What is an Employee Development Plan?
Employee development plans are formally written plans that address areas where improvement is needed. These plans are usually put together by the direct manager(s) and employee. Creating these plans are not only great for employee growth but help establish an engaging employer-employee relationship that benefits all parties.
Many individuals today need to have more than just a job, work should hold value and meaning. While a good salary or decent wage is no doubt important, having the work-life balance as well as working for a company that has a values-based mission, will foster a culture of loyalty to your company. In 2018, the company Deloitte conducted a Global Human Capital Trends survey, in which more than 11,000 business leaders, HR leaders, and executives worldwide were surveyed; This survey found that 86% of millennials believe that business success should be measured in terms of more than just financial performance.
A crucial element in creating a successful development plan is to engage with and create buy-in from your employees. Not only will it benefit their growth and development, but that of your organization. Employees who are engaged value career development and professional growth.
Having a meaningful employee development plan in place is important to help retain employees, help your employees grow their careers, enrich their contributions to your business and improve your bottom line.
This is especially important now that we are in a very competitive job market. Most millennial workers are looking for a position where they are valued, can make a meaningful contribution and the mission of the company they work for is in alignment with their values. By having an employee development plan in place, you will hit two of the three most important reasons to stay with your company.
The most important aspects of a meaningful employee development plan are to make the development plan available to all who are interested. The best time to bring up the topic is during a manager-employee one-to-one meeting or a staff meeting.
Be Proactive
You don’t wait for a performance evaluation to bring up the topic of an employee development plan. Building your employees’ enthusiasm for an employee development plan is best done as soon as it is feasible.
If you have an employee who has problematic behaviors or performance, and is interested, the plan can be used as an incentive to turn them around. There are many options on employee eligibility and conditions for participation. It’s always a good idea to give employees the chance, with the caveat that this should not include anyone who is involved in criminal behaviors.
Set Realistic, Time-Based Career Goals
Remember never to make promises to individuals when creating employee development plans, particularly when it comes to a certain outcome. When leaders make promises they can’t keep, trust between the employer and employee will become damaged. It is important for managers and employees to craft a plan with realistic objectives in order to produce the best results.
When an organization invests its time, energy and resources into developing a tailored career development plan for its workforce, employees’ trust, loyalty and commitment will increase. That is because it speaks volumes about the integrity of the leadership of a company and its commitment to its employees.
The employee development plan should include career goals – one or more for short-term, mid-term and long-term. You can define what each of those means but for example short term can be three months, mid-term six months and long-term two years.
Managers define what skills or areas of performance an employee needs to accomplish before the goal is achieved. Employees then define what they will do to gain the skill or performance and then commit to following through with it and in what time frame. Managers then commit to what they will do to support their employees. For example, a tuition reimbursement or flexible schedule to attend classes or training can be agreed to.
Follow-Up and Offer Support
The most important part of the development plan is follow-up to make sure that commitments are kept. If it takes longer than planned on, reset the completion date since life happens.
Another thing to include in an employee development plan is helping the employee with mentoring. The mentor can be internal to the company or external. The main thing is to have specific skills and questions to be answered by the mentor. The mentoring meetings can be virtual or in-person and should be scheduled for a specific period of time. Most senior people don’t want to be on the hook for a meandering conversation that is not time bound. Half an hour a month would be appropriate with clear objectives and topics to be discussed that are provided by the mentee.
Provide Regular 360-Degree Evaluations
An additional element of a meaningful employee development plan is to provide periodic 360-degree evaluations. The 360 evaluations provide feedback to the employee from those they work with who are in different types of reporting relationships. That includes peers, as well as those who are in both lower and upper reporting tiers. This gives the employee the perspective of how others view their behaviors and performance. The 360 can reveal blind spots the employee is unaware. Ideally, the 360 evaluations would be done on a periodic basis with a baseline to start with then at three-month intervals to track progress. This can be done in combination with a mentor or a coach to help the employee work on specific shortcomings.
Recognize Your Employees
Last but not least, when an employee achieves a certain level of accomplishment of their goals, mark the occasion with a congratulations. Not every goal is that big of a deal, but some really are. Employees who are on this kind career development journey need encouragement and support. They also deserve recognition. By recognizing your employee’s hard-work you will continue to build trust, as well as boost morale, engagement and overall performance.
By having a complete and specific employee development plan for your employees is an HR strategy for providing new opportunities and career growth. It also helps build a foundation of trust and employee engagement that will benefit not only the employee, but your customers and your bottom line.
Please reach out to Karen Radau if you’d like help with getting started with an Employee Development Program.