CEOs and senior execs are being forced to spend increasing amounts of their working week looking after staffing issues -- a role once relegated solely to the HR department.

CEOs spend about 20 percent of their time in "talent management", with some spending up to half their time on it, according to a white paper from the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and human resources consultancy DDI.

This includes spotting, preparing and monitoring promising executives, and participating directly in development activities, such as mentoring and teaching leadership skills.

Although many top execs regularly use formal appraisals and mentoring in order to track talent development, the research found that most talent management is arranged on the fly, rather than as part of a planned company policy and return on investment is rarely analysed.

Nigel Holloway, research director at the EIU, said in the paper: "Top executives now consider talent management one of their highest priorities. They are motivated to develop great executives because of the competitive advantage it brings to their companies."

A separate piece of research from the Saïd Business School claims that ineffective executive education programmes cost the UK Ã,£75m (AU$181m) per year.