Companies must urgently grasp more innovative and creative recruiting techniques if they are to deal with a growing shortage of non-executive directors (NEDs).

This is the message coming out of a survey of the UK's top FTSE company NEDs by Ernst & Young and exec-appointments.com, three years after the government-sponsored Derek Higgs independent review was published which called for a shake-up of non-executive directorships.

New research revealed that the pool of existing FTSE NEDs is largely made up of people who are “withdrawing from their appointments” or about to retire.

The Ernst & Young poll also predicted this situation will worsen over the next five years unless better board strategies, improved planning and more imaginative management development programmes are implemented.

“It's very worrying that the non-execs we've spoken to can't see their companies engaged in developing clear strategic policies,” said exec-appointments.com chief executive Betty Thayer.

A separate study by consultants Roffey Park and Cedar International found the current pool of NEDs are largely from the 'old boys' network' of public listed companies, and tended to be conformist and conservative, while their roles are often unclear.