What is a Professional Development Plan?
A professional development plan is a strategic tool used to hold employees accountable for achieving their career aspirations. Professional development plans provide tangible steps and timelines to reaching these goals so employees and their managers take ownership of growth and are aligned on expectations.
Having a practical development plan in place pushes employees to look ahead and determine what success will be defined by in their future. Managers then have the opportunity to hold their direct reports accountable and, therefore, are given a helpful coaching tool so they can best lead their people. Meeting regularly about the components of a professional development plan ensures managers and employees are having purposeful conversations that are engaging to the employee and beneficial to the organization at large.
Benefits of Professional Development Plans
According to Gallup, organizations that have made a strategic investment in employee development report 11% greater profitability and are twice as likely to retain their employees. Professional development plans prove to employees that their organization has a vested interest in helping them reach their personal and career potential. Making an investment in the growth of employees today creates an attractive culture for future top talent. The following list details why professional development plans are a vital part of healthy workplaces.
- Increased performance– Strong professional development plans highlight employee strengths and areas of opportunity. When employees are focused on leveraging their talents and motivated to improve on specific skills, their work is efficient, and their productivity increases.
- Improved engagement– Forbes shares that 35% of employees rated learning and development among the top three elements of the employee experience. Good employees are typically not satisfied with remaining as is- they have a desire to grow and learn in their respective fields.
- Strengthened employee/manager relationships– Good managers have a desire to help their employees succeed. With a professional development plan as the foundation, employees and managers are pursuing the same goals together, fortifying their workplace relationship.
- Increased retention– HBR highlights that a recent survey from Better Buys found that employees who get professional development opportunities have 34% higher retention than those who don’t. Employees are more inclined to devote themselves to an organization that invests in their futures.
How to Create a Professional Development Plan
Though every organization will weave its culture and style into its professional development plans, there are basic guidelines to follow. To ensure your development plans cover the most important aspects of an employee’s growth, follow the 6 easy steps below.
1. Self-Assessment
The self-assessment portion should kickstart any professional development plan. It allows employees to pause and reflect on where their skills, experience, and desires all cohesively align to create a clear path forward. A few questions to consider include, “What professional development have you participated in within the last 2 years?” or “Are you satisfied with your career trajectory?”
2. Goals and Aspirations
Goal setting can be vague and may lack the specificity to stay accountable. This portion should prompt the employee and their manager to define both short-term and long-term goals, and it should define what success would look like for each goal. One question to consider is, “Do your personal vision and career aspirations align? If not, why?”
3. Skills
Assessing the employee’s skills should be comprehensive by including both ‘hard,’ technical working skills and ‘soft’ skills, like communication and collaboration. A great point of reference for soft skills may come from the organization’s list of core values or workplace behaviors. Using those as a starting point may help the individual see what positive workplace behaviors they naturally display vs. those they may need some coaching and development in.
4. Feedback
Along with the employee and manager discussing the professional development plan, it is important to take into account additional feedback the employee may have received. For example, including 360-degree feedback, performance review results, and peer recognition ensures the conversation is considerate of multiple viewpoints.
5. Support
It is critical to think through the gaps that may need to be filled to get the employee to where they want to go. For instance, what resources are available to them right now? What sort of mentorship or coaching are they receiving? Are there any resources they are lacking that may prevent them from reaching their goals?
6. Tracking and Accountability
It is important to consider tracking goals by using the well-known method of SMART, which includes specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals. Ambiguous goals may look good on paper but without specifics for how to track them, it is highly unlikely the employee will practically achieve their desired future.
WorkDove Professional Development Plan Templates
Regardless of how familiar you are with creating or completing professional development plans, WorkDove has templates to accommodate. Our free templates can be downloaded below and include thought-provoking questions to engage employees and their managers in helpful discussions about the future. Invest in your organization’s future by investing in its talent today. Download the templates below!
