Summary: An individual development plan (IDP) is a tool for outlining how an employee will attain their career goals.
Individual Development Plan
An individual development plan (IDP) is a tool for outlining how an employee will attain their career goals. This plan outlines the steps and processes that an employee expects to follow to move from where they currently are in their professional development to where they want to be within a set period of time. IDPs are often written annually to set the year’s goals or more long-term, encompassing periods of five to ten years for medium-term planning.
These plans outline employees’ weaknesses that need to be strengthened and skills and knowledge that need to be acquired to help them reach their goals.
What are the key elements that should be included in an individual development plan?
The contents of individual development plans can vary based on organization types and philosophies as well as the employee’s own purpose for creating such a plan. However, most IDPs include the following key elements:
- Employee information: The employee’s name, position, and pay grade should all be used to identify the starting point for each IDP.
- Professional goals: The employee should state their career goals, which can include positions or titles they wish to attain within the organization and pay or other benefits they hope to receive. Their expected compensation should, of course, be in line with the pay grades on offer. These goals should also have completion dates to make them time-bound.
- Strengths and weaknesses: The employee should identify the strengths they have that they feel will help them attain their goals. They should also identify the weaknesses they’ll need to improve so they can reach their goals.
- Development objectives: Specific objectives should be outlined as the steps that need to be attained to reach the employee’s goals. These objectives should be as specific as possible so that they can be effectively measured and ticked off. They should also be in line with the operational goals of the employee’s work unit.
- Development opportunities: To attain certain goals, the employee may need to do more than focus and work hard. They may need to gain new competencies that necessitate education and training, such as online self-study, classroom learning, and professional conferences and seminars. If these opportunities exist within the organization, they should identify them and state how they’ll apply for access to them and when they should be completed. They should also indicate plans for any private development they may expect to perform on their own time.
- Signatures: The employee and their supervisor or manager should sign and date the IDP to formalize the document. It should then be appropriately filed for future reference.
How often should these plans be reviewed and updated?
Individual development plans are typically revisited, assessed, and updated annually. However, this is not a hard and fast rule, and some organizations may promote more frequent reviews that could be biannual or even quarterly. Others leave this process optional, and employees may choose to revisit their plans over longer periods, such as every two to five years.
What role do managers play in the development and implementation of an IDP process?
Managers should both support the IDP process and their employees’ attainment of their goals. They can encourage the process by helping to implement an IDP program and giving employees time and encouragement to produce their IDPs.
Managers can also support their employees in reaching their goals in several ways. They can assign them to tasks and teams that will challenge them and give them chances to increase their productivity. They can help their employees apply for development opportunities within the organization, such as training and conferences. They can also offer mentorship and advice to help guide employees. With advice and examples, managers can help employees build their strengths and improve their weaknesses.
How do you measure the effectiveness and success of these plans?
To assess the effectiveness of employees’ IDPs, they first have to set clear goals. These goals should be attainable, realistic, relevant, and time-bound. If they are, their attainment can be measured. The degree to which each stated goal has been achieved within the timeframe chosen by the employee can, therefore, demonstrate how successful their individual plan is.
Taken together, the amount of success attained by all employees can indicate how effective the IDP process is. If many or even a majority of employees aren’t attaining their goals, there may be a problem with the planning process that needs to be addressed.
Authors:
Marcel is an experienced journalist and Public Relations expert with an honours degree in Journalism and bylines with a range of major brands.
