The result? TA leaders are stuck balancing urgency with rigor, often forced to compromise on both. Read more about broader trends in Director and VP+ hiring.
The Problem With Speed
When a senior role sits vacant, the cost to the business is immediate: missed opportunities, slowed execution, and distracted leadership teams. Yet traditional executive assessments often take 4–6 weeks to design, administer, and deliver results (Gartner, 2023).
In a world where business moves faster than ever, waiting over a month to make a decision is not just inefficient—it’s a competitive disadvantage.
- Action for TA Leaders: Challenge assessment partners on turnaround time. If the process takes weeks, it’s already outdated.
The Cost of Consultant-Heavy Models
Traditional executive assessments are rooted in consultant-driven processes. On-site interviews, custom scoring rubrics, and lengthy reports all add up. According to Deloitte, organizations spend an average of $45,000 per executive hire when relying on consultant-heavy assessments (Deloitte, 2024).
For enterprise TA leaders managing multiple senior searches globally, the cost is staggering—and rarely sustainable.
- Action for TA Leaders: Track the true cost-per-hire for executive roles, including assessment fees. Use this data to push for more scalable, technology-enabled solutions.
The Scalability Problem
Consultant-heavy methods don’t just slow down hiring and inflate costs—they also fail to scale across geographies and functions. EY reports that 61% of global organizations cite executive assessment scalability as their top challenge (EY, 2023).
As businesses expand across markets, TA leaders need solutions that deliver consistent data on leaders in New York, London, or Singapore—without reinventing the wheel each time.
- Action for TA Leaders: Evaluate whether your current assessments can deliver the same quality of insights globally without duplicating costs or processes.
The Candidate Experience at Risk
Senior candidates expect rigor, but they also expect respect. Long, clunky assessments feel outdated and signal inefficiency at the top. McKinsey research shows that 43% of executives decline to continue in a process they perceive as overly bureaucratic (McKinsey & Company, 2022).
Instead of impressing candidates, traditional assessments risk alienating them—damaging both the employer brand and the ability to attract top-tier talent.
- Action for TA Leaders: Audit your process from the candidate’s perspective. Would a senior leader see it as a worthy test of their skills—or just another hurdle?
The Future: Fast, Scalable, and Candidate-Friendly
The reality is clear: legacy executive assessments no longer fit the needs of modern enterprise hiring. They are slow, expensive, and hard to scale—putting TA leaders in a no-win situation with both candidates and the C-suite.
The solution lies in technology-enabled, simulation-based assessments that deliver insights in days, not weeks, at a fraction of the cost. Even better, they provide a candidate experience executives respect—realistic, engaging, and worthy of their time.
Pinsight delivers exactly this shift: fast, scalable assessments that replace outdated processes with reliable data, trusted by executives and valued by candidates.
