Our approach to developing people's strengths is simple. We believe:

• Everyone is uniquely talented.
• People are most effective when they identify and develop their individual strengths.
• People thrive by taking ownership of their own development and receiving the right support and encouragement.

Our strengths-based approach is at the core of our development philosophy. We encourage managers to help each employee identify and develop their strengths, so that individuals and teams can deliver sustainable performance.

Many employees have benefited from formally identifying their strengths using an online self-assessment tool. This is supported by our trained in-house experts, known as Strengths Coaches, who help people develop action plans to enhance their personal effectiveness.

Our global learning function, Organisational Learning, is a key contributor to the Bank's success. We encourage everyone to create and manage their own learning plan. This allows them to take responsibility for their own learning and development, contributing to a workplace culture in which everyone has opportunities to learn and grow.

Specific learning "roadmaps" for key roles highlight the recommended development for people in those jobs. To achieve delivery, we have a number of Learning Centres around the world. These provide learning solutions for personal and professional development, using 'classroom' and online techniques.

Effective leadership is the key to our current and future success. We develop leaders in a range of ways, including building strengths, identifying learning opportunities and mentoring. We also provide individual coaching to help leaders take their performance to new heights and encourage their personal and professional development.

We also sponsor executive development programmes with leading academic institutions.

We believe the key to high performance is ensuring employees know what is expected of them. Our performance management system aims to provide an objective view of employee performance, their contribution to business performance and their personal development goals. In 2006, 98 per cent of employees had both a recorded performance rating and talent classification through our bi-annual performance review process.

The Bank's core values: responsive, trustworthy, creative, international and courageous, launched in 2002, form part of the annual objective setting and appraisal process. Half-yearly appraisals were introduced in 2002 to help maintain focus, direction, expectations and clarity throughout the year. Annual performance survey results show that 94 per cent of employees had a discussion with their manager about their performance in 2006 and 95 per cent understand how their objectives will contribute to the continued success of the Group.