Recruitment firms looking for experienced personnel to help them through the toughest climate in decades are turning to non-executive directors (NED).

Jeff Brooks, director of recruitment consultancy firm WinMoreBiz and a NED on three recruitment firms’ boards, told Recruiter: “I think ambitious owner managers are realising that they need help to enable them to get ‘ahead of the pack’.”

FirstFlight Placements matches NEDs with businesses. Managing director Chris Spencer-Phillips said: “Our biggest competitor is firms ‘asking around’, mostly due to the extraordinary high fees - in the case of some headhunters, up to £150k. These absurd fees are what push firms to ask their cronies or old boy network. It’s not really acceptable practice in 2009.”

Spencer-Phillips told Recruiter FirstFlight is in discussions with the Institute of Directors about setting up a NED course in the autumn. Interim provider Russam GMS has launched its NEDworker initiative (recruiter.co.uk, 14 July), an independent board level professional who can offer advice to SMEs and help with their business challenges.

A key part of the initiative is that the NEDworker will work with companies for two days free of charge before both parties decide if they want to establish a longer term business relationship.

Experienced NED and managing director of peer-to-peer learning group Elite Leaders, John O’Sullivan, has also launched an initiative - The Elite Faculty - whereby a recruiter can engage the service of not one but a number of mentors.

“The proposition is that a company can engage the Faculty as its NED, rather than just one person,” said O’Sullivan.