Stabilize the team. Diagnose the function. Build the path forward.

INTERIM HEAD OF TALENT ACQUISITION

Interim Head of Talent Acquisition for Leadership Gaps, Turnarounds, and Replacements

When the Head of Talent Acquisition role is vacant, underperforming, or in transition, hiring performance can deteriorate quickly. Recruiters lose direction. Hiring managers lose confidence. Candidate momentum slows. Leadership loses visibility into what is actually broken. Calderwood Search steps in to stabilize the recruiting function, assess the operating model, improve candidate engagement and offer conversion, and help define or recruit the next permanent Head of Talent Acquisition.

Keep critical hiring moving during a TA leadership gap
Assess what is actually breaking inside the recruiting function
Reset recruiter focus, hiring-manager alignment, and candidate communication
Improve offer readiness, candidate commitment, and acceptance rates
Build the profile for your next permanent Head of Talent Acquisition

Book a Confidential TA Leadership Assessment

In 30 minutes, we will help identify whether your issue is leadership, recruiter capability, process, systems, hiring-manager alignment, candidate experience, offer strategy, or market positioning.

When the Head of TA Role Breaks Down, the Damage Spreads Quickly

The issue is not always that no one is leading hiring. Sometimes the harder problem is that someone is leading it, but the model is not producing results. When a Head of Talent Acquisition exits, underperforms, or needs to be replaced, the company needs more than a temporary manager. It needs an objective look at the entire recruiting function.

Common issues include:

Recruiters working hard without a clear operating cadence

Weak candidate commitment before the offer stage

Hiring managers running inconsistent or slow processes

Low visibility into funnel health, source quality, and recruiter performance

Weak intake meetings and poorly calibrated role requirements

Systems and tools that create activity but not better hiring outcomes

Too much reactive recruiting and not enough proactive talent mapping

Offer processes that lose candidates late because expectations were not managed early

Poor candidate communication between interviews and offer

Leadership preparing to replace the Head of TA without understanding what needs fixing

The Three Situations We Solve

Your Head of Talent Acquisition is underperforming or being replaced

You know the function is not delivering, but the root cause is unclear. Is it the leader, the recruiters, the process, the systems, the hiring managers, the candidate experience, or the market?

We step in to assess the model, stabilize execution, manage the recruiting team, and help leadership understand what needs to change before hiring the next permanent Head of TA.

Your Head of Talent Acquisition was strong, but has moved on

Even healthy recruiting teams can lose momentum quickly when a strong leader exits. Recruiters need direction, hiring managers need confidence, and candidates need consistent communication.

We provide interim leadership so the team keeps moving while you take the time to hire the right long-term leader.

Your company needs a recruiting function, but not a permanent Head of TA yet

For smaller or growing companies, we can help design the recruiting operating model, implement the right process and tools, establish hiring discipline, and build a foundation that can scale.

What We Assess

We review the recruiting function across the areas that determine whether hiring succeeds or stalls:

Leadership and operating model

Is the TA function structured correctly for the business?
Are recruiters aligned to the right roles, priorities, and hiring managers?
Is there a clear weekly operating cadence?
Is leadership getting useful reporting or just activity updates?

Recruiter capability and accountability

Are recruiters proactively sourcing or mostly reacting to applicants?
Are they building long-term candidate relationships?
Are they able to influence hiring managers and close candidates?
Are performance expectations clear and measurable?

Hiring-manager alignment

Are intake meetings strong enough?
Are role requirements realistic?
Are interviewers evaluating consistently?
Are feedback and decisions happening quickly enough?

Candidate engagement and stickiness

Are candidates being kept warm between steps?
Is the opportunity positioned clearly and credibly?
Are motivations, risks, and expectations understood early?
Is the company building trust before the offer?

Offer acceptance and close process

Are candidate expectations managed before offer?
Are compensation and decision criteria surfaced early?
Are counteroffer risks understood?
Is the offer stage treated as a closing process?

Process, tools, and systems

Is the ATS being used properly?
Is there a CRM or talent community strategy?
Are automation tools helping or creating noise?
Are dashboards tracking the right metrics?

Proactive pipeline development

Is the company building relationships before roles open?
Are future critical roles mapped?
Are passive candidates being nurtured?
Is the company relying too heavily on active applicants?

Metrics and reporting

We analyze time to fill, time to hire, source quality, funnel conversion, offer acceptance rate, candidate experience, hiring-manager satisfaction, recruiter performance, quality of hire, retention, and early attrition.

Before You Add Recruiters or Replace the TA Leader, Diagnose the Function

More recruiter capacity will not fix a weak hiring model.

A new Head of TA will not automatically fix unclear priorities, poor hiring-manager behaviour, weak candidate engagement, bad process, outdated tools, or offer-stage breakdowns.

We help leadership understand what is actually happening inside the function so the next decision is the right one.

What We Take Ownership Of

This is not a report from the sidelines. We can step in and operate inside the function.

Interim leadership of the recruiting team

Weekly recruiting operating cadence

Open role prioritization and hiring plan discipline

Recruiter focus, workload, and accountability

Hiring-manager alignment and escalation

Candidate pipeline review and funnel movement

Interview process, feedback expectations, and decision discipline

Candidate communication and engagement standards

Offer readiness, close strategy, and acceptance risk

ATS, CRM, reporting, and tool-use assessment

Executive visibility into what is moving, what is stuck, and why

Recommendations for the future-state TA operating model

Profile development for the next permanent Head of Talent Acquisition

Optional search support to recruit the permanent TA leader

This is hands-on leadership inside your hiring function, combined with an objective assessment of what needs to change.

What Happens in the First 15 Business Days

Days 1–3

Stabilize

We meet with executive stakeholders, recruiters, HR/People leadership, and key hiring managers. We identify urgent open roles, stalled candidates, process breakdowns, recruiter workload, reporting gaps, and immediate risks.

Days 4–7

Diagnose

We assess the recruiting operating model, recruiter performance, hiring-manager alignment, candidate journey, sourcing strategy, tools, reporting, and offer process.

Days 8–10

Reset

We establish priorities, rebuild cadence, clarify ownership, set expectations with recruiters and hiring managers, and address the most urgent candidate and role risks.

Days 11–15

Recommend & Execute

We provide leadership with a practical assessment of what is working, what is broken, what should change immediately, and what the next permanent Head of TA needs to be able to solve.

Deliverables

Current-state TA function assessment
Immediate stabilization plan
Priority-role risk review
Recruiter capability and accountability review
Hiring-manager alignment recommendations
Candidate experience and offer-conversion recommendations
Tool, system, and reporting recommendations
Recommended profile for the next Head of Talent Acquisition

Build the Right Profile Before You Hire the Next Head of TA

A failed or underperforming Head of Talent Acquisition often reveals that the company was not clear on what the role actually needed to be.

Was the company hiring a strategist, operator, recruiter manager, systems builder, executive advisor, workforce planner — or all of the above?

What the business actually needs from the next Head of TA

Which problems the next leader must solve first

Whether the role should be full-time, interim, fractional, or rebuilt differently

What experience is essential versus merely preferred

What success should look like in the first 90, 180, and 365 days

Whether internal team changes are needed before or after the hire

When appropriate, Calderwood Search can also lead the search for the permanent Head of Talent Acquisition.

Why Calderwood Search

Most search firms fill roles. Most consultants produce recommendations. Calderwood Search brings both search discipline and practical recruiting leadership. We understand how strong candidates are identified, engaged, evaluated, kept warm, and closed. Our process is built around market mapping, proactive outreach, candidate qualification, hiring-manager alignment, offer support, and long-term fit.

Our track record includes a 97% offer acceptance rate and a 71% three-year retention rate, supported by a long-term search methodology and Five-Year Replacement Program. Clients have also used Calderwood beyond single searches. One client testimonial says Scott has supported “short-term assignments or full outsources of the recruiting function,” while another says Scott managed the entire process “as if he were part of our team.”

Simple Engagement Model

Phase 1

TA Function Assessment

A focused review of the recruiting model, team, tools, process, candidate experience, offer conversion, reporting, and leadership gap.

Best for companies that need clarity before replacing the Head of TA or adding more recruiting capacity.

Phase 2

Interim TA Leadership

Hands-on leadership of the recruiting team during a transition, replacement process, or performance reset.

Best for companies that need hiring to keep moving while the permanent solution is being defined.

Phase 3

Permanent Head of TA Profile and Search

We help define the right profile for the next Head of Talent Acquisition and, when appropriate, lead the search.

Best for companies that want to avoid repeating the same mistake with the next hire.

Engagements can be structured for assessment only, interim leadership only, or a combined stabilize-assess-replace model.

Facing a TA Leadership Gap or Replacement Decision?

If your Head of Talent Acquisition has left, is underperforming, or may need to be replaced, the safest move is not to guess. We can help you stabilize the function, assess what is actually broken, improve hiring execution, and define the right long-term solution.