Firms recruiting executive and non-executive directors to the board are still relying on informal networks to find candidates.

Research from the Recruitment Confidence Index (RCI) reveals that more than 22% of firms resorted to exploiting informal networks when it came to recruiting executive directors. Only 22% used job advertisements, while 39% used internal promotion and 35% used the services of headhunters.

The report, which was sponsored by executive search company Odgers Ray & Berndtson, revealed that the public sector was twice as likely as the private sector to place job ads.

Virginia Bottomley, who heads up the board of Odgers Ray & Berndtson, said: “All too often people under pressure recruit in their own image. The challenge is to look through the window rather than at the mirror. Access to the broadest range of candidates using a variety of recruitment techniques is the best way to ensure diversity among non-execs. Working the network is simply not enough.”