Dive Brief:
- Organizations are increasingly hiring interim leaders to help guide transformation efforts, including for multiple HR functions, according to a recent report by executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles.
- Demand for interim leaders has increased 151% since 2021, Heidrick & Struggles said, citing proprietary client request data from North America and Europe. Chief financial officers accounted for more than half of interim leader requests, and the report found that human capital expertise jumped by 129% over the past year alone.
- With respect to HR functions specifically, organizations most often requested interim leaders who could contribute skills such as financial controls, organizational design, workforce planning and compensation strategy, among others. “HR leaders are at the center of the work as organizations rethink leadership strategies, workforce models, and organizational effectiveness,” Heidrick & Struggles said.
Dive Insight:
The same report found that HR topped the list of business functions seeking support from interim leaders, a result that was unchanged compared to the previous year. Heidrick & Struggles said this need is driven in part both by HR’s internal needs as well as the function’s role in assisting with organization-wide talent management.
High-end interim talent can help employers maintain momentum as they seek to keep pace with growth and transformation demands, Heidrick & Struggles said. The firm noted that technology implementation and artificial intelligence skills were in especially high demand among clients, reflecting AI’s role in spurring organizational change.
“In a world where disruption is the baseline, independent talent are moving to the center of how critical work gets done,” Sunny Ackerman, global managing partner, on-demand talent, at Heidrick & Struggles, said in the report.
The findings may resonate with a recruiting industry that is broadly aiming to accelerate hiring in 2026 but struggling to break away from traditional frameworks as well as declining employee engagement, per a recent Atlas HXM report. Aside from interim talent, HR teams have also sought strategies to better utilize internal talent and reskilling, Careerminds said last year.
