A decision diagnostic, used before a hire is committed.
The FM Talent Scan is used before an organisation commits to a senior hire, a promotion or a restructure in its Facilities Management function. It makes capability risk, dependency and structural weakness visible while there is still time to act on them.
It is not designed to recommend hiring. It is designed to stop confident decisions being made on incomplete signals. Used properly, it either confirms that a hire is needed and why, or shows that hiring would be the wrong response to the problem.
Two stages: a free check, then the Scan
Stage one is the free Talent Scan check: 13 questions across six areas of the function (structure, capacity, capability, tools and technology, leadership and culture) plus the decision you are facing. It takes about five minutes, gives an immediate result and needs no email address. If you do not need a Scan, it will say so.
Stage two is the Talent Scan itself, led by a senior Maxwell Stephens consultant. It tests what the check suggests against the roles, structure and evidence in your function, and ends with a red, amber and green risk map and three options: fix internally, redesign the structure, or hire.
If the Scan leads to a search with Maxwell Stephens, the Scan fee is credited against it. That keeps us honest: we gain nothing by recommending a hire you do not need.
Start the free Talent Scan check ↗
Why it exists
Most leadership teams feel pressure before they see evidence. The pattern is familiar: discomfort appears, a role is created, the hire absorbs the uncertainty, and the underlying risk stays where it was.
The Talent Scan interrupts that pattern by making the risk visible before the decision is taken. That protects budget, credibility, internal trust and the function's ability to deliver over the long term.
When it is used
The Scan is for situations where pressure is starting to distort judgement. Typically:
- Succession worry around one key individual
- Heavy dependence on knowledge that sits in people's heads rather than in the system
- Growth outpacing the leadership capacity of the function
- Repeated firefighting despite having strong people
- Uncertainty about what a senior hire actually needs to solve
- A structure that was inherited rather than designed
What it examines
The Scan looks at roles and the relationships between them, not at individuals in isolation. Each role in scope is assessed against seven questions:
- Role intent: why the role exists now, not when it was created
- Capability depth: whether it can operate at today's complexity and the next stage's
- Decision load: which decisions genuinely sit with the role
- Dependency risk: who or what breaks if the role holder leaves
- Structural fit: whether the role is compensating for weaknesses elsewhere
- Time horizon: whether it is built for today's problems or tomorrow's
- Succession reality: replaceable, promotable or fragile
The list is deliberately short. The value comes from clarity, not volume.
What it typically reveals
- Hidden single points of failure
- Roles carrying responsibility without the authority to match
- Senior hires being used to cover for problems in the structure
- False economies created by under-levelling a role
- Promotion paths that look viable but are not
- Hiring decisions driven by anxiety rather than need
Findings are set out as explicit trade-offs, not opinions.
What you receive
The Scan produces outputs you can decide from, not a long report:
- A risk map, rated red, amber or green
- A plain statement of what is actually at risk
- Clarified role intent where there is ambiguity
- Three viable options rather than one recommendation: fix internally, redesign the structure, or hire, and if so what kind of hire
The decision stays with you.
What it deliberately avoids
The Scan does not write job descriptions, judge individuals as good or bad, benchmark pay or act as a disguised recruitment pitch. If any of those is what you need, this is the wrong tool and we will say so.
When it is not the right tool
- The role is low-risk or high-volume
- The cost of a wrong decision is marginal
- You already have clear, testable evidence
- The outcome has already been decided and validation is what is wanted
What can follow
Depending on what the Scan finds, the next step might be no hire but a structural reset, an internal promotion with clearer boundaries, interim support to stabilise the risk, or a permanent appointment with a sharply defined mandate. None of these is assumed in advance.
Our rule
If the Talent Scan always led to recruitment, it would have failed. Its value lies in preventing unnecessary action as often as it enables necessary action.
Talk to Maxwell Stephens
If you are weighing a senior Facilities Management hire, promotion or restructure and are not yet sure what the real problem is, talk to us before you commit. Discuss a Talent Scan or read how we approach Facilities Management executive search.
Not sure yet whether you need a Scan? Take the free five-minute check first. It is built to tell you when you do not.