With UK growth predictions flagging and business confidence low, companies are looking for more thought and analysis in hiring decisions before acting on them. This is partly due to the implications of poor decision making and in an effort to most efficiently use resources available. Businesses are focused on hiring fewer higher quality people and talent mapping, the practice of systematically identifying and tracking top talent before a formal recruitment process or executive search begins, is a key tool companies can use to identify relevant, high-quality leaders quickly and efficiently.
Talent mapping creates a detailed analysis of the most relevant talent for a role, highlights anticipated hiring difficulty, diversity, rarity of specific required skillsets and the individuals who are best suited to the role. It also reduces time-to-hire, lowers the risk of a failed search and ensures stakeholders are aligned. Here are five reasons why we will see more of this practice in 2025:
1. Greater assurance before going to market
In a volatile and uncertain business environment, businesses are more cautious about leadership transitions. They want as much confidence as possible that who they are looking for exists in the market with sufficient exciting profiles indicating that an external appointment is the correct approach. In market cycles where businesses are cautious, there is often more discussion around a potential hire and more individuals involved in the decision-making process.
Talent mapping provides that confidence, demonstrating relevant candidates in the market, how diverse the market is and how common or rare the particular blend of skills is that they are looking for. If requirements need to shift in response to market conditions, it’s much easier to do that at a talent mapping stage than mid-way through a recruitment process.
2. Reducing time to hire
Traditional executive searches typically take ten to twelve weeks from briefing to an offer being accepted. However, if the market for a particular blend of skills is small, compensation isn’t at the level that is of appeal, or other factors such as location or business sector are a challenge, executive search teams can find themselves exhausting the market and needing to change some of the brief parameters to open up more of the market. This means going back to candidate identification and mapping which can add considerable delays to the overall hiring process.
Talent mapping assesses these factors up front – providing an indication of whether a brief is likely to result in too small a market to be confident of a successful outcome. It can also provide suggestions on where to open up a search more broadly.
3. Succession planning to combat executive fatigue and demographic shifts
It’s been a tough few years for business leaders. COVID, high interest rates and geopolitical instability have contributed to a volatile and stressful business environment. Some individuals who were thinking of their next move before the pandemic but stayed for various reasons – either out of perceived duty, because they were persuaded to for business stability, or as their compensation/retirement packages required more favourable market conditions – are now reaching a point where they are looking for an exit. We call this exec. fatigue, and a Deloitte survey of over 2,100 employees and C-level executives in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia found that nearly 70% of the C-suite are seriously considering quitting for a job that better supports their well-being or retiring. Research from the Harvard Business Review suggests that 50% of today’s C-suite leaders will retire within the next 10 years.
Combined with business strategies and focus shifting in an effort to keep growing and adapting to technology change, many businesses find themselves with underdeveloped internal leadership pipelines. External succession benchmarking can be the antidote to this, providing options in the external market should an organisation need to bolster its leadership team through an external appointment, and giving confidence to the Board that the CPO and leadership team have a Plan B in case of sudden unexpected events.
4. Data-driven decision making in an AI-enabled market
The rise of AI-powered tools and data analytics in executive search is making talent mapping more precise and actionable. Extensive talent maps can now be built quickly and effectively for senior roles, with sophisticated analytics providing details on industry experience, diversity, expected hiring difficulty, skills, internationality and more.
The result is an increased appetite to use these techniques. What used to be an opaque and ‘black book’ driven world is now increasingly a data–driven world, where recruiter networks are supplemented by advanced searching for greater coverage.
5. Capturing opportunity cost
Roles left vacant, particularly leadership roles, can cost businesses. Without the right person in role, focused on driving the performance of that function or division, growth, performance and efficiencies aren’t maximised, leading to a loss of potential revenue. This is felt particularly in revenue driving leadership roles. A senior leadership role in the commercial function for a £2bn revenue, 5,000-person organisation could cost £100k in opportunity cost for every week that that role is left open. If key leadership roles are left vacant for over six months, the impact to team culture, direction, strategy and performance can be significantly impacted.
Talent mapping can reduce overall time to hire by weeks or months. Starting the talent mapping process before the role becomes vacant gives the recruitment team a head start on understanding the market and identifying high potential candidates. It also allows them to check that the brief in its current form will result in sufficient individuals so that they can be confident of a hire and highlight any areas where the specific criteria is significantly limiting the talent pool. Criteria such as location, seniority level or specific required skills and experiences can then be discussed and an understanding on flexibility established.
Conclusion
In 2025, sophisticated talent mapping is being used by many leading organisations to make more confident, well informed leadership decisions amidst a turbulent economic landscape. Now is the time for business leaders to invest in building dynamic talent intelligence capabilities that ensure sustained leadership success. You can find out more about Talent Mapping here.
