Individual Development Plan. How Does It Work?

There are many names for the development plan, for example, Career Development Plan (CDP), Individual Development Plan (IDP) or Personal Development Plan (PDP), but the essence remains the same – this is your professional development map in the company. This is necessary not only for you but also for the company itself because in this way HR and your managers track your progress. The development plan affects your salary and career growth, so let’s figure out what a specialist development plan is.

What is an Individual Development Plan?

This is a step-by-step plan for the professional development of a specialist in his or her position. The development plan includes both hard skills and soft skills.

What is an Individual Development Plan?

This is a step-by-step plan for the professional development of a specialist in his or her position. The development plan includes both hard skills and soft skills.

Basically, tasks are assigned to you and their completion is regularly recorded. Thanks to IDP, you can grow both vertically (Junior – Middle – Senior) and horizontally – change your position.

Why do You Need an Individual

Development Plan?

To the employee:

Declare your goals and agree on them
Form an action plan
Find a way to implement the plan (related position, courses)
Agree on the result (salary increase, career advancement)

For the employer:

Understand the goals of the specialist
Understand the potential of a specialist
Develop a company brand
Retain talents
Reduce the “outflow” of specialists

Individual Development Plan Creation

Process

In different companies it is different, in some Individual Development Plan the thing is mandatory, and in some, it is at the discretion of a specialist. Usually, the creation process looks like this:

Initiation. The employee informs that he or she wants to develop in the company, it can also be initiated by the manager or HR.
Assessment. The qualities and skills of the employee are assessed and introduced into the IDP, they show strengths and weaknesses.
Formation of goals. According to preliminary estimates, you, together with your manager or HR, form goals, for example, for six months.
Discussion and agreement. At this stage, performance criteria, deadlines, emphasis on skills, results are determined.

If the Employee Disagrees with the Plan

Typically, this is 1 in a million. Something must specifically go wrong. After all, the IDP is drawn up together with the specialist, each step agrees. So, at the stage of forming goals, discontent may arise, then the employee should not be silent about this and argue his or her opinion.

There is an option when a specialist refuses IDP altogether, that is, he or she does not want to grow and set new goals, of course, the manager or HR finds out the reasons.

Some employers may allow you to skip certain points of the plan or not form it at all in case of dissatisfaction on the part of the employee.

What are the Criteria for Determining the

Effectiveness of the Individual Plan?

There are 2 criteria for testing effectiveness

Feedback from the team, manager and the employee himself or herself
Check the expected results are pre-recorded, even at the time of setting the task

Each company speaks differently about the extent to which plans are being fulfilled: in some, 70-80% is sufficient, in others, it is 90-100%. Sometimes tasks become irrelevant over time, then they are not taken into account.

What Happens if the Plan is not Completed

If the plan is not fulfilled, first of all, they find out the actual tasks that were established, whether there were personal circumstances, and what was the workload (sufficiency of free time). They also determine the motivation of the employee, the involvement of the manager. In general, there must be some reason why the specialist did not follow the plan. If the reason was not found, that is, nothing prevented the implementation of the IDP, then HR learns deeper about motivation. In the absence of motivation, the employee may be offered a different position.

Conclusion

The more experienced specialist, the higher-level tasks are set before him or her. We in our company popularize an individual development plan for a specialist. This helps first of all the employees, and then us. Thus, talent grows, becomes more motivated, because they know what to try for. Our company is actively growing and you can also become a part of it, for this, go to vacancy page and submit applications!