A wave of appointments at the top of the UK’s largest 1,500 recruitment agencies is set to prompt a radical change in their behaviour and put greater pressure on those with ageing boardrooms, according to a report by Plimsoll Publishing.

Its research found that there have been 1,389 new appointments at director level in the last 18 months. This new blood represents a transformation of the industry, with new ideas, renewed focus and different ways of working.

Senior analyst David Pattison says: “The people are changing, and firms will be caught out and lose business as a result, simply because they took a customer, competitor or supplier for granted on the basis of an older management style.”

The research found that for 331 of the directors’ their main challenge is to keep the company afloat, while for 1,058 others it is to deliver industry-leading performance.

It also revealed that the directors’ salaries vary widely between different industries. The average is £90,999, but in the property developers industry, for example, a director can pick up nearly £300,000. Job security varies widely too.