Talent Identification & Selection

Executive leadership assessment. The appointments that shape an organisation's future.

You already know every senior appointment carries consequences. The question is whether your assessment processes are built to match.

Senior assessment delivered by HCPC-registered chartered occupational psychologists, working with Boards, nomination committees, and HR Directors at medium, large, enterprise and fast-growing organisations.

A senior appointment made based on interview performance and internal advocacy can represent a significant risk. Wharton Global's executive leadership assessment gives boards, HR Directors and senior teams the most reliable data available, objectively gathered, expertly interpreted, and directly actionable.

Boardroom interior representing executive decision-making and leadership assessment

The problem

You have probably been in the room when a senior appointment goes wrong. The cost runs well beyond salary once you factor in team disruption, lost momentum and the time it takes to recover.

A rigorous leadership assessment does not eliminate uncertainty, no process does. It does however produce the most reliable data available for the most consequential decisions.

What Wharton Global does

Wharton Global's practitioners are chartered occupational psychologists who have spent their careers working at senior levels. They understand how drive and risk tolerance interact under pressure, how a cognitively exceptional candidate can still derail, and how the same profile reads differently depending on the culture, the team and the role.

That depth of understanding is what separates insight from output, and what gives you the confidence to make a decision you can stand behind.

Independent of every publisher. Aligned only to you.

Wharton Global is independent of test publishers. We select a combination of validated instruments such as SHL OPQ, Saville Wave, Hogan, Watson-Glaser, Mosaic that truly fit the individual, the role, the seniority, and the context. The result is bespoke insight, giving you the strongest basis to make your most important assessment decisions.

The candidate experience

Every individual assessed by Wharton Global receives a clear briefing beforehand, the same rigorous and consistently applied process, and constructive feedback. How candidates are treated is a direct reflection of your organisation, your values, and your reputation in the market. We ensure that reflection is a good one.

Our approach

Role and context brief

We begin with what the role demands, not a job description, but a precise picture of the capability, risk tolerance, and interpersonal profile the organisation needs at this level.

Instrument selection

We select the combination of validated instruments that best addresses the specific demands of the role, never a standard package.

Assessment and observation

Psychometric assessment combined with structured behavioural interview and, where relevant, observed exercises, all conducted by chartered occupational psychologists.

Integrated interpretation

Data integrated across all instruments and interpreted in the context of the role, the organisation, and the specific decision being made.

Report and debrief

A clear, actionable report delivered to the commissioning team, with a verbal debrief that translates findings into direct recommendations for the assessment process, as well as feedback to the candidate delivered by the same practitioner.

What it produces in practice

With a 20 year partnership with a global consumer business, Wharton Global redesigned leadership assessment from the ground up and delivered results that consistently exceeded industry benchmarks, from first-year performance ratings to three-year retention and promotion into international leadership.

A Russell Group university with international campuses had treated academic leadership as temporary administration for decades, with no systematic method for identifying leadership capability across faculty appointments. Wharton Global designed a five-factor assessment framework, covering decision making, engagement, integrity, resilience, and endeavour. This was grounded in institutional consultation, validated critical thinking assessment, and 16 trait personality profiling. Full transparency of assessment data with candidates, including detailed developmental feedback for unsuccessful applicants, became a defining feature of the process. Over twenty years of continuous partnership, internal promotions rose from under 25% to 45% of all appointments, and several initially unsuccessful candidates, equipped with specific honest feedback, returned in later cycles and were ultimately appointed.

Who this is for

HR Directors and People Directors commissioning assessment for a senior appointment they need to stand behind, with a process that is defensible if the decision is ever scrutinised.
Boards and nomination committees making a critical appointment at CEO, CFO, or C-suite level who need an objective, evidence-based view of a candidate that goes beyond what any interview can produce.
PE-backed and high-growth businesses where every leadership appointment either accelerates or interrupts the value creation plan.
Organisations in transition, merger, restructure, or rapid scaling, who need a clear-eyed view of the senior individuals they already have.

Questions we get asked

Investment case

A single executive leadership assessment typically falls between £1,500 and £5,000. A programme assessing multiple candidates, or a process that includes observed bespoke exercises alongside psychometrics, will be scoped and priced accordingly. The cost of getting an appointment wrong is estimated at between one and three times annual salary before accounting for disruption.

Talk to us about executive leadership assessment

Client feedback

“I have engaged their services multiple times to aid in the recruitment of senior colleagues at three different institutions. I have huge respect and great regard for their ability to work with shortlisted candidates, assessing their strengths and weaknesses, gaining their confidence and identifying attributes that are fed in as one aspect of the decision making process for candidate selection.”
Global CEO and Former Vice-Chancellor