Solving the Diversity Challenge in Executive Recruitment

Executive recruitment is high-stakes, with failed hires costing up to 30 times a leader’s salary, according to Mercuri Urval. Despite this, nearly half of executive appointments fail, exposing flaws in traditional methods that prioritize connections over competence. To improve outcomes, a more inclusive, merit-based approach is essential. Let’s take a closer look!

February 5, 2025 – The goal of executive recruitment is to select the most qualified candidate for the position. Leaders have a huge impact on an organization’s people, health and results. Research from Mercuri Urval (MU) has shown that a failed leader appointment costs, at least, a staggering 30 times their salary and the wrong leader may even prove fatal for your organization altogether. “Given the huge importance of successful leadership, it is alarming that close to half of all leader appointments fail soon after being made,” said Richard Moore, CEO of MU. As one team of scientists from HR Management Review, who published their research, put it: “These days, success rates in executive appointment equate to a coin flip.” The recruitment approach most often used, conventional executive search, clearly has a performance problem.

“A main contributor to this is the diversity problem,” Mr. Moore said. “Different types of relevant people are not systematically included in conventional executive search work in the first place, whilst others have special access. This over reliance on connections and status means the club of potential candidates — those in or close to the headhunters black book or database — is restricted.”

Making matters worse, different forms of bias and subjectivity in recruitment are routinely found by researchers in inclusion and later selection decisions, according to Mr. Moore. “And including candidates based on quotas to counteract this layers another problem on top,” he said. “Demographic characteristics that have no relation to performance in the job lead to tokenism and the illusion of diversity, not to effective leader outcomes. The old boys club is not good enough, and the new girls club is as problematic. Indeed, any club where demographics, status or personal connections are a condition of membership places irrelevant restrictions on potential leaders. The diversity problem is caused by the club-based way of finding candidates.”

Mr. Moore explained that this is why the Association of Executive Search Consultants conclude that clients of executive search firms want high performing and long term successful leaders, and lacking diversity is a main problem in securing them.


Richard Moore is MU’s CEO. He has worked with the team for over 23 years, as a delivery expert, MU Consultant and leader. As a consultant, Mr. Moore specializes in the field of board and CEO effectiveness, leader selection, leadership coaching and executive search – working with individual executives, teams, and organizations worldwide. He has worked with owner-founder run firms, global corporations, and international public sector organizations in a broad range of contexts. Mr. Moore holds an MSc in psychology and is a certified Mercuri Urval assessor, leadership coach and team coach. He also works with the MU Research Institute and has developed several tools and methods for the evidence-based selection and development of leaders in an organizational setting: MU Leader Selection Science.


“Organizations are weakened when they hire from a restricted pool of club members and make selection decisions based on either subjectivity or on trying to project an image of diversity,” Mr. Moore said. “To solve the diversity problem, and at the same time solve the performance problem, a more inclusive recruitment approach is required — one that both widens the gate and raises the bar.”

Effective Recruitment is Inclusive Recruitment

The best possible leader, the one you must always hire, is defined by an effective match to your need for results, Mr. Moore noted. “Not by connections in the Headhunter’s black book, rolodex or state-of-the-art database,” he said. “To employ a leader with a high probability of success, diverse plausible candidates must be systematically included in your search from beyond these networks and selection decisions should be accurate so they are factful and free from skew. The ultimate test of success in any recruitment is when you evaluate the result they achieved — inclusive recruitment maximizes your chance of success. To achieve this, stereotyping, shortcutting and subjectivity (i.e. bias and random error) must be avoided both in inclusion and in selection decisions.”

MU recently sat down with Hunt Scanlon Media to discuss how the firm uses prediction logic and a step wise selection procedure to increase inclusion and selection accuracy. The firm uses tested and proven methods to reduce the negative impact of stereotyping, shortcutting and subjectivity.

1. Set and strictly follow fact based criteria for inclusion and later selection. MU tailors recruitment to focus on the specific context and relevant role criteria for inclusion and selection. Identifying criteria based on each unique leadership challenge, allows for precise predictions that overcome stereotyping — making sure that the recruitment criteria are inclusive and can be assessed objectively.

2. Put attention on inclusion and merit throughout the recruitment procedure. Monitoring selection decisions for skew and comparing them to industry benchmarks ensures that candidates objectively meet the inclusion criteria — and focus efforts on inclusion as well as performance, Mr. Moore explained.

Related: Navigating the Road to Diversity

3. Widen the gate and secure potential candidates. MU stepwise selection and extended targeting to include diverse candidates within and beyond existing networks. “A diverse candidate pool is secured through structured mapping of target organizations and inclusion of adjacent relevant talent pools as well as targeted candidate marketing,” Mr. Moore said. “A wider search and stepwise inclusion, using evidence, avoids shortcutting.”

4. Fair and accurate selection decisions — to reliably predict success. The report also explains that recruiters should be using fact-based selection to reduce bias and random error. “A combination of stepwise selection and reliance on factual evidence means recommended candidates have a very high probability of success in the role,” the MU report said. “Fact-based stepwise selection reduces and controls subjectivity. Both diversity and meritocracy can be achieved by ensuring integrity in the process and focusing on competence in outcomes.”

5. Effectively involve the new leader and guide them to get off to a fast and successful start. “MU’s accelerated onboarding program has the purpose of increasing the speed and quality of the newly appointed leader’s achievement of short-term objectives, guide their fulfilment of organizational contribution requirements and secure their effective inclusion in their new team,” Mr. Moore said.

“Science explains that diversity is not enough to improve results — inclusion is required,” Mr. Moore continued. “Sustained success at work and organizational outperformance most often come down both to effective inclusive leadership and inclusive open and fair recruitment. Inclusion will lead to valuable diversity. Valuable diversity will lead to outperformance.”

Mercuri Urval is a global executive search and talent advisory firm. The firm was founded in 1967. Today, Mercuri Urval works with more than 3,000 clients – across all sectors – in over 70 countries every year. It is the only global executive search and leadership advisory firm based in the Nordics.

Related: The Evolving Role of Chief Diversity Officers in Shaping DEI

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor  – Hunt Scanlon Media

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