REALISING home-grown talent and ensuring staff retention are fundamental as firms adapt to less inward migration. That is the message from Adrian Gill, the new managing director of corporate and commercial banking at the Royal Bank of Scotland International.

The 40-year-old takes over the offshore operation from Alex Rodger next month, having been transferred from leading RBS’s corporate banking in the Midlands.

His role also covers the Isle of Man, Gibraltar and Jersey, but he said Guernsey was the primary focus.

Its vibrant economy and resilient and outgoing workforce were great for business, he said.

‘This is the real investment area for the group. Nowhere is more impressive in terms of business performance. We are growing our client base and revenue rapidly and I am on a strong mandate to grow the team.’

But that was not all about increasing the head count.

‘There will always be a desire to keep employing people and we are certainly in a position to do that. You just need to walk around the office to see how many empty desks we have,’ he said. ‘But we will balance that heavily with the development of existing staff.’

His right-hand man in Guernsey, Ken Bradley, said the bank was mandated to grow within the constraints of the island’s infrastructure.

The States last month approved an amendment from Deputy Peter Roffey to stabilise the population rather than back a Policy Council proposal to allow net inward migration, which could have seen it rise to 64,000 over the next 25 years.

In that light, Mr Bradley said staff training and full engagement were crucial.

The bank has a well established in-house training scheme known as the Talent Academy, which he said had resulted in several success stories over the years.

Last week Mr Gill appointed a local employee to be his finance manager.

‘She has come through the Talent Academy process and has really developed. It is great for the island to be able to do this and is equally great for the success of the company.’

Mr Bradley said attracting graduates to come back to the island should also be a priority.

‘If the challenge is housing licences, then we need to be keeping hold of our own and be employers of choice.’

He said RBSI had a very good bursary scheme and offered intern programmes for graduates.

Flexible remuneration packages were also one of the bank’s ways to retain staff.

Mr Gill sad that some inward migration of workers, particularly from other branches in the group, was essential.

‘Our success relies on innovation in terms of what new work streams we can pursue. Bringing in fresh ideas and perspectives plays an important role,’ he said. ‘We need to be able to bring people over from different parts of the bank.’