Managing talent should be “top of the agenda in terms of business success”, a leading HR manager has said.

The vice president for HR at Oracle, Vance Kearney, discussed talented development in his address to the HR Forum conference.

Kearney explained that Oracle preferred to develop talent in-house over recruiting externally. “It is hard to dig out the top people – our strategy is to grow within. You have to identify and develop talent at every level in your organisation to provide a regular snapshot that reflects change in the business environment and people, then you have to implement and manage change.

“Talent is dynamic and when someone is promoted, their performance will take some time to be great. Talent is about development, not promotion and compensation – so we keep this separate.”

Kearney also stressed the importance of good leadership and management skills to the success of the process, warning that poor performing leaders could act as “obstructions to talent”.  “It’s not just about that individual but also the people who work for them. Bad leaders do so much damage in an organisation and good leaders so much good.”

The government has introduced a number of initiatives to make it easier for organisations to develop high-potential employees, including increases in apprenticeship funding and the introduction of a Leadership and Management Development Grant to help small and medium enterprises increase the skills of their managers.

Stanley Wise, General Manager at DLC Training, said “Growing talent internally is an important way for businesses to fill skills gaps and develop high-potential employees. There is a wide range of options available to companies who wish to develop talented staff members, so there has never been a better time to do so.”