UpGuard
Mapping talent for business-critical roles.
A broad ambition to map external talent needed a clear rationale and a practical process. I designed an approach that connected business continuity, growth requirements and succession coverage to focused research and future candidate engagement.
Outcome A prioritised role map, researched candidate longlists and an agreed approach for future outreach and relationship management.
The challenge
UpGuard wanted to map external talent for critical roles as the business grew. The initial brief was broad: identify talent ahead of potential future needs.
To make the work useful, the business needed a consistent way to decide which roles deserved attention first and what the research should prepare it to do.
My responsibility
I was brought in to execute the initiative, with responsibility for developing how it would work. This included defining role criticality, establishing research priorities and designing an approach for developing candidate relationships.
I worked with the Head of People, CEO and other senior leaders to connect the exercise to the business’s continuity and growth needs.
What I did
I reviewed executive and VP-level roles against three considerations: the immediate impact of a departure on business continuity, the potential effect of a vacancy on growth, and the strength of internal succession coverage.
This produced a ranked list of approximately ten critical roles, with the initial research focused on the top six.
I met with the relevant hiring managers to understand those roles in depth and develop candidate profiles. I then conducted desk-based research across eastern Australia and the US West Coast, building initial longlists of approximately 20–30 potential candidates per role.
Planning for engagement
Alongside the research, I designed and agreed an engagement approach with the team. It covered how potential candidates could be approached, who would own the relationships, and how contact and ongoing engagement would be managed and tracked using existing systems.
The intention was to move from desk-based research towards informed relationships ahead of future vacancies.
Outcome and learning
The work gave the business a prioritised view of critical roles, initial candidate longlists for the six highest-priority positions and an agreed process for future engagement.
My contract ended before outreach began. The longlists therefore represented researched potential candidates, rather than people whose interest, availability or suitability had been confirmed through conversations.
The example shows how I translated a broad talent-planning objective into a structured process, with clear priorities and ownership for the next stage.