The Office for National Statistics has not only confirmed that the UK economy is growing, it’s growing faster than anyone expected.

In the three months to September, GDP grew by 0.8% compared with the previous quarter and the year-on-year figure has been revised up, from 1.5% to 1.9%.

With such positive news, many British businesses will be looking to invest in the New Year to make the most of this long-awaited upturn in the UK economy.

Many firms will be looking to invest in their most valuable resource, their workforce, and as well as taking on new employees there will be plenty looking to spend money on up skilling existing staff.

As with any investment it pays to spend some time looking at where resources, which are still scarce, are best allocated.

Training and development is no exception to this general rule and it is vital firms carefully consider who needs further development and to clearly identify areas of weakness.

A good place to start is at the top as senior managers will be the people responsible for driving the business forward.

A number of techniques are available to achieve this, with 360 degree feedback a particular popular means of gathering intelligence on the strength and weaknesses of a management team.

By taking a multi-rater approach to assessment it is possible to build up a better picture of overall performance. Armed with this intelligence it is possible to develop a more robust training programme, tailored to individual needs, to help develop the leaders needed for businesses to prosper as new opportunities present themselves in the recovering economy.