HR professionals believe that 1 in 5 board members or senior executives just be retrained or replaced in order to improve innovation in their organisations.

A survey of over, 1,000 HR workers from around the world by consultations Alexander Mann Solutions suggests that almost three quarters of HR leaders believe the economic crisis has forced organisations to be more innovative across their area of work.

In order to achieve this, respondents believe that 20% of senior staff, 12.5% of middle managers and 10% of graduate employees need either to be replaced or retrained.

38% said they expected to see a rise in permanent staff numbers over the next few months.

Rosaleen Blaire, the company’s CEO, said: If HR is to help drive this culture of innovation, we will need to see more organisations taking a genuinely strategic approach to talent, moving away from process-driven, production line style recruitment and prioritising bringing in the very brightest and best over the long-term."