O IDP or Individual Development Plan is one of the tools companies use to help employees improve their performance at work and achieve their career goals. The IDP is a personalized plan between an employee and their manager, which details new skills to be acquired or learned, and how performance can be improved within a specific period. Because of the planning, the IDP creates clear and achievable steps that help people work on their professional development. These steps are a set of goals for the next 6 to 12 months, designed to improve skills, retain talent and balance the interests of the team with those of senior management.
For the IDP to bring the expected results, the model needs to be well structured and monitored by management or the HR team. Stipulated jointly between employee and manager, the individual development plan aims to increase motivation, boost productivity and provide an opportunity for employees to develop skills and evolve professionally.
Structuring the Individual Development Plan
The structure of an IDP can vary from one company to another, and this customization is useful to make the document a personalized and unique model. However, for the sake of simplicity, the essential components for any development plan should include:
- Professional goals and aspirations
- Strengths and talents
- Development opportunities
- Action Plans
At each stage, employees and managers can easily visualize what the specific qualities or weaknesses are, and thus develop clear and feasible objectives to achieve better productivity or improvements. The specifications of an IDP can vary greatly, depending on the employee's position. Some IDPs are standard documents that suit everyone; other models can be developed when employees are specifically tasked with showing improvement in a certain aspect.
Stages of an IDP
A basic analysis of each stage of the IDP can be given below:
Professional goals and aspirations: This stage should list what deadlines, goals and expected processes the employee needs to have in order to win a promotion. It is possible to include specific projects, expected productivity results and aspirations within the company;
Strengths and talents: Identify through the performance appraisal which core competencies the employee needs to improve their performance. Use positive feedback to emphasize strengths and motivate the employee for new challenges;
Development opportunities: List each development opportunity with a corresponding goal. For example, if the development opportunity is "communication skills", the goal could be a satisfactory improvement in the presentation of results or understanding after meetings;
Action plans: Action plans must be specific, individualized and feasible. They must also work to benefit the employee.
Some actions that can be included in an action plan are:
- Mentoring from other collaborators;
- Learning from a mentor;
- Completing a development course;
- Join a professional organization;
- Obtaining professional certifications;
- Leading or presenting at meetings;
- Cross-training for another position;
- Attend professional conferences or seminars;
- Creating learning programs for other people in the team;
- Taking on more challenging tasks in your current role;
- Coordination of team-building events;
- Volunteering with community groups.
How to implement the IDP
You can use a standard template to implement the individual development plan. Start with your own development plan, use it as a guide and then apply it to your employees. Check out the steps below and use them to develop your IDP.
Develop your own plan: Management is the best example of behavior, so when everyone needs to make an individual development plan, employees see managers working on their own improvement, this attitude encourages and motivates everyone to do the same;
Hold meetings with the team: Give each person a questionnaire about the development plan and ask them to identify it:
- Professional goals and aspirations;
- Things that inspire and motivate them;
- Passions, skills and talents;
- Development opportunities.
Review the answers and use the performance evaluations to prepare for individual meetings. The aim is to relate the employee's understanding to the behavior of how they can achieve their goals and those of the company.
Hold individual meetings: IDP meetings usually take an hour and should be done individually to create an atmosphere of trust. Let the employee lead the conversation, talking about their goals, passions and skills. Then define together what action steps can help achieve their goals. The meeting should be collaborative, enjoyable and objective.
Develop the action plan: When determining the best ways to achieve the goals, consider what is feasible for the employee according to their skill set and their performance evaluation. The main questions to ask are:
- What can employees achieve by fulfilling their main responsibilities?
- How much can the company pay in terms of a career plan?
- Are the action steps included specific enough and measurable?
- What action steps will benefit both the employee and the company?
Why create an individual development plan?
The IDP is beneficial because it helps the employee and the manager to commit to actions that will help the employee grow professionally. For employees seeking career growth with a promotion, the individual development plan allows all the stages of this journey to be documented, which can help boost their results. For employees who are not seeking promotion, goals can be structured around improvements in their current role and new contributions they can make to the company.
The IDP also increases employee involvement and promotes loyalty, as the company cares about the development and success of its employees. Development plans also increase productivity, as they generate greater engagement and motivation for teams.
The PDI is a useful tool for managers and human resources because it can help determine whether an employee has achieved certain milestones, understand their qualities and identify areas for improvement. All this helps managers to evaluate people more objectively.
