What is the Competitive Talent Architecture Audit?
The Talent Ascent Competitive Talent Architecture Audit is a competitive intelligence assignment aimed at providing your leadership team with strategic team design benchmark data - using the competitors and comparator companies you select.
Who is the Talent Ascent Competitive Talent Architecture Audit suitable for?
“We are entering an unfamiliar area, or we are repeatedly finding candidates who only partially fit the role we are hiring for.”
This service is suitable for businesses experiencing challenges such as
- Hiring has been ongoing for months, but nobody quite matches the target profile. You have been struggling to find the skillset mix you have been searching for
- You are building a new function/specialty in your team for the first time
- You are expanding your organization into a new region or strategic market and need to understand the talent supply in that geography
- An existing department or function is being materially expanded or restructured
- The founder needs external evidence before approving headcount and you’d like market intelligence before finalizing an expansion or restructure plan
- The company is deciding whether to build or buy a capability
When is the right time for this?
Before you agree the remit of a new team and launch the search.
When you want to design a team or plan a restructure with confidence, and build your capabilities based on competitive talent market data.
Why book the Competitive Talent Architecture Audit?
You built your founding team knowing the work inside out. For a new function being built or for a function scaled into a new market - seeing how competitors and the companies you want to grow like have built it allows you to design role scope and team architecture which you can actually hire for.
The expensive assumption is that the capability you want for the role you imagined can reliably be found in the market where you are looking to hire. Seeing how competitors and comparators have built theirs lets you fix an unrealistic spec - before spending months hiring for it.
Who should not buy the Competitive Talent Architecture Audit?
The audit gives you external evidence about one function across six companies. If you need the following, the Competitive Talent Architecture Audit might not be the best fit:
- You need candidate names or a talent map. If you are looking for competitive talent mapping for a particular strategic or executive position, we would recommend considering the Strategic Talent Map service instead.
- You need compensation benchmarking
- You need a completed organizational structure designed. For this, we would recommend the Organizational Structure Design.
- You need interview process design. For this, see Interview Process Design.
- You need to audit the efficiency and cost of your recruitment operations. For this, we recommend our Hiring Effectiveness Audit.
What do you receive with the Talent Ascent Competitive Talent Architecture Audit?
We will tailor deliverables based on your individual requirements and quote accordingly. A guidance of the starting deliverables includes:
- One function mapped across six companies you select: three direct competitors and three relevant comparators
- A structure map for the function at each company
- Team shape, management layers and visible reporting relationships
- Seniority and role-family comparison
- Build-versus-buy findings where relevant
- Company-size and operating-context differences that affect comparison with your business
- 2x 40-minute calibration meetings
- Patterns, deviations, and implications for your organizational decisions
- A 60-minute delivery meeting (up to 4 stakeholders attending)
- 25% of the Competitive Talent Architecture Audit fee credited toward Organizational Structure Design or the Strategic Talent Map when booked within 30 days of the findings meeting, or 15% when booked within 60 days
What information does Talent Ascent require to complete your Competitive Talent Architecture Audit?
- One defined function (or more, depending on the level of support you require)
- The current business case you are considering - whether new market expansion, restructure, or building a new function
- The decision the external evidence needs to inform
- Your list of proposed competitors and comparators (starting from 3 competitors and 3 comparators)
- Current company size, operating model and relevant constraints
- The expected headcount or capability decision and target timeframes
- One founder or executive sponsor from your business with visibility into your strategic roadmap and growth plan
What is the process for booking a Competitive Talent Architecture Audit with Talent Ascent?
- Schedule an intro call with Talent Ascent to discuss your requirements.
- Talent Ascent will provide a quote proposal depending on the support you require.
- Engage with Talent Ascent through the calibration meetings and provide relevant feedback and data.
How much does the Talent Ascent Competitive Talent Architecture Audit cost?
Estimated delivery time starts at four weeks for 1 function mapped across 3 competitors and 3 comparators. Depending on the total number of functions and companies you want mapped, Talent Ascent will advise on delivery timeframe and fee forecast in the proposal quote. We would recommend starting with one function and evaluating the quality of our work, before committing to further functions.
How does the Competitive Talent Architecture Audit compare with Organizational Structure Design?
The Competitive Talent Architecture Audit shows how six external companies built the function.
Organizational Structure Design focuses on designing the target function for your business, including role design, job descriptions design, role leveling, reporting structures, proposed geographical structure, hiring plan sequence, and core competencies - tailored to your growth plan and operating context. We work closely with your team to understand your growth objectives, the critical capabilities required to deliver them, and the milestones in your roadmap, and tailor an org structure for your function which fits your business plans.
What are the alternatives to the Talent Ascent Competitive Talent Architecture Audit?
| Route | What you get | Typical cost | When it’s the better choice |
|---|---|---|---|
| DIY desk research | LinkedIn browsing and job-ad reading by your team. Limited effectiveness if the team has limited experience in comparatively mapping global organizational structures | Internal time | You need a rough sense of one or two companies in key markets, not a decision-grade comparison |
| Talent-intelligence platform license | Self-serve headcount and talent-flow data; turning the data into a comparison means sacrificing productive bandwidth elsewhere | Annual licenses typically available at enterprise grade; researcher salary cost | You have an in-house researcher with organizational design expertise and an ongoing need across many functions |
| Executive search firm market map | A candidate-centered map of who holds comparable roles; it maps people, not how the function is built | Quoted fee | You are actively hiring a specific senior position and need names |
| Investor and network anecdotes | How a handful of portfolio companies did it; a small sample you can’t normalize for comparison | Free | You want network input within a well-known market and trust the sample |
| Competitive Talent Architecture Audit | Six companies’ structures for one function, normalized for comparison, with sources and confidence graded on every material finding | – | A critical headcount or team structure decision, such as a new market expansion, needs defensible external evidence |
FAQ
Where does the evidence in the Competitive Talent Architecture Audit come from?
Talent Ascent uses public information and market research, including platforms and relevant news feeds. The Competitive Talent Architecture Audit will provide an index which links the sources for each material finding and a confidence classification.
Why does the Competitive Talent Architecture Audit require at least six companies?
The Talent Ascent Competitive Talent Architecture Audit maps a minimum of 6 companies to provide you with richer insights. Different organizations evolve differently. For example, one organization may have a centralized product management team, while another may have regional product management cores for NA, EMEA or APAC. Some organizations may structure their sales organization regionally, with sales leadership in market - while another may structure it based on client category (e.g. SMB, Growth, and Enterprise customers). By mapping at least 3 competitors and 3 comparators, we give you visibility into different architectures, so you are better informed when choosing how to structure your own organization.
Will the Talent Ascent Competitive Talent Architecture Audit tell us exactly how to structure our team?
The Competitive Talent Architecture Audit will note findings and observations of the target companies’ organizational structure. It does not deliver a full organizational design proposal for your business. Talent Ascent can support with organizational design through the Organizational Structure Design service - and if you choose to engage us within 30 days of the Competitive Talent Architecture Audit, we offer 25% of the fee you paid for the CTAA as credit toward the Organizational Structure Design if booked within 30 days of the CTAA findings meeting (or 15% if booked within 60 days).
Is there a follow-up meeting after the Competitive Talent Architecture Audit findings?
Before committing to the Organizational Structure Design service, we would advise you to first take a moment to digest the findings from the CTAA and discuss with your leadership team. For this reason, we also offer a free 30-minute follow-up meeting after the CTAA findings delivery. If, once your leadership team has reviewed the CTAA report, you are considering changes to your original strategy for building this team - the follow-up meeting is a space where we can answer additional questions to help you evaluate the shift you may be contemplating.
Does Talent Ascent contact the companies or their employees while completing the Competitive Talent Architecture Audit?
The Competitive Talent Architecture Audit research is completed without any contact with the target companies or their employees. Your business is not identified in any way.
What if we want to headhunt people from the researched companies?
Talent Ascent can, by agreement, support existing clients with strategic & executive recruitment, depending on capacity.
Have additional questions?
Contact us, or reach out to us via WhatsApp directly, and we will be happy to help.