What is an individual development plan?
An individual development plan helps employees understand their strengths and areas for improvement. The plan should include clear, actionable steps that help employees work on professional development.
Components of an individual development plan
An individual development plan should include sections listing:
- Professional goals and aspirations
- Strengths and talents
- Development opportunities
- Action plans
Professional goals and aspirations
List career goals, target and actual completion dates. When employees and managers articulate goals, they can more easily assess feasibility and what’s needed to achieve them.
For employees seeking advancement, plans chart actionable steps that can help improve leadership and other skills. For employees not seeking promotion, goals can be structured around their development within their current role or by ways they’d like to contribute to the company.
Plans are a useful tool for managers because they can determine if individuals have fulfilled steps, understand development over time, and assess candidates with more objectivity.
Strengths and talents
Use the employee’s performance review, if available, or a list of core competencies to identify specific knowledge, skills and talents. Positive feedback is important and stressing strengths helps employees build confidence and readiness for new challenges.
Development opportunities
List each development opportunity with a corresponding goal. For example, if the development opportunity is “communication skills,” the goal might be a satisfactory grade for a course on active listening or public speaking.
Action plans
Action plans should be specific and achievable. Some common actions include:
- Mentor others
- Learn from a mentor
- Complete development course
- Join a professional organization
- Earn professional certifications
- Present or lead meetings
- Cross-train for another position
- Attend professional conferences or seminars
- Create learning programs for others on your team
- Take on more challenging tasks in your current role
- Conduct an informational interview with
- Coordinate team-building events
- Volunteer with community groups
Related: Employee Evaluation Form
How to implement development plans
Follow these steps to implement development plans for employees:
- Start with your own plan
- Prepare for your conversation
- Meet with your employee
- Make a plan
1. Start with your own plan
The best managers lead by example. When development plans are required for all levels of the organization and employees see higher-ups working on their own self-improvement, it builds trust and encourages everyone to honestly assess themselves.
2. Prepare for your conversation
Give your employee a development plan questionnaire. These forms ask employees to identify:
- Professional goals and aspirations
- Things that inspire and motivate them
- Passions, skills and talents
- Opportunities for development
Review your employee’s answers and use performance reviews and other materials to prepare for discussion. Your goal is to relate your understanding of the employee to ways they can achieve their goals and help your company as well.
3. Meet with your employee
Individual development plan meetings usually take an hour. Generally, let the employee lead the discussion when it comes to the discussion of goals, passions, and skills. Collaborate to form action steps, that will help them achieve their goals. The session should be collaborative, enjoyable and meaningful.
4. Make a plan
When determining the best ways to achieve goals consider feasibility:
- What can the employee accomplish while carrying primary responsibilities?
- How much can your company afford in terms of budget and the employee’s time?
- Are action steps measurable?
- Which action steps will benefit both the employee and the company?
Related: How to Create a Performance Improvement Plan
Development plan template
Use the following individual development plan template to help you create an individual development plan for your employees:
Employee name:
Position and title:
Date:
List professional goals and aspirations:
List strengths and talents:
List development opportunities:
Action plan (Specific steps or tasks to achieve goals)
Development plan example
Here is an example of a completed individual development plan using the template:
Employee name: Lee O’Connor
Position and title: Social media manager
Date: 03/05/2020
List professional goals and aspirations:
- Exceed performance expectations in current role
- Advance to a leadership position within the company
List strengths and talents:
- Time management skills
- Organizational skills
- Content planning
- Communication skills
List development opportunities:
- Create content that is more engaging and successful at converting leads
- Exceed minimum expectations of client accounts
- Become a team supervisor within the social media management department
Action plan (Specific steps or tasks to achieve goals)
Individual development plan FAQs
Here are some frequently asked questions about individual development plans:
How is an individual development plan different from a performance improvement plan?
A performance improvement plan is a formal document that identifies specific areas where an employee’s job performance is unsatisfactory and actions to improve. Performance improvement plans are usually given to employees who not performing well.
An individual development plan is a document that encourages growth and development by identifying career goals and actions the employee can take to meet those goals. Development plans are usually given to everyone within an organization.
Why create an individual development plan?
Individual development plans are beneficial because the employee and supervisor commit to actions that help the employee grow professionally and benefit the company. Plans enhance employee engagement and develop loyalty because employees see their employers as invested in their success. They also increase productivity and yield benefits for companies like more highly skilled employees.