A role-specific pre-search brief that tells you what the market actually looks like — talent supply, comp reality, time-to-fill benchmarks, and search risk flags — before you make promises you can't keep.
Source: Gartner Recruiting Research, 2024
Your hiring manager is picturing a $155K candidate at a $130K budget. Your timeline is 45 days and the market benchmark is 70. Your job posting is filtering out the candidates you actually want. A Position Market Analysis surfaces all of it in the first 60 seconds — not the 60th day.
In-house recruiters
Walk into the intake meeting as an advisor, not an order-taker. The data says what you already know — now you have it in writing.
HR generalists owning TA
You're managing searches without a dedicated recruiter function. This gives you a market-informed brief to anchor the process from the start.
Hiring managers
Know what your budget will and won't buy before you start interviewing. Set your team's expectations with data, not assumptions.
Recruiting agencies
Use the 3-pack for client onboarding. Show up to every new search with a market brief your client hasn't seen before.
The Full Brief covers every dimension of a search that can go wrong before it starts. The Quick Scan covers the three you need for a first conversation.
Search Snapshot
Role complexity score, key insight, time-to-fill estimate, and overall search viability: Green, Yellow, or Red. The thing you read first and the thing your hiring manager needs to hear.
Quick ScanTalent Supply Signal
Pool size characterization, geographic modifier, remote viability, and the "pool killers" — requirements that unnecessarily shrink your addressable candidate base.
Quick ScanCompensation Alignment
Market rate vs. your stated budget. Offer acceptance risk rating. Specific consequences if you're below-market — and exactly what to say to get flex before you need it.
Quick ScanCompetitive Pressure Index
Who else is hiring for this right now, what they're offering, and how fast you need to move when a strong candidate surfaces. The section hiring managers never think about.
Full BriefTime-to-Fill Benchmark
A specific range in days — not "several weeks" — with the risk factors that push it higher and the accelerators that compress it. Danger zone flag if your urgency doesn't match reality.
Full BriefSearch Risk Flags
Up to five named, rated risks specific to this search — not boilerplate. Each flag includes a fix: the one action that mitigates it before it costs you weeks.
Full BriefIntake Meeting Prep Sheet
Five questions to ask your hiring manager derived from this report's findings. Alignment checkpoints. A "Say this, not that" reframe for the hardest conversation you'll have. Take it into the room.
Full BriefEvery brief is priced to buy without an approval conversation. If you're managing multiple reqs, the 3-pack pays for itself the first time you prevent a re-open.
Quick Scan
The three sections you need for a first hiring manager conversation. Delivered within 24 hours.
Full Brief
All seven sections. The complete pre-search brief — from viability to intake prep sheet. Delivered within 24 hours.
3-Pack
Three Full Briefs. Use them across your open reqs or share with your team. Valid for 12 months.
The hardest hiring conversation isn't about candidates. It's the one you have with a hiring manager six weeks in, explaining why their $130K budget hasn't found their $160K candidate. This report is that conversation — before it becomes a problem.
Tad Thornton — Founder, Thornton Talent
25+ years in TA | ERE Recruiting Excellence Award | 18,000+ seasonal hires, Vail Resorts