What has been built?
What leadership, talent and workforce capabilities have developed, and what evidence demonstrates their contribution to business priorities?
Forthworks / Board Talent Assurance
Confidence in progress.
Clarity on what’s next.
Independent perspective on today’s capabilities. Practical insight for tomorrow’s business.
Forthworks Board Talent Assurance provides an evidence-based assessment of your organisation’s talent capabilities, progress achieved and alignment with future strategic requirements. It complements management reporting with an outside-in view, informed by practical experience of what organisations can build.
Explore FORTH SIGHT01 / The Board conversation
Recognise the progress.
Test future readiness.
For Chairs, Nomination Committees, Boards and executive teams, working with the Chief People Officer: a considered view of the capability behind the strategy, the evidence behind confidence and the next investment choices.
What will the future require?
How well do current capabilities align with the future business model, emerging market conditions and the organisation’s strategic ambitions?
Where should effort go next?
Which capability priorities offer the most relevant opportunities to strengthen execution, resilience and sustainable performance?
02 / External evidence
Capability matters.
The evidence is specific.
External research gives the Board a reason to examine capability. The engagement makes that examination specific to your organisation.
Skills gaps constrain transformation.
Of surveyed employers identify skills gaps as a major barrier to business transformation over the period to 2030.
WEF · Future of Jobs 2025Capability requirements are shifting.
Of workers’ existing skill sets are expected, on average, to change or become outdated over the 2025–2030 period.
WEF · Future of Jobs 2025Recognition is ahead of progress.
Deloitte reports that 73% of organisations recognise the importance of reinventing the manager’s role; just 7% report making great progress.
Deloitte · Human Capital Trends 2025Workforce effectiveness has economic weight.
Gallup’s modelled global productivity loss associated with the decline in employee engagement in 2024, reported in its 2025 study.
Gallup · State of the Global Workplace 2025Historical research, with scope retained: WEF findings reflect employer expectations; Deloitte findings are survey responses; Gallup’s figure is a modelled global estimate. These are not client losses or evidence of returns from Talent Assurance. Read the evidence notes.
03 / FORTH SIGHT
Five connected talent dimensions.
One framework of governance and accountability.
FORTH SIGHT brings five connected talent dimensions into one framework of governance and accountability, showing what is ready, what needs to change and who owns the next move.
Future capability
Strategy → capability
We will establish whether your organisation has the capability to deliver its future strategy, where gaps could put execution at risk and which choices to build, hire or access skills deserve priority. The Board will see what is ready today, what needs to develop and the implications for strategic commitments.
Evidence in practice: Future-skills coverage and the time needed to develop or acquire capability will be assessed against the requirements and dependencies of strategic initiatives.
Organisational resilience
Strength → adaptability
We will establish where your organisation can sustain delivery through disruption and where it depends too heavily on particular people or scarce expertise. The findings will show where continuity is exposed and which actions would strengthen the ability to adapt.
Evidence in practice: Retention in pivotal roles, concentrations of critical expertise and replacement lead times will help establish how quickly the organisation could respond to a loss of capability.
Readiness of successors
Pipeline → readiness
We will test whether potential successors are ready for the roles the business will need, rather than simply named in a succession plan. The Board will gain a clearer view of leadership continuity, the development needed to close readiness gaps and where external appointments may be required.
Evidence in practice: Ready-now coverage, internal appointment rates and time to readiness for critical roles will be considered alongside demonstrated capability and external talent-market evidence.
Talent effectiveness
Investment → outcomes
We will establish what your talent investment is contributing to business priorities and where the evidence of impact is weak. The findings will inform decisions about which programmes to continue, strengthen or reconsider, and where future investment has the strongest supporting case.
Evidence in practice: Development expenditure will be examined alongside progression, time to proficiency and post-programme performance, testing whether observed improvements can reasonably be attributed to the investment.
Human capital intelligence
Information → insight
We will establish whether the information reaching executives and the Board is reliable enough to support talent decisions. You will see which conclusions are supported by evidence, where uncertainty remains and what needs to improve for emerging capability risks to become visible sooner.
Evidence in practice: Critical-role data and capability forecasts will be tested for completeness and reliability, with relevant output, revenue or gross-profit measures per FTE used to explore the connection to business performance.
01 / 05
Governance and accountability connect all five dimensions to an always on talent agenda. Findings become clear priorities, named executive owners and delivery milestones. Management owns implementation; the Board oversees progress and challenges where further action is needed.
FORTH covers future capability, organisational resilience, readiness of successors, talent effectiveness and human capital intelligence. SIGHT is the connected view, brought together through governance and accountability. Measures are selected for the business model and available data. FORTH SIGHT is Forthworks’ assessment methodology; it is not presented as a recognised professional assurance standard.
04 / From evidence to action
Assessment with discipline.
Advice grounded in delivery.
The work starts with the organisation’s strategy, existing assessments, executive perspectives and workforce data. Targeted evidence testing establishes demonstrated strengths, progress achieved and where confidence requires further validation.
Understand the position.
Agree scope, strategic priorities and assessment criteria with the sponsor and CPO. Review documents and data, interview relevant leaders and test selected evidence.
Bring the outside in.
Compare relevant capabilities and talent choices with external market evidence. Distinguish demonstrated findings from assumptions, evidence gaps and informed judgement.
Make progress practical.
Build on existing strengths. Sequence development and investment choices around commercial priorities, resources and the organisation’s capacity to deliver.
Independent assessment findings and advisory recommendations are distinguished in the engagement and report, so the Board can see the evidence, its limits and the practical choices available.
05 / The Forthworks difference
Evidence informs confidence.
Experience informs what’s possible.
Forthworks brings first-hand experience of building enterprise talent capability inside complex, international businesses. That experience helps translate assessment findings into a realistic view of what the organisation can develop next.
Build on what works.
Recognise existing progress and investment. Identify the foundations that can support the next stage of growth.
Design for the future.
Consider how leadership pipelines, workforce planning, skills, learning and differentiating AI technology can enable the future business model.
Respect the delivery reality.
Offer commercially grounded priorities that reflect context, implementation capacity and trade-offs. Management retains ownership of strategy and action.
06 / What the Board receives
A clearer position.
A practical way forward.
Outputs are scoped to the organisation’s priorities and the evidence available.
Enterprise Talent Capability Assessment
Current capabilities, progress achieved, demonstrated strengths and alignment with strategy, with evidence and confidence clearly articulated.
Strategic Capability Outlook
The leadership, skills and workforce capabilities likely to matter over the next three to five years, including dependencies and opportunities.
Commercial and Investment Perspective
Company-specific analysis of leadership continuity, productivity, capability investment and execution dependencies. Financial scenarios are used only where reliable data and explicit assumptions permit.
Practical Capability Development Priorities
A focused, sequenced set of recommendations that builds on existing foundations and identifies realistic choices for future effort and investment.
Board Oversight and Progress Measures
Relevant indicators, executive accountability and review milestones to help the Board assess progress over time.
Evidence & context
External context.
Company-specific judgement.
Research establishes why capability merits scrutiny. It cannot establish your organisation’s position or the return from a particular engagement.
Sources and interpretation
- World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report 2025. More than 1,000 employers, representing over 14 million workers across 55 economies. The 63% and 39% figures concern expectations over 2025–2030, not measured client losses.
- Deloitte, 2025 Global Human Capital Trends. Survey of nearly 10,000 business and HR leaders across 93 countries. Importance and reported progress are distinct survey measures.
- Gallup, State of the Global Workplace 2025. The $438 billion is a historical, modelled global productivity estimate associated with the engagement decline in 2024; it is not the total annual cost of disengagement or recoverable client value.
- PwC, 28th Annual Global CEO Survey 2025. Of 4,701 CEOs surveyed, 42% believed their companies would remain viable for less than ten years on their current path. This is a historical perception measure, not a prediction of business failure.
For an individual company, the assessment tests critical-role coverage, succession readiness, time to capability, talent investment and relevant productivity indicators. Financial attribution and any overlap between exposures must be examined before presenting quantified conclusions. No source implies endorsement of Forthworks.
The next conversationHow confident are you
Let’s talk about Board Talent Assurance How confident are you
in future capability?
Discuss an independent view of progress, readiness and the practical choices that will equip your organisation for what comes next.