entire talent journey across all levels of the organization.

Q: Who does LHH's HR & Talent Advisory support and partner with?

A: LHH's HR & Talent Advisory enables leaders to drive complex strategy in a fast-changing environment shaped by continuous disruption, accelerating AI adoption, and evolving workforce needs. LHH works as a strategic thought partner, collaborating with executives to shape and implement workforce, leadership, and culture strategies that align talent ecosystems and people strategy to business outcomes, while prioritizing the human experience.

Q: How is LHH's HR & Talent Advisory different from traditional consulting?

A: LHH's HR & Talent Advisory is led by seasoned practitioners who have run HR, talent, and business functions and understand what it takes to move from strategy toimplementation. LHH brings a unique perspective across the entire talent journey, with deep insight into individual implications as well as enterprise needs, and how to make change work in practice. By connecting leadership, culture, organizational design, and workforce strategy, LHH works alongside executives to implement practical, data-informed solutions that drive measurable growth performance and business outcomes.

Q: What types of challenges does LHH's HR & Talent Advisory help solve?

A: LHH's HR & Talent Advisory helps organizations address systemic workforce challenges across three critical areas:

• Creating a Future-Ready Workforce: Helping to future-proof an organization's workforce by providing the data and insight needed to navigate the unknown. By understanding future skills supply and demand and translating internal and external insight into practical outcomes, the LHH HR & Talent Advisory practice reduces uncertainty, mitigates risk and strengthens readiness for navigating future needs.

Learn more at: lhh.com/en-us/organizations/talent-advisory

About LHH

LHH empowers professionals and organizations to achieve bold ambitions and secure lasting impact through unique advisory services and professional talent solutions.

LHH's full suite of offerings connects solutions, making LHH a single talent partner for organizations. In a rapidly evolving landscape with complex challenges, we create value across the entire professional talent journey. From advising organizational change, to hiring great people, developing skills and nurturing leaders, to advancing individuals to the next stage of their careers, LHH makes talent a competitive edge.

We believe the future of work lies at the intersection of exceptional human care and innovation. Powered by science, technology, and proprietary data analytics, LHH's approach is crafted to align with business strategies and cultures, delivering powerful, sustainable, and measurable impact.

LHH has a team of over 12,000 professionals, across 60+ countries and more than 50 years of experience. As part of the Adecco Group, we bring together global excellence, local knowledge and centralized coordination for thousands of companies and millions of people worldwide.

Recruitment. Development. Career Transition.

LHH. A beautiful working world.

To learn more about LHH, visit: lhh.com.

Media Contact

PR@lhh.com

SOURCE: LHH

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