Each year, Business Talent Group releases the High-End Independent Talent Report, looking across industries and business functions to analyze how business leaders deploy top independent talent to fill critical skill, expertise, and leadership gaps. Here are the key interim leadership trends for 2024.

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, demand has increased for experienced and capable interim leaders at all levels (+23% YOY, +170% since 2022) to address critical challenges, guide strategic initiatives, and maintain stability during times of transition.

The most acute need is within the finance function with significant increases in requests for interim CFOs, 54% of all interim C-suite needs, (+46% YOY) and SVP/VP-level finance leaders like Controllers and heads of FP&A (+114%). Additional areas of high demand include leaders in human resources (#2 interim function) and digital, data, and IT (#3 function, +47%).

These patterns mirror broader market data, which shows a 117% increase since 2022 in the use of interim executives in C-suites across the Fortune 1000.