Hiring Report 2025: Rethinking Work, Insights and Hiring Trends
Venturous reports on the Future of Hiring with new white paper “Rethinking Work” in Fall 2025
Read or download our 2025 Hiring Report (PDF) for insights into fractional leadership, team building, and the future of executive hiring.
Hiring is broken. Our new report, Rethinking Work, explores why and what comes next. Drawing on insights from professionals and a panel of executives, investors, and hiring leaders, the report, prepared by VP, Marketing Lauralie Levy, highlights key shifts transforming leadership and hiring practices across industries.
From the rise of fractional leadership and its growing popularity in the business world to changes in remote work, pay, and the demand for digital skills, the report provides the insights organizations need to navigate the future of hiring and build teams that thrive in today’s fast-paced workplace.
Key insights from the report:
Career priorities are evolving: Professionals are no longer chasing prestige or titles. Instead, they prioritize financial stability, work-life balance, and flexibility. Companies that recognize this shift can better attract and retain top talent, particularly as company culture and a sense of belonging become increasingly important in the modern work environment.
Traditional hiring falls short: Outdated job descriptions, over-reliance on resumes, and reactive recruitment often leave critical roles unfilled and teams stretched thin. Startups and small businesses with fewer employees now look to a new model: hire fractional executives to fill leadership gaps.
Fractional leadership is the future: Fractional executives, such as fractional CMOs, fractional CFOs, and fractional COOs, are emerging as a strategic solution for today’s hiring challenges. They bring senior-level expertise and leadership on a part-time or project basis, helping companies scale, improve operations, and drive efficiency without the cost or commitment of a full-time executive. This model offers flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and targeted expertise, qualities especially valuable for startups, scaleups and high-growth businesses. Fractional leaders embed directly into organizations, supporting critical initiatives like fundraising, marketing, operations, technology adoption, and process improvements, while avoiding the politics of traditional roles. Our research shows the appetite is real: while many professionals had never considered fractional work before, nearly half found it appealing, and almost 70% of leaders said they would consider hiring a fractional executive. Early adopters are already seeing the benefits, from streamlined processes to cross-industry insights that would be hard to capture through traditional hiring.
Fractional leadership isn’t a compromise; it is a strategic advantage.
Companies gain targeted expertise exactly when needed, while professionals secure meaningful and flexible work. Fractional executives are part-time leaders hired for specific mandates, bringing outside perspectives, often working remotely, and avoiding internal politics. The person brought in as a fractional executive operates independently, temporarily integrating into the organization to fulfill a specific need. Evidence from our panel, surveys, and candidates demonstrates that this model is effective, building trust, delivering results, and driving systemic change. Unlike consultants, they are deeply integrated, applying knowledge from multiple organizations to make informed decisions. The key difference is that fractional leadership involves integrated decision-making and driving organizational change, rather than just offering advice. Fractional leaders are focused solely on the client organization's needs, enabling them to make honest and effective decisions. This focused approach allows them to make the right decision for the organization. Alignment with company culture is key, and candidates with relevant past C-suite or executive experience are particularly effective for fractional roles. Many leaders discover the benefits of fractional leadership after reflecting on their organization’s needs.
The hiring model for most companies has clearly reached its limit. It is slow, expensive, and too rigid for today’s pace of innovation. Key roles that remain unfilled often take much too long, and the best leaders are frequently overlooked because they do not fit a traditional mold.
This report isn’t just a collection of insights. It’s a guide for companies looking to rethink hiring, leadership, and team-building in 2025. From understanding career priorities to exploring new models like fractional leadership, it provides the data and perspective leaders need to stay competitive.
Download the full report here to explore the research, hear directly from industry leaders, and discover how to build the team of the future.
Read or download our 2025 Hiring Report (PDF) for insights into fractional leadership, team building, and the future of executive hiring.