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Personal Development Plan (PDP) plus template

Personal Development Plan (PDP) - Toolshero

Personal development plan: this article explains the personal development plan (PDP) in a practical way. Next to what it is, this article also the benefits, how do I write it, a The full guide and personal development plan template to create a personal development plan and started and get closer to your goals. Enjoy reading!

What is a personal development plan?

A personal development plan is an approach, or action plan, through which you can determine the following:

  • Your personal development goals (development opportunities)
  • Strengths and weaknesses
  • The areas that need improvement and development to achieve your goals
  • What actions are needed to achieve your goals
  • How to monitor progress
  • Which things can hinder progress

The personal development plan, PDP in short, is a form of self-evaluation and self-reflection that is frequently applied in education, but also in the personal and professional life of many individuals.

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Developing and executing a PDP is a useful method of self-development for many people.

Benefits of a personal development plan

The benefits of using a PDP include:

  • Developing clear SMART goals both short term goals and long term goals
  • Improving your employability in your work environment
  • Improving performance
  • Increasing your motivation
  • Improving your mental well-being
  • Reducing stress
  • Contributing to your IKIGAI
  • Maximizing your potency

Many people see personal development as a train journey from point A to point B. In reality, a career and your development is not at all like a train journey: you stop several times, get off and on again at sometimes unforeseen moments.

Whether it’s your personal career or your personal life, it’s good to occasionally assess your situation and reconsider your goals, strengths weaknesses opportunities and threats. Investing in sustainable development and identifying areas for personal development is perhaps the best investment there is.

How do I write a personal development plan? The full guide

All development plans are different, as it is precisely tailored to your personal situation. In education and work life, PDPs have a certain format. Employers can also customize their own versions for employees and have their own procedures and processes to tailor the PDP to their employees.

Regardless of what a PDP is used for, there are some general steps that can help you write a PDP. In any case, these steps include:

  • SWOT Analysis
  • Career Goals Analysis
  • Competency Analysis
  • Action plan
  • Personal Development Plan Template

Follow the steps below and keep a record of all the output. The result of each of the steps should be used as input for the final personal development plan template.

Step 1: perform a personal analysis

The first step in the process of drawing up a personal development plan is to do a personal analysis. It is important that you have a clear picture of yourself, because only then can the ideal career direction be determined. The personal part of this analysis consists of two parts:

  • Getting a clear picture of your personality
  • Gaining insights into your own core competencies through a SWOT analysis

Personality

Before you can start planning a career, you need to know where you want to go. That seems easier said than done for many people. By performing a personal analysis you can find out what motivates you, who you really are and where your strengths and weaknesses lie.

To find out, you can use various self-assessment tools, such as the MBTI test ( Myers Briggs Personality Test ), or the Big Five Personality Test .

SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis reveals an organization’s strengths and weaknesses and helps identify opportunities and threats to the business. This method can also be applied to your personal situation.

By recognizing your strengths, you can focus your efforts on what you are good at. Understanding weaknesses will help you know what to avoid and what you might need help with.

All input together helps to identify opportunities for your long-term career.

To conduct a personal SWOT analysis, ask yourself a series of questions based on the four quadrants of the analysis. Sample questions are shown below.

  • What are you really good at?
  • For which skills do you receive recognition?
  • What skills do you have that others don’t?
  • What do you do better than the people you work with?
  • What are you most proud of when it comes to your own skills?
  • Do you have access to skills, resources, or connections that others don’t?

Weaknesses in the personal development plan

  • What are you less good at? What skills do you struggle with in your professional and personal life?
  • What do you do only because you have to? For example because of job requirements?
  • What does someone else identify as your weakness?
  • Where do you feel vulnerable?
  • Where do you miss experience, connections or resources that others have?

Opportunities

  • In what ways can you best use and utilize your strengths?
  • What opportunities exist for people with the same strengths as you?
  • Would you most like to do something that you are good at? What is that?
  • How can you minimize your weaknesses?
  • If you had no weaknesses, what would you most like to do?
  • How do you see the career opportunities in your professional environment? Perhaps in a different industry or sector?
  • Which trends influence the course of your career?
  • What common threats should you be aware of?
  • If you don’t work on weaknesses, can they threaten your career? Or cause problems and new challenges?
  • What setbacks are you likely to face in your career development?
  • What obstacles are encountered by others following a similar path?

Step 2: determine which goals you have for your career

Now that you have a clear and detailed vision of your strengths and weaknesses, it’s time to think about where you want to go.

This is an important step in developing a personal development plan. Divide the long-term ambitions you have into key career goals that will enable the achievement of these aspirations.

Take the time to decide on the path you are going to walk. Think about the following questions:

  • What do you plan to achieve? What ambitions do you have?
  • Why are these plans important to you?
  • What is at the heart of your decision?
  • Does this ambition make you feel like you’re contributing? To other people? To society?
  • What emotions come up when you think about these career plans?
  • How do you want others to see you?

Formulate the objective(s) using the SMART Goals method. In this way you ensure that the goal remains attainable and realistic. A BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) is difficult to define in a way that is feasible, relevant and time bound.

Step 3: perform a competency / skill analysis

With the development of your objectives, the basis is ready for the personal development plan.

In addition to this, it is essential to have a good understanding of the skills and competencies you need to achieve your vision and purpose.

The next step, therefore, is to think about the skills you are currently missing and which ones you need to develop. It is also important to define why this is important for achieving your goal.

Think about the following questions:

  • What specific skills do you need to perform the job you envision?
  • Is it possible to gain experience before arriving at the ultimate goal?
  • What additional skills do you need to grow in your chosen path?
  • For example, do you need a foreign language to function because you are going to work abroad?
  • Are there any job requirements in the job description that you are currently missing?
  • What can you do to develop these capacities?

Step 4: draw up an action plan

You are now finally at the point of drawing up an action plan . In the action plan you include all the objectives and interim results that you need to achieve the goal.

Step 5: Fill in the Personal Development Plan template

You have collected all the input you need to complete a personal development plan in the previous steps. Congratulations! You can now start working towards the ultimate goal.

Download the Personal Development Plan template

Summary personal development plan.

A personal development plan helps you achieve personal goals and career choices. The complete plan consists of a few tools, such as the SWOT analysis, SMART goals and a personality test.

These techniques are combined to develop a plan that is as personalized as possible, ensuring personal and professional growth.

The use of a personal development plan, or PDP, has many advantages. Thus, it helps you identify your strengths and weaknesses. This knowledge is the basis for your personal growth plan.

In addition, it helps you identify areas where you need to improve, what your precise goal is and what you need to do to achieve it. It also helps to provide insight into what can hinder your progress and how to deal with this.

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It’s Your Turn

What do you think? Do you recognize the explanation about a personal development plan? Do you use this plan for your own personal development? Do you find this a clear tool for achieving personal goals? What other things would you like to see added to this method? Do you have any tips or comments?

Share your experience and knowledge in the comments box below.

More information

  • Eisele, L., Grohnert, T., Beausaert, S., & Segers, M. (2013). Employee motivation for personal development plan effectiveness . European Journal of Training and Development .
  • Beausaert, S., Segers, M., & Gijselaers, W. (2011). The Personal Development Plan Practice Questionnaire: the development and validation of an instrument to assess the employee’s perception of personal development plan practice . International Journal of Training and Development, 15(4), 249-270.
  • Beausaert, S., Segers, M., Fouarge, D., & Gijselaers, W. (2013). Effect of using a personal development plan on learning and development . Journal of Workplace Learning.
  • Beausaert, S., Segers, M., & Gijselaers, W. (2011). The use of a personal development plan and the undertaking of learning activities, expertise-growth, flexibility and performance: The role of supporting assessment conditions . Human resource development international, 14(5), 527-543.

How to cite this article: Janse, B. (2022). Personal Development Plan (PDP) . Retrieved [insert date] from Toolshero: https://www.toolshero.com/human-resources/personal-development-plan/

Original publication date: 04/15/2022 | Last update: 09/15/2023

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Vincent van Vliet

Vincent van Vliet

Vincent van Vliet is co-founder and responsible for the content and release management. Together with the team Vincent sets the strategy and manages the content planning, go-to-market, customer experience and corporate development aspects of the company.

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Individual development plan template + examples for leaders

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Many business leaders are quickly realizing that providing professional growth opportunities to employees can increase retention rates  and satisfaction levels. And one way of helping employees achieve career goals is to use what’s called an individual development plan.

According to a McKinsey study , 41% of participants cited the reason why they quit their jobs between April 2021 and 2021 as due to a lack of opportunities for career development . Making it the top factor leading to attrition, even more so than inadequate compensation and uncaring leaders.

In this article, we’ll first explain what is an individual development plan (IDP). Then, we’ll go over the process of creating an individual development plan step-by-step. Lastly, we’ll include an individual development plan template and examples for you to adapt for your team.

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Table of Contents

What is an individual development plan (IDP)?

An individual development plan or “IDP” is a framework that helps individuals evaluate their strengths, weaknesses, career goals, and short-term objectives. It is often completed during performance reviews, self-appraisals , or one-on-one meetings and allows employees to self-reflect on their professional growth. 

Aside from being helpful for employees, individual development plans can be a useful tool to help company leaders with succession planning and restructuring. It is a great way to support leadership development initiatives, assess skill gaps , and embed better, more transparent communication practices between managers and direct reports . Ultimately, it can help to align individual ambitions with company growth objectives.

How to create an individual development plan

Although used for different purposes, creating an individual development plan is similar to the process of creating a performance improvement plan (PIP) . You need to create objectives and a realistic timeframe in which individuals should achieve those objectives. Here, we’ll explain every step in depth.

Set a timeframe

Like living organisms, companies are continually growing and changing. And, logically, the individuals that make up these teams have goals that are continually changing as well. While creating an Individual development plan, you’ll want to make sure that employees revisit and adapt their plans after set periods.

The first step is deciding how often you want for employees to self-assess and complete the individual development plan. Should it be on a quarterly, biannually, or yearly basis? As a general rule of thumb, it’s best to coincide IDPs with the employee’s regular performance reviews. That way, there’s less confusion and you can ensure that it’s incorporated into their evaluation routine.

Include the employee’s skillsets and performance

Next, you’ll want to create the individual plan itself. Or, if you’d prefer, simply use the individual development plan template that we’ve already created in the next section of this article. For the first portion of the plan, you should include a space in which the employee and their manager can collaboratively evaluate strengths, weaknesses, and overall performance. There should also be room for them to compare the employee’s performance with the expectations of the position. 

For this section, be sure to have past performance reviews, skills evaluations, and any other employee feedback records on hand and accessible. You’ll want managers and employees to have a complete picture and reference points to discuss employee progress.

Look at growth possibilities

The following space should be designated for the employee’s career growth interests and possibilities. Note, there might be more than one area that captures the employee’s attention. For employers, this can be advantageous because it’s more probable that employees can fill in-demand roles and skill sets through their career growth. 

On the other hand, perhaps the employee has a very clear vision of their career goals and ideal position. If that’s the case, employees should think about the skills and qualities that they need to cultivate. For example, if an employee would like to one day manage their team, perhaps they would need to develop delegation and resource management skills.

Set short and long-term goals

Next, it’s about making these ambitions concrete through short and long-term goals. Ideally, you want to clearly map out how employees get from point A to point B through measurable targets and focused areas of improvement.

Ideally, long-term goals should be set for the employee’s next 3-5 years in their position, while short-term goals can be set for the next 1-2 years (or even shorter). Keep in mind here that there’s no guarantee that a plan will go 100% unchanged. It’s not always possible to see what is coming next, and sometimes a little bit of flexibility can pay off.

While setting goals, it’s important for employees to consider factors that drive them to succeed. Do they like working on a specific set of tasks or feel especially competent with a certain skill set? If so, it might be wise to have goals that allow them to expand their knowledge of this specific area. The idea is to create goals that are cohesive with their interests and ambitions. 

Measure employee progress

After going through the process of creating an individual development plan, it’s important to measure employee progress toward completing their objectives. If you don’t already have software to keep track of employee goals, be sure to keep individual development plans stored and organized in a shared drive. Both managers and employees should be able to access this document at any time for their own use.

If you’re looking for a more efficient and streamlined alternative, the best option is to invest in OKR software to keep track of employee goals. With OKR software like Factorial, employees and managers alike can visualize progress toward goals through a user-friendly interface. More on this later. 

Individual development plan template

Creating an individual development plan template should be a simple process. Here’s an example template that you can use for your own reference:

Individual development plan example

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No two employees are the same and neither should be the way that you measure their individual development. With Factorial, you can customize and define OKRs and KPIs for every employee on your team. Don’t hesitate, try Factorial today .

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The Ultimate Personal Development Plan Template That Will Get You Noticed

  • What is a personal development plan?
  • How to use a personal development plan
  • How to make a good personal development plan
  • Personal Development Plan Template
  • What are personal development goals?
  • Best practices for setting personal development goals
  • Examples of most common personal development goals
  • Personal development goals for work examples
  • Common mistakes to watch out

Employees look for training and personal development opportunities at their respective companies. The lack of these opportunities is one of the main reasons they decide to quit. HR professionals and team leaders can avoid this using a personal development plan template to help employees reach their personal development goals. In such a case, it would be a win-win situation for both the company and the people working there. 

A proper template ensures you help individual employees work on their weaknesses and build up their strengths. This is a direct way to set personal development goals and find the shortest way to reach them.

According to a survey , 94% of respondents said they would stay at the company longer if it invested in their careers. In addition, professional and personal growth leads to higher retention. Besides, 58% of employees claim that professional development contributes to their job satisfaction. Moreover, employees who feel respected, empowered, and as if they are making a difference are much more likely to stay in a company—those who don’t have less than a 35% chance of staying. 

A proper template ensures you help individual employees work on their weaknesses and build up their strengths. This is a direct way to set personal development goals and find the shortest way to reach them. It enriches their experience at work and has a positive impact on their career. 

On top of that, it also attracts new hires to your company. Almost 60% of millennials list development opportunities as key factors in applying for a job. As this is the case, it’s high time you work on your employees’ personal development.

Let’s take a closer look at a personal development plan and see how it correlates with personal development goals to tap into each employee’s power. Keeping that in mind, we should start with a personal development plan and later proceed to personal development goals for everything to make perfect sense. 

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A personal development plan (PDP) is an agreement between an employer and employee that outlines that team member’s objectives. It wants to empower employees to analyze their professional life and work on self-improvement. Employees can easily achieve goals when they have a clear picture of their performance. They understand what it takes to reach a specific milestone because of their personal development plan.

HR professionals and managers usually help employees create a personal growth plan. However, team members don’t need to wait for their next performance review to learn new skills and identify areas that require improvement. They can make a personal development plan themselves. Employees can establish short-term or long-term goals and set realistic deadlines to fulfill them.

Having a personal development plan template helps all parties. You can just fill in the required fields and create a clear plan for an individual’s development. Add an HR management tool to that equation, and you’re set to take your workplace to the next level.

  Related: Top 12 Performance Review Software in 2023 ‍

Remember that a PDP must be tailored-made for a specific employee. You can’t take someone else’s plan and expect it to work for them. Each person has different skills and experiences. The plan reflects that.

Why is it important?

 Personal development is all about a process of self-improvement. The plan helps employees:

  • Outline specific goals and what they should do to achieve them
  • Identify the strengths that ensure they grow in their personal and professional life
  • Recognize what skills they need to overcome their existing weaknesses ‍

It is essentially a roadmap that guides them through the process of achieving goals. ‍

What kind of benefits can you expect from a personal development plan? Here are the improvements you will see with a good PDP in place:

  • Boosts employee motivation – a personal development plan makes employees aware of their strengths and weaknesses. They can use their strengths to work more productively and learn how to minimize their weaknesses. This boosts their motivation and encourages them to do more. 
  • Minimize staff turnover – it can cost more to find a new hire than it does to retain an existing employee. You should give your employees a personal development plan template to show them you’re committed to their improvement. They are more likely to stay at the company if they have a plan.
  • Advances existing skills – employees create a career plan focusing on their development. They identify performance development areas so that they can grow in the workplace. While improving existing skills, they also acquire new ones to achieve career goals.
  • Improves goal-setting – a PDP outlines both long-term and short-term goals. Managers can teach employees how to break down those goals to make them more achievable.

A PDP benefits both the company and the employee. Introducing personal development plan templates makes the process easier for managers and HR professionals. ‍

Let’s see how you can use a PDP.

According to research , 74% of surveyed employees think they don’t progress at work due to a lack of development opportunities. You can help them reach their full potential with a personal development plan.

A PDP is an effective way to learn a new skill or master a particular one. Employees can also use it to boost their careers. They just need help from their managers or HR team members. ‍

If you’re a team lead or an HR professional, you can use a personal development plan to:

  • Conduct a skill-gap analysis – a PDP helps you understand which skills your employees lack. The company’s subsequent training efforts should strive to fill the gap.
  • Identify employees who want to grow – this plan also identifies team members who want a promotion. For example, let’s say your company is looking for a Project Manager. Instead of hiring someone outside the company, you can promote one of your employees.
  • Align employee goals with business goals – one-on-one meetings reveal individual goals. When you know a team member’s career growth plans, you can align them with business goals and help them grow. ‍

Related: 5 Meeting Agenda Templates to Use Right Away ‍

Remember, most employees crave professional development opportunities. If you disregard their development needs, you’ll have a team of dissatisfied members. How can a company grow when the employees aren’t happy?

personal development plan template review result

You should go through several steps to create an effective personal development plan. We’ll list those steps below.

  • Ask employees to perform a self-assessment

It all starts with us. We can’t grow or improve if we don’t reflect on ourselves. That’s why your employees must do a self-evaluation first. After all, they know their interests, professional life goals, skills, and knowledge best.

You can ask them the following questions to fuel their path to self-improvement:

  • How satisfied are you with your work progress?
  • Is there something you can do to reach your full potential?
  • What are your career goals? Do you have the skills to achieve them?

Employees can reflect on their performance and determine what they can do to develop personally and professionally. ‍

Get started with templates and save time

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  • Set clear goals

Every employee should know what they want to achieve in their career. If they don’t, you can help them set and achieve goals. These objectives should reflect their strengths and personal development plans.

When creating a PDP for your company, we suggest you focus on SMART goals. They are:

  • Specific – the goal should be precise and to the point. There’s no room for ambiguity. For instance, instead of saying, “I’m going to write an article this week,” your employee should say, “I’m going to write a 2,000-word B2B article.”
  • Measurable – there should be criteria that measure progress. You can agree on how you will assess whether they’ve achieved the goal.
  • Achievable – ensure your employees don’t set unattainable objectives. They should know if their skills and resources make it possible to achieve a goal.
  • Realistic – your employee should be willing to work towards achieving an objective. This depends on their skills, so they should evaluate them before agreeing to something.
  • Time-bound – encourage them to set a realistic deadline to meet their duties.

Setting these goals helps employees split their objectives into smaller, more manageable milestones. They complete a goal one step at a time which derives great pleasure and satisfaction. 

Related: The Best Performance Improvement Plan (+Template)

  • Determine which strategies to implement

After setting the goals, it’s time to consider how employees will achieve them. The strategies vary depending on the objective. For example, if an employee wants to work their way up the career ladder, they might want to attend an online course that helps them expand their knowledge. They should consider the skill set they need and the best way to build those skills.

  • Explore resources

Employees cannot achieve professional and personal growth without any further resources. It’s impossible to learn something new if you don’t have some help along the way. You can help employees determine which resources they need. Those resources include online courses, learning platforms, interactive flipbooks , conferences, niche-specific articles, webinars, and even training. Look at their personal development plan to figure out what can benefit them.

If you follow the above steps, you can make a good personal development plan for your employees. One thing that can help you—having a personal development plan template.

As your company grows, you’ll have to focus on more and more employees. Each of those employees requires their own plan. Not to mention, you must follow their career development and growth after the goal-setting process. What can you do to make the process more manageable? You can use a personal development plan template. PDP in HR is a popular way to track personal and professional development progress and make adjustments along the way.

Using a template for personal development needs is quicker and more efficient. Imagine if you need to create personal development plans for every employee. This would be time-consuming. Don’t make this mistake—use personal development plan templates. These PDP templates help you create a clear picture of your employee’s goals and the steps they should take to reach them.

You won’t need to worry about missing important information that can affect your employees' personal development. We have prepared a personal development plan template to jumpstart your team members’ success! The PDP template is concise and identifies areas your employees need to answer to achieve success. 

You can use the following personal development plan template to help your company grow with talented individuals.

Personal development plan template ‍

Employee name: _________________

Position and title: _________________

Date: _________________

Development area: _________________

Personal development goals: _________________

Top strengths: _________________

Areas to improve: _________________

Development opportunities: _________________

Action plan: _________________

Skills and knowledge needed for personal growth: _________________

Necessary resources: _________________

Evaluation period (how often will you check the progress): _________________

Deadline: _________________

Review (How am I doing): _________________

Personal development plans are the way best to get to know your employees and see how your company can influence their success and growth.

Here is a filled-in PDP sample you can use as an example of what a completed personal development plan template should look like:

Employee name: John Doe

Position and title: Social Media Manager

Date: July 30 2022

Development area: Time management

Personal development goals: Organize my time better to help my team members and learn how to prioritize tasks

Top strengths: Social media planning and delivery, communication skills, writing engaging content

Areas to improve: Time management and organizational skills

Development opportunities: Become a team leader of the company’s social media department

Action plan: Use to-do lists to better organize my day, track each task’s progress, report my progress to a supervisor

Skills and knowledge needed for personal growth: Time management and leadership skills

Necessary resources: Online courses about social media marketing, tools to better track the performance of social media posts and analyze our audience

Evaluation period (how often will you check the progress): Every month

Deadline: Three months from today

Review (How am I doing): N/A (to be completed every month)

Use personal development templates like this to make the process of creating a PDP for employees simpler and more time-efficient!

How to get started with a template

Achieving personal growth is easier with personal development plan templates. But the journey doesn’t end there. You must also take certain steps to ensure your employees are improving and meeting their goals.

Here are some strategies you can take after an employee submits their personal development plan: 

  • Review the plan immediately – make sure to go over an employee’s plan. You must check if their goals are attainable and clear.
  • Remind employees to check the plan periodically – a team member might forget what areas they need to improve. You can remind them to read their plan to see if they are working on the right skills.
  • Assess their improvement so far – you can plan a one-on-one meeting with an employee. Ask them to be honest and tell you how they are doing, if they need additional help and which changes they see.
  • Determine their success – personal development plans are about creating specific goals. The plan would be futile if you don’t check if an employee has made progress towards their goals.
  • Decide what to do next – if you find any issues, you must devise a solution. Don’t abandon your employee—show them you're committed to their success!

When you know all about the personal development plan, it is time to proceed to the next crucial step, setting personal development goals. These two aspects come toe-to-toe and are vital for making goals and planning a reality.

‍ What are personal development goals?

Personal development goals, or self-improvement goals, are the objectives people set to improve themselves in many ways, including habits, mindset, skills or even work ethics.  Although personal development goals are not necessarily connected to the job setting, they can help people improve their professional and personal lives.

Some of the most common areas for personal development goals include:

  • change of mindset
  • improving hard skills
  • working on social skills
  • character building

How can they help people?

Working on personal development goals has many benefits, but here are five areas where it can help employees the most:

Better focus  

One of the biggest benefits of setting personal development goals is a better focus and a clear sense of direction. Clear goals inspire people to act and easily decide on their next steps. This pushes them to be proactive and get more things done in their personal and professional lives.

Free time endlessly scrolling on the phone without a clear purpose or spreading work throughout the day is easy. Specific goals will motivate people to become more proactive and efficient.

Increased productivity

Goal setting teaches individuals prioritization techniques. This way, it is much easier to decipher what matters the most and take care of it instantly. Another major advantage has concrete, measurable goals to work towards. This makes it possible to evaluate people’s success precisely and encourages them to keep improving. The more goals they tick off, the more satisfied they will be. Over time, this will also increase general productivity. 

Better professional relationships

Self-improvement goals can improve the quality of people’s relationships with their colleagues and business partners. By becoming a better version of themselves, they're inspiring everyone who gets in touch with them to do the same. Their growth mindset is reflected in others as well. As a consequence, positive relationships in your team could dramatically improve. People in self-development tend to be better listeners and more compassionate toward others.

Improved work-life balance

Employees that don’t have a healthy work-life balance are prone to burnout more than others. That’s why this aspect shouldn’t be neglected. Employees should be encouraged to pursue their passions and learn new skills that don’t have to be work-related. Personal development goals can help people find time for themselves and remember who they are outside of their job. Consequently, they will become more motivated, and their productivity at work will improve.

Career advancement  

Finally, working on personal development goals can positively affect professional life and bring professional success to everyone. Many skills are transferable, meaning one can use them in other areas. Communication skills, soft skills, and creativity — are all crucial for success at work. New skills can help employees better serve customers and even get promotions. Sometimes working on personal development goals can bring insights and ideas that can revolutionize how you work.

As an HR or business mentor, your job is to share some resources on goal-setting with your team. Of course, each person’s goal will be different, but here are some universal strategies that everyone can benefit from, regardless of their goal.

Here are some points you can ask your employees to do:

  • Identify what you want

 This is a fun exercise you can do as a team. According to one statistic, employees engaged in meaningful activities are 87% less likely to leave the company.

You can ask them the following questions:

  • What goal would make the biggest difference in your life? 
  • Is that goal in alignment with your vision for the future?
  • What is something you’ve always wanted to learn but never seemed to have enough time for?

This exercise helps them connect with their personal development goals deeper, which will help them commit. When it becomes hard, and it feels like quitting, it's important to connect with your why and remember why you started.

  • Set milestones for your goal

Big goals are not only frightening, but they can also be too vague. The next step is to break your personal goals into achievable milestones.

There are three good reasons to do so:

  • The goals become more doable.
  • You feel more motivated to work towards your goals.
  • It's easier to measure your progress.

For example, someone's personal development goal could be to learn French. That's too vague. That person would be much more motivated if they created smaller goals for each month or week. 

  • Set a day and time to work on your goal

As Michael Hyatt once said: What doesn't get scheduled, doesn't get done. Set yourself up for success by turning your goals into plans. It means that you should allocate time and space where you will be dedicated to working on your goal.

It will be much easier if your goal becomes part of your routine. It doesn't have to take a lot of time, especially in the beginning. The most important thing is to make it a habit.

How to Build the Best Employee Development Plan

The 90-Day Review Template to Keep Your Business on Track

personal development plan template

Here are the most common personal development goals related examples: 

  • Improving your communication skills . This goal can improve professional relationships, the atmosphere of the whole team, as well as the results you get with clients.
  • Mastering time management - Time management is one of the most important skills for your own success. Today it's even more challenging due to the distractions around us. One can learn different time management strategies from books, but it's important to try them and choose those that work in your life.
  • Mindfulness - Mindfulness is one of the most effective stress management techniques, and everyone in the corporate world needs it. Your mindfulness practice could consist of meditation, visualization, breath work, or sitting silently for a few minutes every morning.
  • Developing a growth mindset - A growth mindset is essential for success. Maybe you need to work on your mindset if you've been stuck lately. Some of the ideas include journaling, affirmations, or reading self-improvement books.
  • Networking - One of the common goals is to grow your network and meet more people. This can be done through organizing networking events or joining clubs and communities on the topics that interest you.
  • Learning a new skill - The best way to keep your brain sharp is to challenge yourself to learn a new skill! Choose something that interests you, whether crochet or graphic design and be patient with yourself because every new skill takes time.
  • Creative thinking - Many people don't know it, but creativity can be learned! You need to give yourself space to let your mind wander, and ideas will come. There are also different exercises to boost your creativity, from design thinking to creative writing.
  • Reading habit - One of the most common New Year's goals is: I'd love to read more books this year! Reading has many benefits, and it can be a life-changing habit. It's important to set realistic goals for yourself. Your first goal shouldn't be to read one book a week. Instead, your goal should be to get into the habit of regularly reading.

We'll now go into more detail and show you how to set personal development goals properly.

Improving leadership skills

Leadership is one of the most valuable assets that can benefit your employees in many ways. According to Forbes , it helps employees boost productivity, engagement, and independence.  ‍

Here is how your organization could help employees improve this skill:

  • Organize internal workshops - You don’t need famous motivational speakers and leaders to organize a successful workshop. You can also organize internal workshops where managers and executives share their practical experiences with younger employees.
  • Organize leadership challenges - It’s important to understand that one doesn’t need a title to be a leader. It’s about behavior and the way you treat others and tackle problems. To make it more fun, you could organize leadership challenges where each employee has to do one small task that shows leadership capabilities.

Become a better networker

If one of your team member’s goals is to become a better networker and create stronger relationships, you should first ask them to define what it means for them and why it's important. Next, they should list actions that will get them there. The steps should be concise and easy to follow.

The list may look like this:

  • Read a book about communication
  • Talk to people that are great networkers
  • Practice being an active listener
  • Commit to going to networking events every month
  • Reach out to your new connections

They should also set some milestones, for example, I want to meet 10 new people by the end of this month. And then, you can create a plan of how they will do it. If you know that someone in your team lacks accountability, you can encourage them to share their goals with your other colleagues so you can support each other. 

As an HR, you could also introduce your team to the concept of an accountability buddy. It means that each person gets another person that keeps them accountable. They’re here to support each other and track their progress together.

Common mistakes to watch out for when setting development goals

common mistakes in personal development plan template

Here are some of the most common mistakes people make when they set personal development goals:

The goal is not measurable

One of the first rules of goal setting is that personal goals should be clear and measurable. If people can't measure your progress, how can you know they're going in the right direction?

Some might say that certain goals are simply not measurable, and that's true. However, in that case, you can help people track their activities. They can measure how much time they dedicate to the goal weekly to ensure they're on the right track.

The goal is not something people want

The worst thing is to choose a personal development goal just because it's something that's "good for people" and "should be done". Achieving personal development goals requires time and dedication. That's why it's essential to help your employees choose a goal that's meaningful to them.

People don't have the right mindset

A positive mindset is crucial for continuous self-development. Even if some goals are out of people’s comfort zones, they can still work on those. Many people have limiting beliefs that prevent them from achieving their highest potential.

The rule is - if you want to succeed, it's essential that you believe that you can do it. If you lack self-confidence, you won't be motivated enough, leading to procrastination.

Now that people have set their personal development goals, it's time to do an honest assessment and see where they currently are. The best way to do it is during one on ones with employees.

Take some time to think about the following topics and encourage people to be honest with themselves. Here are some questions to ask employees should ask themselves:

  • Did I allocate enough time to my personal goals?
  • Did I have all the resources I needed for achieving this goal?
  • What were the biggest obstacles?
  • What can I do differently next time?
  • Where can I get the support when I need it?

Even if they haven't achieved their goal, they should be patient with themselves. They can start again, but this time with a better strategy and more support. 

On the other hand, what if people achieve all personal development goals with success?

First, take time to celebrate and congratulate your employees. Too many people take their success for granted and always look for a new challenge. Right now, they should be proud of how far they've come!

Here are some things you can ask your employees:

- ‘’If you enjoyed working on this skill, you may want to take it to the next level. You can challenge yourself to get out of your comfort zone once again and become even better at it. At this point, you may even consider getting a certification or something similar.’’

 - ‘’Or, you can choose a completely different area to work on. If you worked on your physical health, you could now switch to emotional intelligence or the other way round.’’

Conclusion: Personal Development Plan and Goals

Helping your employees work on their personal development plan creates a positive workplace. Employees are satisfied to see their company cares about them and doesn’t see them just as “seat-fillers.” With an effective personal development plan template, you can easily discover each person’s skills and weaknesses. You get to grow the talent you already have and nurture an impressive company culture.

As you can see, self-growth is a never-ending process. There's always room for improvement. Adopting a growth mindset and entering the field of personal development could be one of the most positive things you've done for yourself. If you're a manager or business owner, you should encourage your people to set personal development goals. They will not only make your employees happier and more productive, but they will influence everyone around them in a positive way.

Sign up to Effy to monitor employee performance and automate HR processes!

FAQ: How to Set Personal development goals

A personal development plan (PDP) is the practice of consistently adding new skills , knowledge and competencies to yourself in areas of your choice. It is a clear and documented outline that shows what you aim to achieve to attain better fulfillment and growth. A personal development plan does not have to be restricted to your career alone, as it also concerns your finances, education, relationships and other interests.

What is a personal development plan example?

A personal development plan could simply be 'Get a promotion at work next January'. To achieve this, you need a detailed plan to guide (documented) and steps to get the promotion. Such steps will include: taking a management training course, requesting a performance appraisal with HR, networking better with the line manager, etc.

What are the key elements of a personal development plan?

A personal development plan should include the following elements:

  • A clear reason showing why you want to achieve your plans.
  • A defined vision of where you want to be.
  • A defined timeframe to help you prioritize the different areas of your PDP.
  • The skills and resources you need to meet up with your plans.
  • Your expected milestones to keep you on track.

What are individual development goals examples?

Some of the most common personal development goals include learning a new skill, developing a positive attitude, breaking bad habits, effectively managing your time, etc.

What are the 5 areas of personal development?

These are the 5 main areas of personal growth:

  • Mental (working on your mindset, learning new skills)
  • Social (working on your communication and networking)
  • Spiritual (inner peace, meditating)
  • Emotional (emotional intelligence, personal boundaries)
  • Physical (physical health, proper self-care, fitness)

What are 3 goals for your career development?

The following 3 goals can influence your ongoing professional development: becoming a better communicator, enhancing your networking skills and learning leadership skills.

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  • Employee Development Plan
  • Knowledge Hub
  • Learning and Development

In this article, we will show you how to create an employee development plan that truly works.

Also you will get our template with examples, tips for each stage, and best practices that we use for professional workforce development.

Typically, you would go online and download an employee development plan template. The challenge, however, is that most such templates come with too many assumptions. As a result, they may not fit the developmental needs of your organization.

TIP: Understand that an effective professional development plan should be created for specific roles , departments , or even for a specific person – NOT for the whole organization. Otherwise, the plan will simply be too generalized and unfocused; neither of which will truly help the employee.

The banner for the Career Development Plan Template

Employee development plan template

Our approach to creating customized employee development plans is more of a hands-on approach in which we assess the actual employee or department and formulate a plan specific to their individual goals.

It is based on a tried and tested, a commonsense methodology that delivers tangible results. Our strategy comes without any preconceived notions or assumptions.

By the time you’ve implemented all the steps recommended here, you’ll get a working template and learn how to scale it across your organization.

  • Assessing Business Goals
  • Communicating with employees
  • Reviewing Organizational Workforce
  • Setting Employee Development Goals
  • Realization Stage
  • Reviewing & Monitoring Results
  • Going Back to the Drawing Board (if needed)

1. Assessing Business Goals

1) Assessing the Company’s Strategy and Business Goals .

All developmental actions have to be aligned with the Company’s strategy. It is the foundation of the plan, so make sure the objective is clear. If needed consult with upper management or leadership.

2) Create a macro-level assessment of your business .

Points to consider include:

  • Where does the business want to be in the next 2, 4, 6 years?
  • Where do you see opportunities for improving competitiveness?
  • Whether there are business expansion plans (new markets, additional factories/plants/distribution centers)
  • What newer technologies are out there that could support your business goals?

Formulate other questions specific to your organization and then sit down, again with management if needed, and answer these questions before developing your plan.

3) Review what’s working and what’s not working in the organization. This can be accomplished through interviews, surveys, or past feedback.

4) Improve . Finally, based on everything we’ve done, make a list of all the competencies and skills needed or a list of improvements that need to be made in order for the company to keep developing in the right direction.

2. Communicating with employees

Employees are key to “employee” development. It’s vital, therefore, that you communicate with them about your business goals and share with them the results of your workforce assessment. Here are some tips to help you:

  • If employees’ opinion is valued, their level of interest, loyalty to the employer, and production level increases.
  • Communicate frequently: If your assessment and reviews span an extended period – say 2 or 4 months – hold several communication events to keep employees “plugged in”.
  • Communicate from the top: Since any employee development initiative will likely involve some changes to “business as usual” for employees, it’s always nice to have high-level executives share those plans with employees.
  • Use all tools available: Create a broad-based communication plan, including emails, social media, internal newsletters, company bulletin boards.
  • In-person is better than emails: Where possible, hold at least some in-person sessions to communicate with employees. It makes it seem more personal and “warm”.
  • Plan for one-on-one communication: While broad-stroke communications can take place in group settings, one-on-one sessions are best to discuss personal professional development plans for each employee.
  • Don’t delay communicating such news: The longer you put it off, inadvertently, it fuels unhealthy rumors and confusion.

TIP : The key to making this successful is to continually revisit the concept of collaboration. Employees must be included during all phases; their feedback not only needs to be solicited but regarded. The quickest way to lose your employee’s interest in a new endeavor is for their ideas to fall on deaf ears.

3. Reviewing Organizational Workforce

The goal of reviewing our Organizational Workforce is to gain a deeper understanding of what our employees can and cannot do. We can accomplish this by breaking it down into multiple pieces:

1. Build a Skills Matrix:

Based on the previous step, we now know what we need for development and where the real issues/problems exist. We made lists of skills and competencies that need to be developed or improved.

The next step is to build a skill matrix or competency model based on this information.

We will break this down into two separate divisions: Departments/Teams and Employees/Roles.

1.1 Departments/Teams

Based on the previous step we need to decide what needs to be done in the future, what is being used now and what needs to be improved. This stage obviously requires working with management.

Please take a look at the following example below, Learning & Development Plan 2019 . Note the level of detail; this is an excellent reference for the type of matrix applicable on a departmental level.

Learning and development plan example. Table with the person and its role and learning goal that this learner needs to complete to be better at his role.

1.2 Employees/Roles

This nails it down further based on each individual employee/role and skills.

Please take a look at the following example below, Competences . Note the level of detail for “John Hunter”. Not only have we identified John’s skills (down to specific software), but we’ve also determined the level of proficiency for each.

Competence matrix, list of competencies, and skills with their level.

Why is this needed? This will help us understand which skills already exist in the company/organization, and based on the previous step, make a list of knowledge and skills needed to achieve the desired goals.

2. Evaluate

Finally, we want to evaluate the skills a company needs against the current skills our pool of employees possesses. For example, John Hunter reviews a list of desired skills > he adds the skills he thinks he has > the system or experts verify/grade that he meets the desired skill level.

4. Setting Employee Development Goals

It’s important to develop a plan based on existing resources, abilities and of course, budget. In making a plan, the overarching question should be, “What needs to be accomplished for each role?”

Please take a look at the following example below, Product Area Training Plan 2019 . We’ll use this as an example of how to create a personalized learning path for each individual employee.

Product area lead training plan example. The list of activities planned for that role during the year, contains training sessions, coaching, events, webinars, and online courses.

1) Make a Learning Path

Here you’ll make a list of courses and activities for each role/team/department.

In our example above, for the Product Area Lead, it would look something like this:

  • Introduction- what does it mean to be a PAL?
  • Explanation of the development process
  • Effective communication skills for communicating with clients
  • Coursework: American Business Culture
  • Quiz – to ensure the information is retained

2) Activities that cannot be part of the course

These could include the following:

  • Participation in workshops (problem-solving, argumentation, working with declines, etc.)
  • Using the product – do it yourself, test how the product works
  • Meet with the manager to learn more about the product development process
  • External materials to read: The Essential Persona Lifecycle

3) Make a list of useful courses

Continuing with our example of PAL above, these could include the following examples:

  • Udemy course: Advanced Product Management: Vision, Strategy & Metrics
  • Coursera course: Software Product Management Specialization

4) Job rotation

Work trips to other offices or job rotations , for example, transferring developers to USA office:

  • The goal is to learn about the problems that clients face
  • Participate in 3-5 demos/presentations
  • Talk to the head of the department and find out the main problems with the product they are working with, the clients, how can the product be improved (in their opinion)

5) Personal coaching

The employee receives direct coaching based upon needs. This is usually at the request of the employee.

The goal is to gain a deeper knowledge and understanding of a defined topic. For example, How can I better track the product development lifecycle?

6) Recommendations for Reading

This is simply a list of books, publications or websites targeted for the employee’s development.

5. Realization Stage

Keep in mind that our goal is to develop each individual employee/department and formulate a plan specific to those needs. With that in mind, one of the easiest and fastest ways (but one that requires budget) is using content providers: Linkedin Learning, Coursera, Udemy, OpenSesame, etc. The ease of access and quality of content makes such providers a valuable resource to consider.

Other methods that require more careful planning can be applied to the entire organization. For example:

  • Make a list of conferences for employees, which you consider they can participate in.
  • Organize workshops inside an organization, your own employees can be speakers or invite external experts.
  • Facilitate group conversations/talks (sales talks, leads, etc.). The main goal of these “talks” is knowledge sharing or to share the methods for accomplishing certain tasks. This is a great way of finding solutions to problems that may have not been previously considered. Topics for such talks can be prepared in advance or can be spontaneous.
  • Note: Mentoring should be part of a separate plan. It should include timelines, a list of mentors/mentees, checkpoints and final reviews.

6. Reviewing & Monitoring Results

The question that needs answering here is, “How did our Development Plan influence the processes?”

“Only 8% of CEOs currently see the business impact and only 4% see ROI of Learning & Development”

This is NOT the result we’re going for! However, plans that are poorly constructed, vague or lack follow-through often net these results.

Change this by nailing down what improvements came about as a result of employee development. Understand that creating the plan is just the beginning – it must be implemented and reviewed to have lasting value!

Learn more in our white paper: Achieving Learning Impact: Aligning Corporate Learning For Business Outcomes

Monitoring results : This must be done for individual employees, and for the department as well. Things to monitor include:

  • Have individual development and department targets been met?
  • Has employee performance improved as a result of the development plan?
  • Have problems or challenges been solved?
  • Has the plan delivered as expected?
  • If there are shortcomings – either pertaining to individual employee development, or in the plan itself, what were the reasons and how do you resolve them?

7. Going Back to the Drawing Board (if needed)

Employee professional development is vital for the organization. So, if you are not satisfied with the feedback you get during the rollout – don’t hesitate to go back to the drawing board.

  • Revise/fine-tune components if required
  • Hold formal assessment
  • Give employees an opportunity to provide feedback and inputs
  • Did you address the main question, “How did our Development Plan influence the processes?”

This 7-step employee development plan primarily sets out a series of sequential steps that organizations can take to build a comprehensive plan of their own. For instance, you can’t conduct a Workforce Review (Step #3) without doing a comprehensive Business Goals Assessment (Step #1).

Additionally, when building your own employee development plan, we cannot stress enough the importance of Communicating With Employees (Step #2). Since the focus of the plan is your employees, they must be the center of everything that you do. As a result, Step #2 will likely be a recurring theme through the 7-step cycle.

Bonus: Continuous Learning Approach

Try to build a learning culture in the organization (more information can be found in this article on continuous learning ). The main goal is to promote and encourage continuous development and training.

  • Create communication channels for learning and development: Social learning is a powerful tool, one such example being the team collaboration tool Slack, which can also create personal education/learning channels and share useful information.
  • Encourage employees to share useful articles and books.
  • Allow your employees to select courses that they think will benefit them and compensate them by paying for these courses.
  • Hold lunch presentations or discussions on a monthly basis. Provide food and have one of the employees share something about new technologies, something that they recently learned at the conference or course.
  • Mentoring is also a great way to promote a learning culture. Offer opportunities for employees to choose the topics they want to learn about and help them find a mentor who has experience and can help them.
  • Be open to employees’ ideas – oftentimes, they know much better than management what courses or conferences they need to take/attend to improve productivity/performance.

Develop and Maintain Learning Culture

In this workbook, we put together tips and exercises to help you develop your organisation’s learning culture.

personal development plan template hr

Ivan Andreev

Demand Generation & Capture Strategist

Ivan is a dedicated and versatile professional with over 12 years of experience in online marketing and a proven track record of turning challenges into opportunities. Ivan works diligently to improve internal processes and explore new possibilities for the company.

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Blog Training and Development

Individual Development Plans: 14 IDP Templates & Examples that Motivate

By Michelle Martin , Feb 15, 2023

Individual Development Plans

The terms Individual Development Plan and Employee Development Plan are often used interchangeably, but the outcome is the same: a document outlining a person’s professional and career goals with an action plan to get there.

Does every employee in your organization have an IDP? Or if you’re here to make one, has your manager discussed a plan for your professional development?

If your answer is “no” to either, you can’t afford to ignore individual development plans any longer. Companies that invest in employee development earn, on average, 11% higher profits than those that don’t. You’re also risking your workforce as  86% of professionals  would switch jobs if the new one offered more growth and development opportunities.

Not to fear: Here’s everything you need to know about creating useful individual development plans to boost your profits and attract and retain top talent.

Click to jump ahead:

What is an individual development plan, why do you need an individual development plan, 13 individual development plan examples and tips, how to make an individual development plan, individual development plan faqs.

An individual development plan (IDP) is a collaborative document between a manager and an employee to define career goals and map out how to learn new skills or improve current ones. It matches an employee’s strengths and interests to key business objectives.

Usually, individual development plans are part of the annual performance review and general  employee development  discussion. But you can make or update one anytime.

You can also create an individual development plan for yourself to pursue career or personal learning goals.

IDPs usually include:

  • Short and long-term career goals the employee wants to achieve.
  • Current skills the employee wants to improve, or new ones to learn.
  • Skills the manager wants the employee to further develop.
  • Specific action steps to achieve the goals (e.g. taking a course, attending a workshop, finding a mentor, etc).

Many different formats work well for individual development plans, from plain text documents to elaborate tables and timelines. Mix and match blocks, tables, and more with this flexible IDP template to customize it to your needs.

Healthcare Individual Development Plan Template

Return to Table of Contents

Individual development plans are beneficial to everyone, including the company. IDPs encourage your employees to voice their career goals and co-create a plan to get there. Even if they end up leaving for another company in the future, you benefit from their new skills until then.

Your employee will likely also be grateful for their growth with you and happily refer others to open roles. Since we’re in one of the  tightest labor markets ever , referrals and word of mouth can mean the difference between filling your open positions or not.

Individual development plans also address a real business need:  56% of businesses  surveyed by Statistics Canada in 2022 said most of their employees weren’t “fully proficient” at their jobs. If your company has over 100 employees, that most certainly applies to you as 93% of large companies responded that way, whereas only 33% of companies with less than four employees did.

IDPs help your employees learn the skills they need to achieve their own goals, but they’re also key to ensuring your business needs are met.

A stylish table format is effective for communicating goals and action steps which are both important parts of an IDP. List the goal category on the left, the action step in the middle, and a target due date on the right.

For example, a goal category could be “improving public speaking skills.” An action step could be joining a local Toastmasters group or hosting a Lunch and Learn for the office.

Leadership Readiness Checklist Template

Give this worksheet-style template to your employee before your IDP meeting to find out their goals and how they view their progress so far. By getting their ideas on paper first, you’ll make better use of meeting time to discuss actions and solutions.

Healthcare Individual Development Plan Worksheet Template

Are you (or your employee) a visual person? Just because most individual development plans look like traditional documents doesn’t mean yours has to. Try out this creative and colorful quadrant template to prioritize goals and actions by their importance, due date, or any other criteria that make sense to you.

Healthcare Performance Training Development Venn Diagram Template

This template is structured as a corrective action plan but could also work well for an IDP. As a reminder, IDPs aren’t a disciplinary tool or for underperforming employees. Everyone should have an individual development plan focusing on their strengths, while also acknowledging weaknesses that may impact the achievement of career goals.

Employee Corrective Action Plan Template

Another great template for visual folks, this serves well as a progress tracker for the action steps in your IDP. The simple, one-page format is quick to update and makes it easy to see progress toward your goals.

Marketing Skills Training Matrix Roadmap Template

This template could be another self-evaluation tool for your employee to fill out prior to your IDP meeting to rank the importance or priority level of specific actions or goals. Or, use it as a progress tracker by listing out the actions and ranking them from “Not Started” to “Complete.”

Leadership Skills Inventory and Self-Assessment Checklist Template

Often, an IDP has a big goal in mind, like being the head of a division or something else several steps ahead of you. In order to get there, you need to break it down into smaller goals along the way.

Growing into a C-suite position could mean first managing an important project, then a small team, and then a larger team, and so on. By visually planning the smaller goals along the way, you (or your employee) have realistic expectations of what’s needed to get to the ultimate goal and a focused approach to get there.

Healthcare Individual Development Plan Process Infographic Template

An individual development plan is a lot like a product roadmap, except with your goals instead of new features. This simple timeline template is a good way to work through the order you’ll need to accomplish action items in and set target deadlines.

It’s also useful for visual thinkers to see a simplistic overview of their trajectory on one page. You can detail each goal or step in subsequent pages.

Simple Iconic Career Roadmap Template

Using a 30, 60, and 90 day timeline is an effective way to break down large goals into achievable steps per quarter. This can also work as a one-page quarterly plan — just add an extra column — or a multi-year plan.

30 60 90 Day Plan Template

This template serves as a compact yet detailed action plan that’s perfect for goal tracking in your individual development plan.

Plan Of Action And Milestones Template

This multi-page template is highly flexible so every page of your IDP will look professional and on-brand. Easily add tables, lists, and more to the content pages as needed to create a detailed and aesthetic development plan.

Microlearning Onboarding Menu Materials Template

While this is set up as an orientation plan, you could easily customize it as an individual development plan.

personal development plan template hr

If you like a quarterly planning approach, this template is helpful to detail the action steps you need to take for the rest of the year.

Colorful Quarterly Product Roadmap

Any of the templates above can be your starting point for creating your organization’s IDP template, or choose from all our  business templates . Some templates are available only to our paid subscribers, but all the options above are free for everyone to use.

Starting with a template saves time and ensures your finished IDP looks polished and professional. It’s easy to customize any of these with our free online editor in just a few clicks.

Step 1: Sign up for a free Venngage account

All you need is an email address to  sign up for a free Venngage account .

No free trials, credit card numbers, or any of that. You can edit any of our free templates with your free account… for  free , okay?

Step 2: Choose an individual development plan template to customize

Pick one of the templates mentioned above or browse our full database of  Human Resources templates , including  letters ,  plans ,  presentations , and more.

venngage template

Step 3: Edit the template for your IDP

Once you’ve picked a template, the fun part begins: Making it your own. Click  Create  on any template to enter the editor where you can change colors, text, graphics, and more.

I’m using this IDP checklist template as an example:

employee checklist IDP template

I like to match a new template to my brand first as this saves a lot of time if you want to duplicate the page to add more content later.

Our Business and Premium subscriptions offer  My Brand Kit  to store your colors, fonts, and logos for easy template customization anywhere for your entire team. But no worries for our free account holders: Editing is just as easy.

Click on any text area or graphic to edit it. Type new text, or use the top menu to change color, font, size, spacing, and more.

venngage editor

You can replace existing graphics with one of our  3 million+ free stock photos , over 40,000 illustrations and icons, or upload your own.

Explore the left side menu to add a background or a new layout, like a graph or table. You can also click and drag objects around the page to your liking. Use the right side menu to duplicate the current page or add a new blank one to your document.

venngage editor

Step 4: Share or save your new IDP

Once you’re happy with your new individual development plan template, click on the  Share  icon or  Download  button to save it to your computer (Business or Premium accounts).

So easy, right?

venngage editor

What are good IDP goals?

There aren’t “good” or “bad” goals as each IDP is as unique as the individual it’s for. However, effective IDP goals have a few things in common, like being:

  • Related to the employee’s career path.
  • Achievable in the specified timeframe. (You can list out big goals but ensure the action steps to start with are reasonable to accomplish, or at least start, within the next year.)
  • Collaboratively planned between manager and employee, with both having input.

If your employee wants to lead their department one day but hasn’t managed anyone before, some good IDP goals to set for the upcoming year could be:

  • Taking a leadership course or program from a nearby or online business school.
  • Leading a big project, including supervising their peers and providing feedback.
  • Finding a leadership mentor within the company and regularly checking in with them.

How can I support my employee’s IDP goals?

This depends what your employee’s goals are, but a few general ideas are to:

  • Offer time to try new roles and responsibilities to learn new skills.
  • Reimburse or partially cover courses, seminars, and other educational tools.
  • Encourage your employee to start a side hustle or passion project to learn from.
  • Offer professional development days, separate from vacation time.
  • Create a mentorship program to connect junior and senior staff.

Unsure what would be most effective? Ask your employees what would help them the most, and check our guide to employee development for more ideas .

What should I put for areas of improvement?

Individual development plans encourage and motivate your employees to achieve their dreams. However, as their manager, you may have some insights they don’t about skills they’re lacking to get them to the next step.

It’s best to bring these up during the planning meeting, so your employee can hear why you think these skills are important and how you’d suggest working on them. Together you can add action items to address them in the IDP.

It’s key to frame these developing areas in a positive and constructive light. You don’t want your employee to feel like they’re doing badly at these things, or their job. After all, no one’s perfect! Be open and honest and chances are, they’ll be grateful for the feedback and eager to improve the skills you’ve identified.

Create a professional IDP today with a customizable Venngage template

Whether you’re preparing for an employee’s annual review or creating an individual development plan for yourself, we’ve got the free templates you need to knock it out of the park.

Get started now and have your new IDP finished by the end of the hour. While you’re at it, why not also create a branded  offer letter  or  onboarding guide ?

For everything in your business, we’ve got a template for that.

Workplace training

9 minute read

How to Create a Winning Employee Development Plan (Free Template Included)

Sara Meij

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You’ve read up about the best ways to train and develop your employees . You’ve also observed the way your organization goes about learning and development currently, and you’ve come to the realization that there’s no one size fits all approach. Cue the employee development plan. 

An employee development plan is a process for helping staff at your organization improve their skills and knowledge for their role (and future growth) within your business.

Is employee development important to your organization? Nearly everyone would reply “yes” to that question. Because employee development is recognized across the board as a strategic tool for an organization’s continuing growth, productivity, and to retain employees.

Without a plan, it’s almost as if you’re sailing blind, so to say. Having one in place for each employee is a great way to keep the development process streamlined. There are different employee development plans, and which one you implement depends on the needs of your organization and your employees. 

They are also a great way for your organization to show chief executives what employee development does to your business. Employee development plans help to report staff productivity, and they can also shed light on how happy and engaged your employees are.

In this resource, we provide you with steps to creating your own, along with a customizable employee development plan template ready for you to use.

GoSkills employee development plan template

Who needs an employee development plan and what are the benefits?

An employee development plan helps to improve employee retention and satisfaction. It also helps improve employee performance, increases motivation, and helps attract and promote talented staff. It increases your organization’s efficiency, profitability, and helps your business plan for the future.

As a manager, you’d frequently meet with your staff to discuss progress and discuss what’s next. Those meetings could be planned performance discussions or quick catch-ups between meetings. 

A study by The Society for Human Resource Management in 2016 showed that employees who participated in a development program at work were more satisfied in their job and felt more valued by their employers. 

“Organizations that dedicate a portion of their budget to professional development send a message that they invest in their employees. Additional benefits of professional development include personal development and greater opportunities for career advancement. Forty percent of employees rated this aspect as very important to job satisfaction.” - The Society for Human Resource Management

When you have a development plan in place for each employee, it’s easier to keep track of improvements, figure out obstacles or difficulties and point out opportunities and needs for both your employee and the organization. A development plan isn’t set in stone and can be adjusted so that you can keep helping your employees thrive. 

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Steps to create an employee development plan

That all sounds great, right? But how do you go about putting together an employee development plan? If you follow the next steps you’ll have a proper base plan by the end of the process:

  • Think about business goals.  This is step number one for a reason. How will you align your employees’ development with your business goals if you don’t have a clear view of what those are?
  • Talk to your staff.  Employee development plans are personalized plans based on the individual you’re creating them with. It’s crucial to talk to your staff when creating a plan for each one of them. A starting point would be to find out what their goals and aspirations are, how they could help the organization thrive, and what hurdles they perceive to be in their way to reaching those milestones.
  • Create a plan with SMART goals.  Be specific in your goal setting. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic/Relevant, and Time-Bound. When formulating goals, it’s important to be able to measure results at some point. How would you otherwise know you’ve succeeded, right?
  • Consider the skills and training needed for each employee and consider all types of training.  We know by now that one size does not fit all, so employee development plans should be specific to the person you’re putting it together for. It’s easy to forget training when you think about your employee’s growth within an organization. But if you really want to encourage a mutually beneficial relationship with your staff, giving them the learning and development opportunities they need is an important part of the process. If you’re looking for the best online learning tools available for teams, check out the GoSkills LMS . 
  • Assess employees’ potential for advancement.  There’s a difference in staff’s potential for advancement within the organization versus their readiness to take on more responsibilities or new roles. Knowing how and when to time people’s progress in your business makes for a smooth ride. This is where an employee development plan can help organize and structure that growth.
  • Identify where new skills can be used within the organization.  Perhaps it has been decided that your organization is going to focus on becoming digital-ready. This means all of a sudden you need more digital-savvy people and there’s a skill-gap for in-depth knowledge of document management systems. Pinpointing these changes and skill-gaps within your organization can help with locating staff who have those skills, or have indicated a desire to learn them, and where in the organization they could be put to best use.
  • Measure results.  Remember those SMART goals you set at the beginning of this process? Now that your staff all have an individualized employee development plan, it’s important to sit down with each one of them regularly to track progress. Regular catch-ups also allow your employees to amend their plan or discuss any pain points they’re experiencing.

Employee development plan examples

There are different kinds of development plans you can create for your staff, depending on the objectives the organization has and the needs of your employees. It’s not uncommon for an employee to touch on different types of plans throughout their career.

GoSkills employee development plan template

Performance-based plan

Remember being a student at school and receiving a school report card each trimester? This performance plan works in the same way. If employees work hard, they get rewarded. Having a goal to work towards allows employees to be more focused. When individuals set clear goals , they create a sense of purpose and direction that fuels their drive to succeed. Goals help break down larger aspirations into smaller, manageable tasks, making progress feel more attainable and rewarding. Moreover, the act of setting goals cultivates a growth mindset, where setbacks and failures are viewed as learning opportunities rather than roadblocks.

But it’s important to also include your staff’s professional growth and motivation as points to measure performance against, not just which targets and goals they’ve hit in that timeframe. This is where you can use the plan as a tool to measure employee satisfaction within your organization.

Management by objectives plan

Similar to the performance-based plan, this plan relies heavily on employees self-evaluating and improving their performance regularly. Instead of management setting goals for staff, they set their own goals which feed into the overall organizational goal. It’s all about short-term goals and being proactive rather than reactive. 

Succession planning program

This plan focuses on longer-term planning and goals. Employees are placed somewhere on the career ladder (or hierarchy) within the organization and are working towards a promotion or more senior/management role. You could weave a mentorship program into this option quite easily, either cross-departmental or with someone in a more senior role in the same department. 

Ad-hoc improvement

Similar to the succession plan, ad-hoc improvement works with a mentorship program but the focus is more on the mentee’s individual needs instead of the needs of both the mentee and the mentor. 

Ad-hoc improvement works when employees are assertive about their desires to learn more skills or take on more responsibility. The employer can act on it quickly instead of waiting around for the next performance review opportunity.

Download your free template

Convinced of the importance of employee development plans and ready to get your staff sorted with their own? Take the first step towards more streamlined employee development and download your customizable employee development plan template .

Wrapping it up

There are plenty of reasons to get organized and develop personalized development plans for your staff. It can help you to retain staff and improve staff satisfaction. It can help to improve employee performance and to increase motivation. It can help you win new hires and promote the talented staff you already have. There is this and so much more.

You can download your own customizable employee development plan template above or follow the steps given above to make your own. 

Keeping track of improvements, pinpointing obstacles and difficulties, and pointing out opportunities is easier with a development plan in place for each employee. Be sure to revisit the plan often as it isn’t set in stone, and to catch up with your staff frequently to discuss progress and development needs.

Get ahead of the game and offer engaging training courses to support your employee development. Check out the GoSkills LMS for free today.

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Sara Meij

Sara is a digital communications expert and former journalist with a passion for writing. In her spare time she loves Latin dancing and getting outdoors to run, hike or mountain bike.

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By Kat Boogaard

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What do your employees want from you? Do they crave flexibility? Autonomy? Work that aligns with their values?

They want all of the above and one very important thing that's not on that list: growth.

Employees want to know that there isn't a ceiling to their careers - that there's room and resources available for them to develop and advance within your company. 

Needless to say, prioritizing employee development positively impacts both recruitment and retention.

In a report 59% of millennial respondents said that opportunities to learn and grow are extremely important to them when applying for a job.

A separate study found that 76% of employees will seek other job opportunities if they’re passed over for a promotion at work..

So what does this all mean for you? Well, put simple, you need to demonstrate that you're committed to the advancement of your people, and one of the best ways to do so is by creating employee development plans.

The nitty gritty on employee development plans

An employee development plan is a documented strategy for how an employee will grow and advance within your company (usually broken into short-range, mid-range, and long-range goals).

Ultimately, the core purpose of documenting this plan is so that:

  • There’s an increased level of accountability for follow through, with one study showing that writing down our goals makes us up to 42% more likely to achieve them
  • There’s transparency between all relevant parties (leaders, the employee, and the HR team) about the future plans for an employee

Most often, the employee and their manager create, agree on, and execute the plan together, with the manager guiding their direct report through each step. But as the HR team, it’s your job to support the employee development plan by: 

  • Preparing both the employee and the manager for productive growth conversations
  • Streamlining and templatizing the process so it’s as straightforward as possible
  • Promoting available growth and development opportunities within your organization

We’ll cover each of those responsibilities in detail a little later, but to start, let’s take a look at the general steps that are involved in creating a formal employee development plan. These steps will help prepare you to answer any questions from managers within your organization.

Meeples helping each other climb blocks

5 steps for creating an employee development plans

As part of the HR team, you likely won’t be the one actually creating the plan – that’ll be up to the employee and their supervisor. However, you might need to step in and walk them through the process.

This workflow will vary from organization to organization, but below are generally the steps to kick off and execute an employee development plan.

Have the employee complete a self-assessment

To figure out where an employee wants to go, start by evaluating where they are now. Ask the employee to fill out a self-assessment and  honestly evaluate their performance. 

Not only does this serve as a starting point for a candid conversation between the employee and manager, but it also helps to highlight learning and improvement focus areas.

Connect on the employee’s career goals and desires

It’s important to remember that this process isn’t only about what the employee could do – it’s also about what they want to do. With the self-assessment in hand, the employee and manager should engage in a discussion about the employee’s personal ambitions.

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Example topics to cover:

  • Is their goal to move into a management position?
  • Do they want to explore a different area of the business or hone a new skill?
  • Are they eager to take on some different responsibilities, like representing the company at more speaking functions?

Development means something different to everyone, so encourage the employee and manager to connect on exactly what sort of growth they’re aiming to pursue. That’s context they’ll need as they map out the development plan.

Discuss how those relate to company needs

After the employee has laid out their personal objectives, it’s time for the manager to begin to draw lines between their goals and the needs of the business and the team. Remember that not every requested development opportunity will be viable. For example, there might not be any promotions or management positions to be had right now or when the employee has earned one.

That’s why this practice is so critical. It helps the manager determine what’s possible but also beneficial for the business and avoid over-promising to the employee.

To get each employee’s development plan aligned with your org’s goals, establish and track Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) at the company, team, and individual level – and review them often. Jira’s Definitive guide to OKRs can help everyone in your organization understand their shared goals and work toward positive outcomes, together. 

Explore available development opportunities

Let’s say that the employee is eager to take on more speaking opportunities on behalf of the company, and the organization really could benefit from that increased exposure and thought leadership.

Lightbulb

Employee development plans need to go beyond “Yeah, that’s a good idea. Let’s make that happen.” They exist to detail action steps that the employee and manager can take to attain the growth goals.

So now it’s time to ask: What does the employee need to do to accomplish the goal and how can the manager support them? A few options could be:

  • Attending employer-provided public speaking courses or trainings
  • Collaborating with a mentor who has experience in public speaking
  • Applying to be a speaker at industry-relevant conferences and seminars

Document the development plan and submit to HR

With all of that sorted out, the manager and employee should document those objectives in a formal employee development plan that should also be submitted to you in the HR department.

Career development plan template preview

While the name might sound formal, keep in mind that the development plan doesn’t need to be anything overly complex. In fact, the more straightforward you can keep it, the easier it will be for all necessary parties to understand and follow that information.

Employee development plan chart

Make sure nobody misses a beat. Organize the five-step process with Jira Core.

Hr’s role in supporting employee development plans.

You exist to do more than file the plan. Your role is to support the entire process to make it as straightforward, painless, and positive for everyone as possible. Below are the three core ways you can make that happen.

Prepare all parties for productive growth conversations . Conversations about growth and development can be nerve-wracking. Managers are worried about providing enough support and encouragement, while employees can be anxious about coming across as too pushy or demanding.

Each side might need some support and resources to approach these conversations and create the plan in the best way possible. Below are a few suggestions for how you can support these conversations.

For managers

  • Resources and training about how to have productive one-on-one meetings 
  • Suggested questions they can be asking during growth conversations and one-on-ones

For employees

  • Training about how to effectively fill out a self-assessment
  • Resources about how to identify and define their own career goals
  • Information about what training and development opportunities are available and accessible
  • Templates that make these various growth activities – whether it’s a self-assessment, one-on-one conversation, or actual development plan – more straightforward

The gist of it is that nobody should be winging these conversations, and equipping both managers and employees with the right resources and guidance means they’re far more likely to approach those important conversations with confidence.

Streamline and templatize the creation of the development plan  You’ll notice that templates have been mentioned several times throughout this guide, and that’s for good reason: They’re a great way to save yourself time and improve consistency, while also making the entire process easier on managers and employees. 

There are numerous steps and activities that occur before the actual development plan ever gets documented, and you can templatize each one of those steps. For example, you can create template documents for the following: 

  • Self-assessment
  • One-on-one meeting agenda
  • Career goals worksheet

Make sure all of these templates are shared, interactive documents, so that managers and employees can easily collaborate through edits, comments, task assignments, and more.

Use Confluence to create your templates and make collaboration a breeze

Actively promote other development opportunities   For some growth and development means climbing the ladder, but there are other ways to reach the next level. 

That’s why one of the most crucial responsibilities of the HR team in supporting employee growth is to actively promote all development opportunities that are available, whether it’s something as formal as a lengthy training program or as casual as a regularly scheduled lunch and learn. 

Exactly where and how you promote these is up to you and largely depends on what tools and platforms you have available. But at the very least, you can:

  • Send out all-team emails and calendar invites for upcoming events, trainings, and opportunities
  • Post these training opportunities to your employee intranet
  • Remind managers to promote these opportunities in team meetings and conversations
  • Include signs, flyers, and other promotional materials around the office

Make it your goal to spread the word about what’s available, and you’ll likely see an increasing number of employees taking advantage.

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Support, develop, and succeed

Too many employees leave organizations because they feel like they’ve reached the end of the line. There’s no obvious way for them to learn, grow, and advance within their current company. 

But refining your process for creating employee development plans is a surefire way to demonstrate your commitment to learning and keep your best talent around. Implement these tips, and employees will no longer feel like the only way up is out. 

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personal development plan template hr

Your Foolproof PDP Template & Checklist for 2022

Personal development plan template

Free PDP template

Plan efficiently and reach your goals

A goal without a plan is just a wish. - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. - Benjamin Franklin

Plan your work and work your plan. - Napoleon Hill

There are countless quotes about planning. A simple Google search will reveal that. As you scroll through the words of great achievers from history, it becomes clear that as people, we place a lot of value in planning and that when done correctly, plans work.

The potential to be great lies within all of us. With the right tools, guidance, support and action plan, we all stand a chance to fulfil that potential, maybe even landing ourselves in the history books along the way. By having a personal development plan at work, you and your people are equipped to do just that.

A blank paper to write a personal development plan

Training and progression have become one of HR’s top five priorities for the first time, with more HR leaders willing to train and upskill under-qualified candidates than in years prior. It’s great that HR professionals are acknowledging that growth, but their people won’t progress unless they can introduce a structure to help them do so.

Here’s a guide to help you support your people when implementing personal development plans at work along with a bonus PDP template for them to identify their development needs.

👉 Download our PDP template now 👈

What is a personal development plan.

The key word in ' personal development plan' (PDP) is personal .

PDPs need to be specific to the individual it is made for. You can’t take on someone else’s PDP and expect the same results. The motivations that went into the plan, the learning preferences and the existing skills and experiences are all different. Success lies in how catered it is to you.

A personal development plan sets the course for your growth and allows you to know the whys and hows of your journey. The first step of any PDP is to establish where you are so that you can get where you’re going. Think of it as your cars GPS which can only guide you to the best route if it knows where you are. The reflective nature of these plans will lead you and your people to success.

Personalised personal development planning should:

  • reflect your aims and goals for the short, medium or long-term
  • take into account your individual reality
  • revolve around the skills and knowledge you currently lack
  • outline development activities to meet perceived needs

personal development plan template hr

Why should personal development exist in the workplace?

In a lifetime, the average adult spends 90,000 hours at work . 🤯

That means two things. One, personal time is sacred. Two, who we work to become benefits ourselves and the business we work for.

personal development plan template hr

My growth in and outside of work hours will make me a better person, employee and writer. All three of those contribute to how I perform in my role and how I impact the company that I work for.

You’ll find it's the same for those at your company. What they want to achieve will make them better at their job too.

Companies also have a responsibility to help their employees grow. In a healthy relationship, both parties give and take. An employee and the company they work for are in a relationship.

Employees give their skills and abilities to the company and that company benefits as a result. Good companies make sure that the relationship is healthy by providing the opportunity and support for their people to grow.

personal development plan template hr

A checklist to get your workforce to engage in personal development

To make sure that employees pursue their goals, people functions can introduce the personal development plan and support the process of achieving the goals set out for them.

[ ✔️ ]  Establish Psychological safety

People often feel that they should already possess all of the skills they need to do their job.

That’s unrealistic. If it were that way, we would have no need for staff development at all. People must feel that they can acknowledge where they have blind spots and where they have weaknesses. They also need to feel safe in taking the time to find out what it is they want to achieve if they don't already know.

personal development plan template hr

They can only do this if their workplace has established psychological safety . Without it, employees may feel threatened by their need to cultivate the skills they lack and any plan they do make becomes a performative exercise. The goal isn’t to have the PDP in place; it’s to have them act upon it.

[ ✔️ ]  Provide the tools and frameworks to build PDPs

You want people’s PDPs to be built to deliver successful results. To achieve this, your people need to know how to set SMART goals and more specifically, how to identify their North Star goal when personal development planning.

Introducing training sessions where the whole team attends is as essential as having the PDP in the first place. Make the information digestible and actionable by having multiple sessions that focus on different parts of the goal-setting process.

PDPs are cyclical. The journey of learning never ends, and the progress never stops because when you get where you’re going, you find you now have somewhere new to go. Facilitate regular re-visits to the frameworks and tools you implement so that your people know and trust that you’re always there to take them further.

[ ✔️ ] Make the time for them

Finding time for learning is notoriously difficult.

Employees either feel guilt over taking time away from their tasks to engage with learning, or they feel that the learning they are being offered isn’t worth their time.

personal development plan template hr

The solution for the first instance is to schedule learning into workdays the same way that you would schedule a meeting. The solution for the second is Learnerbly 😉.

You can’t wait for employees to find the time, you must make it for them. With enough repetition, it becomes akin to muscle memory, where learning will happen without much effort.

It can be helpful to institute ‘learning hours’ where employees take an hour every week to learn whatever they want. That might look like scheduling an hour to learn a language, read a book or nurture skills to achieve career progression. Every week could focus on different learnings.

[ ✔️ ] Encourage them to share their goals

As our People Operations Manager Marie says, ‘sharing is caring.’ It’s important to know that this step can only come once psychological safety has been established.

Sharing goals and career plans can be a source of accountability, inspiration and support. When colleagues and managers know what you’re working towards , they can recommend resources and opportunities to you to help you on your journey.

Make sure your employees have a way to communicate their goals and their progress. This can be a Slack channel dedicated to celebrating what they achieve, a portion of your whole team meeting dedicated to sharing learnings or a place for small and random groups to meet virtually or in-person with the sole purpose of sharing.

All of these options create opportunities for sharing but also to help each other with recommendations, tips and even insights into how they plan and process their own PDP.

[ ✔️ ] Have managers share their PDPs & goals

Managers have goals, too. They have skills they could improve. They have shortcomings that if worked on, could make them better leaders.

personal development plan template hr

Learnerbly CEO, Rajeeb Dey MBE stresses the importance of leading by example, “At Learnerbly, I take the opportunity to share my 360 feedback with the whole company at least once a year and focus on the things I feel I need to work on. If you want to encourage others to take ownership of their development, then it starts with you.’

When a manager shares their PDP and goals, they are showing that career progression is possible even before you tick every box for the role. It’s inspirational to know that, to see how those above you on the career ladder are working to better themselves and that they’re open and receptive to upwards feedback.

What can managers do to support an employee's personal development plan?

Beyond sharing their PDP as inspiration and relatability, a manager has a place in driving the PDPs of their people. You may have read my piece on self-managed learning, where I talked about how a manager can support employees on their path to lifelong learning. Consider this section a follow-up, because a self-managed learner with a personal development plan is built to achieve both short and long-term goals. Working on filling in the personal development plan template with direct reports is a great way to ensure support is given and transparency is achieved.

Managers contribute to an employee’s Personal Development Plan in these three ways:

  • Finding the targets . Often, employees aren't quite sure what their long-term goals are, and if they have them, it's difficult to envisage a path to getting there. Part of being a manager is spotting talents and abilities in your team members that they may not know themselves, and highlighting ways they can either improve on them or spot how they can be put into action to move them from potential to practical use.

personal development plan template hr

  • Holding them accountable . Having a written PDP means you've set specific targets that you're holding yourself to, but if only you are looking at them, it's easy for deadlines to slip as other things come up. Managers can play a role in regular check-ins, encouraging their team members towards ensuring targets are met. The employee is the one who owns and sets the destination; a manager is there to question, challenge, direct and nurture them on the journey of life-long learning.
  • Sourcing help . A significant part of Learnerbly's Personal Development Plan tool is being able to link resources to specific goals. For managers, they can help direct employees to things they've found useful themselves or things which will help with the roadmap ahead.

personal development plan template hr

The ultimate PDP template

A personal development plan template is what your employees need to make their development personal. We've built our own Personal Development Plan template to help you and your people find and achieve the goals they want, the way they want to.

Why? Because it’s not enough to know what your development needs are, you need an action plan behind them. A personal development plan is the key to acquiring new skills and setting down a prosperous career path.

All you have to do is download our template, share it with your people and embark on your individual journeys!               

                              👉Download our PDP template now👈

Don’t forget to share this post, continue reading.

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12 inspiring employee development plan examples (+ templates).

Get inspired by 12 employee development plan examples from huge corporations & universities. Find the tools to motivate and help your people grow.

Whether you’re a startup of 50 or an enterprise of 2000, your people are at the forefront of your organization. And if there’s one thing that guarantees a successful business, it’s investing in your employees' career growth .

Picture it: Your employees, thriving, engaged, and ready to conquer new challenges.

But how do you get there? How do you create employee development plans that work?

We're giving you 12 inspiring examples of employee development plans. For all these employee development plans, we go through what they do well - and how to improve them .

We also share our development plan template that you can copy right away .

excel template development plan Zavvy

‍ 🏫 Basic employee development plan  (Indeed)

Creating a basic wireframe of your employee development plans is a good way to kickstart this program. Here is a sample template taken from the career website Indeed .

Basic template from Indeed containing name, date, title, strengths, etc.

While it’s basic and not specialized for a role or even an industry, this sample development plan guides you to think in the right direction.

The biggest advantage of this template is that it’s a blank slate and gives you the freedom to customize it (via Microsoft Word or Google Docs).

At the same time, it comes with a drawback. You need to closely follow each employee’s progress to be familiar with their strengths, weaknesses, and desires for their future careers.

To make it even better:

  • Start with listing the strengths, needs, and professional goals of each employee . This creates an opportunity for you to spend 1:1 time interviewing your employees, and build a development plan that aligns with their expectations. 
  • Next, create an actionable list of steps they need to take to grow in their current roles. This is a great practice to gain foresight into how your company and each department will scale in the months and years to come.

slideteam logo

💰 Employee development plan for company growth (Slideteam)

Similar to the previous example, here’s another template from Slideteam – one that can be used across different industries and roles.

Example of a development plan at Slideteam

This is a great example of a career development plan best suitable for a junior accountant role. One of the key highlights of this plan is that it has a section for estimated costs .

There are two main benefits of this template: ‍

  • First of all, it gives you an overview on how much budget needs to be allocated per employee. This means that your employees will know from the start that you’re willing to invest in them - they can see cold, hard numbers rather than promises you make.
  • At the very end, there’s a section for manager notes . As hard as we might try, we often cannot categorize and label all of our employees. This section gives you some room to leave additional notes for individual employees.

To make it even better, create a more comprehensive follow-up process, to ensure that the employee stays on track, offer feedback , and provide additional support if they ever get stuck.

lumen logo

💬 Career development plan example with comments (Lumenlearning)

Here is another great example of an employee development plan by Lumenlearning , complete with manager notes.

employee development plan example by lumenlearning

This employee development plan spans over two years and has comments from the manager related to the assessment of their employees’ skills as well as specific plans for the future.

In this plan, you can see the manager taking care of external training in the form of courses and degrees, as well as internal training through one-on-one mentorship .

One thing that sets this template apart compared to the previous ones is that it has accountability for both – the employee and the manager.

While the manager is in charge of designing the development plan and choosing the right activities, the employees are given the responsibility to create their own timeline to complete the assigned tasks.

This is a great way to present the potential of career development to your employees. Through this, they can see the possibilities for the development of their role. At the same time, they can realize that the success of this plan largely depends on their own willingness and hard work. This is strengthened by the fact that this is a long-term, two-year development plan and not a short-term initiative.

To make this development plan example even better, se the SMART goals framework . With specific, measurable sub-tasks and a set time frame, it is easy to measure one's professional development.

🌱 Learn how to help employees set professional development goals . ‍ 💡Plus, use these examples of developmental goals and ways to achieve them as inspiration.

devskiller logo

🛠 Skill-based development plan (Devskiller)

The examples we shared above, all focus on the bigger picture: the soft and technical skills as well as the necessary training to develop an employee’s career.

However, you don’t have to go into such level of detail if you plan to develop skills by yourself.

Here is an example of such an employee development plan from Devskiller:

personal development plan template hr

The plan is quite simple: managers list their employees’ skills and grade them on a scale from 0-10. Then, there is a "Desired State" explaining what the manager expects from the employee to advance in their careers and within the company.

The "Gap" section defined what employees need to advance in their careers. The "Initiatives" section offers the specific actions that they need to take to achieve their goals.

To make this example more impactful:

  • Ensure that your skill-focused development plan is not exclusively based on the managers’ assessment of employee skills ( skills gap analysis ).
  • To achieve this, add employees’ self-assessments and even peer reviews to get more accurate results, and to prepare an effective skill-based development plan.

smartinsights logo

👥 Side-by-side employee development plan example (Smartinsights)

Here is another example of a detailed individual development plan by Smartinsights.

Example of a side-by-side development plan at smartinsights

There are three elements that that set this plan apart:

  • There are two sections : one for the employee and another for the manager , adding an organizational context to the employee perspective.
  • There is a clear alignment between the individual career goal and the organizational needs and goals.
  • There are dedicated sections for progress reporting and feedback sessions. ‍

Having these two sections in one place gives a clear overview of the two different perspectives: individual and organizational.

For example, you understand whether the self-assessment of the employee is objective or not.

Overall, this is a perfect example if you’re looking for a template that makes the employee and their manager equally responsible for planning and execution.

uowm logo

🎓 Professional development plan example (University of Wisconsin)

Let's analyze a new professional development plan example, this time from the University of Wisconsin.

personal or professional development plan at university of wisconsin

What’s interesting here is that the employee is the one who is responsible for doing all the "development work:"

  • They have to search for a peer member to shadow, rather than receiving a specific suggestion from their leader.
  • They have to search for their own learning resources, rather than receiving access to a library of learning materials.

To make this even better, make development planning a more collaborative task. The team leader can act as a coach and facilitator, for example by assigning tasks to mentors, providing access to training materials etc.

adobe-logo

🅰️ Individual employee development plan example  (Adobe)

Although single on first sight, the individual development plan example from Adobe masters startegic alignment.

personal development plan template hr

The first part of this plan example focuses on employee self-reflection on:

  • the most satisfying part of the job;
  • key skills or strengths;
  • skills or strengths to further develop.

By identifying their unique strengths and skills, employees can focus on areas where they excel and build on their strengths , which can lead to increased engagement, job satisfaction, and productivity.

The plan then differentiates between short and long-term goals. This approach can help the employee prioritize their development efforts and stay on track toward their goals.

We really like that each development opportunity links to concrete action items. This will ensure that the employee has a clear roadmap to follow and understands how their development activities contribute to their professional growth. And to go one step forward, these also clearly link to business impact.

Strategic alignment between employee and company objectives mean that the employee's development efforts will also contribute to the organization's strategic priorities and goals.

Dublin City University logo

📚 Learning and development plan example  (DCU)

The learning and development plan example from Dublin City University is the most comprehensive plan example.

Learning and development plan Dublin City University

This plan contains sections that outline the specific what, how, when, who, and cost components of the plan, which can help to ensure that the employee and their manager are aligned in terms of expectations and goals.

We also really like the progress evaluation section is essential in a development plan. This section encourages self-reflection by asking questions such as:

  • What will I do differently as a result of this experience?
  • How will I continue to build on these skills?
  • How can what you learn outside of work be integrated into your job to further your career?

The fact that this development plan covers multiple types of learning methods is also helpful, as this allows the employee to choose the learning method that suits them best.

The only elements we think are missing are:

  • A dedicated section for manager comments.
  • A lack of a clear link between development opportunities and business impact. While it's essential to develop employees' skills and competencies, it's also important to ensure that these activities aligned with the organization's strategic priorities.

University of Reading

📈 Performance development plan example (Reading University)

This performance development plan example from the University of Reading presents several assets:

  • It allows the employee (and any reviewer) to reflect on their past performance and identify areas for improvement. This can help the employee to set clear goals and develop a plan for achieving them.
  • The tips and recommendations included in the plan can also be useful for employees who are unsure of how to proceed with their career development. These resources can provide guidance on how to set goals, identify learning opportunities, and create a plan for achieving career objectives.
  • The dedicated space for achievements and recognition can serve as motivation and reminder of specific employee strengths.

Performance development plan example from the University of Reading

To improve this performance development plan example:

  • Include a space to document whether your employee's future professional goals align with the organization's goals or objectives. If the employee has aspirations that are not aligned with the organization's strategic priorities, as it may be more difficult to support their career development.
  • Add a section for available development budget.
  • Add a follow up section, where you can take notes during the development conversations that would happen throughout the 12 months that the plan covers. ‍

🤝 70-20-10 Individual development plan (University of Michigan)

The individual development plan example from the University of Michigan starts off with an expectations model (The Michigan Expectations Model - MEM). MEM identifies 12 benchmark behavioral standards that all staff should demonstrate.

personal development plan template hr

This sample development plan started with concrete guidelines for employees.

The concrete steps that people need to take for creating an individual development plan are:

  • Self-assess.
  • Identify areas of development .
  • Select the resources to address gaps or build on strengths.
  • Create the plan.

70-20-10 Individual development plan (University of Michigan)

When creating their individual plan, each employee should set maximum 3 development goals. And they should formulate them with the SMART goals framework (to ensure they set specific goals that are time bound).

For defining the hows to achieving their goals, employees need to use the 70-20-10 developmental approach. For each goal, they need to define the different types of growth activities.

The employees are also encouraged to share the plan with a supervisor or mentor to see where they can help.

To make this individual development plan even better, add a concrete timeline for each step. Plus, add milestones to keep people motivated to keep on working toward their goals.

Office of Financial Management |

✍🏻 Formal performance and development plan example (Washington State)

This Performance & Development Plan example from the state of Washington looks more formal than most of the examples we reviewed so far.

Performance and development plan example (State of Washington)

We can definitely see that this is more than a development plan. The link to performance improvement is clear from the sections on performance expectations (key results and core competencies ) and organizational alignment.

To make this performance and development plan even better, start by adding a section for stating the employee goals. Then, add a new section with a concrete deadline and the given time frame for meeting the goals.

💼 Check out our complimentary resource with 7 individual development plan examples for leadership.

leadership development plan template download

🌱 Bonus: Employee development strategy (MongoDB)

This employee development strategy example from MongoDB showcases the 70-20-10 model of learning :

  • 10% formal training
  • 20% Social learning though: manager support, coaching, comparing experiences with peer
  • 70% on the job learning, feedback, stretch-assignments.

Employee development strategy example from MongoDB

You can also use the 70-20-10 model for employee development planning, steering employees towards learning on the flow of work .

70:20:10 Development Plan (Excel)

🚀 Learn how to implement an organization-wide employee development program in 8 steps.

📝 Development plan  templates

The easiest way to get started is by using our career development plan templates.

They combine the best of above worlds without requiring too much effort.

Option 1: 🧾  Excel-Template

Development Plan excel Preview

Download the 🧾 Employee development plan template

Option 2: 📄 PDF-Template

employee development plan template PDF

Download our 📄 Employee Development Plan Template

Performance improvement plan template

Use performance improvement plans for employees whose performance has been taking a dip. You can see PIPs as roadmaps that show employees how to get to their destination of increased performance.

personal development plan template hr

🆓 Download the free employee performance development plan template.

➡️ Prioritize people over paper: Run employee development with Zavvy

Imagine a world where employee development is streamlined, efficient, and effective:

  • A world where your development strategy goes beyond merely setting up plans people might not use.
  • A world where development programs and plans actually help your people grow (and engage and retain your high performers in the process).

That's the power of Zavvy.

No more getting lost in the paperwork shuffle. No more wasted time. A seamless, easy-to-use tool that puts your people first.

Sample development plan linked to career progression framework on Zavvy

Those unsure about the best steps for achieving personal development goals, can enlist the help of Zavvy AI . Add the goal and the desired timeline and watch the AI work its magic.

Your employees deserve the best. And so do you. It's time to embrace the future of employee development! ‍ ‍

📅 Request a demo and get started with your customized employee development solution. ‍ ‍

Holistic people development with Zavvy

What are types of employee development plans?

1. Competency enhancement plan : This plan focuses specifically on enhancing an employee's current skill set, making them more proficient in their current role.

2. Career advancement plan : Targeted towards employees looking to move up within the organization, this plan is about preparing for future roles and leadership positions.

3. Performance improvement plan (PIP) : Aimed at employees who might be struggling to meet their current job expectations, this plan identifies areas for improvement and outlines steps to elevate performance.

4. Professional growth plan : This plan focuses on the broader professional development of an employee, incorporating elements like certifications, continued education, or attending conferences/seminars.

5. Cross-training plan : This type of development method allows employees to learn skills outside of their current role, promoting versatility and flexibility within the organization.

6. Onboarding/Induction development plan : Specifically for new employees, this plan accelerates their integration into the company by focusing on both job-specific skills and broader company culture and values.

7. Succession planning : Specifically designed for potential future leaders, this plan prepares employees to fill key leadership roles as they become available.

Employee succession plan template

What is a good development plan for an employee? ‍

A good development plan for an employee is a strategic document that:

  • Is specific : Clearly defines what the employee aims to achieve, whether it's learning new skills, taking on more responsibility, or advancing to a higher role and exploring leadership abilities.
  • Is measurable : Outlines clear metrics or benchmarks to measure progress.
  • Is actionable : Lists tangible steps or actions the employee will take.
  • Is realistic : Considers the employee's current skills, workload, and external factors, ensuring that the goals are attainable within the given time frame.
  • Is time-bound : Sets a clear timeline for each objective and the overall plan.
  • Addresses both strengths and weaknesses : While it's crucial to improve areas of weakness, leveraging and expanding upon employee strengths can be equally beneficial.
  • Is aligned with organizational goals : Ensures that your people's personal progress contributes to the larger objectives of the company and organizational performance.
  • Provides resources : Identifies necessary resources like courses, mentors, books, or workshops that will facilitate growth.

What are the five components of a development plan?

- Self-assessment : This is the starting point where employees assess their current skills, strengths, weaknesses, and career aspirations. It helps in identifying gaps and areas of growth.

- Clear growth objectives : These are specific, measurable goals that the employee aims to achieve through the development plan. Objectives give direction and purpose to the plan.

- Action steps and strategies : For each objective, there should be a set of clear, actionable steps that detail how the employee will achieve it. This could involve training sessions, mentorship, or taking on new responsibilities.

- Resources and support : This component outlines what resources (like courses, books, or tools) will help the employee achieve their development and career goals. It also identifies any support they might require, be it in the form of mentoring, coaching, or feedback.

- Timeline and review mechanism : This sets a clear timeframe for achieving each objective and establishes regular check-ins to review progress, make adjustments, and provide feedback. It ensures accountability and keeps the development plan on track.

Career development conversation meeting template

What does a performance development plan look like? ‍

A performance development plan typically consists of the following elements:

  • Objective : A clear statement of the performance goal or improvement area.
  • Current performance : A summary of the employee's current performance or current skills.
  • Desired performance : A description of the expected level of performance or specific skills after the plan is completed.
  • Action items (actionable steps) : A list of specific actions the employee will take to bridge the gap between current and desired performance.
  • Resources : Tools, training, or other resources (e.g. articles, webinars, animated flipbooks , shadowing) needed to complete each action step.
  • Timeline : A schedule indicating when each action step should be completed.
  • Feedback and monitoring : Details on how progress will be monitored and who will provide feedback.
  • Evaluation : Criteria or measures to assess the success of the plan upon completion.

What is a development action plan? ‍

A development action plan is a structured document or tool that outlines an individual's goals for professional growth and the specific steps or actions they need to take to achieve those goals. It typically includes a timeline, resources required, potential challenges, and measurable outcomes to evaluate progress.

How do you write a development action plan? ‍

To write a development action:

1. Clearly define the desired outcome or skill to be developed.

2. Break down the larger goal into smaller, actionable steps.

3. Identify the resources or tools needed (e.g., training programs, mentorship, books).

4. Set a realistic timeline for completing each action step.

5. Determine how progress will be measured or evaluated.

6. Regularly review and adjust the action as necessary based on feedback and results.

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Lorelei is Zavvy's Content Marketing Manager. She is always on the hunt for the latest HR trends, fresh statistics, and academic and real-life best practices to spread the word about creating better employee experiences.

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Development Plan Templates to Map Personal and Professional Growth

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Personal or professional development requires a clear roadmap, and that’s where development plan templates come in. Development plans can help guide a person’s growth, a team’s progress, or an organization’s progress. And this guide will give you the knowledge, tools and insights you need to create a development plan that leads to lasting success, whether you’re a professional or a team leader.

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What is a Development Plan Template

A development plan is a structured and intentional framework designed to guide the growth, improvement, and advancement of individuals, teams, or organizations. It outlines specific goals, objectives, and strategies to improve skills, knowledge, and capabilities over a defined period. Development plans can be applied in various contexts, including personal and professional development, career advancement, team building, or organizational growth.

Essentially, a development plan template is a pre-designed structure or format for designing a systematic and organized plan. Individuals and organizations can customize development plan templates to meet their specific needs and goals, making them flexible tools. They provide a structured and efficient way to plan and track progress.

Key Components of a Professional Development Plan Template

A well-structured professional development plan template typically includes the following seven key components:

1. Employee information

  • Name, position, department, and other relevant identification details.
  • Current role, responsibilities, and any additional information that sets the context for the development plan.

2. Professional goals and objectives

  • Clearly defined and measurable goals that align with the individual’s career aspirations and organizational objectives.
  • Objectives that highlight the specific skills, competencies, or knowledge areas to be developed.

3. Development areas

  • Identification of specific areas for improvement or growth. This could include technical skills, soft skills, leadership abilities, or industry-specific knowledge.
  • Recognition of strengths that can be leveraged and areas that need improvement.

4. Action steps and strategies

  • Detailed action steps outlining how the individual plans to achieve the identified goals.
  • Strategies and activities that support skill development, such as training programs, workshops, mentorship, or on-the-job experiences.

5. Timeline

  • A realistic and achievable schedule for completing each action step.
  • Milestones or checkpoints to assess progress at regular intervals.

6. Resources and support

  • Identification of the resources needed to support the development plan, including financial resources, time allocation, and access to training materials.
  • Support mechanisms such as mentorship, coaching, or collaboration with colleagues.

7. Performance metrics and evaluation

  • Clear criteria for measuring success and progress toward goals.
  • Methods for assessing performance, including self-assessment, feedback from peers or supervisors, and quantitative metrics.

8. Review and reflection

  • Scheduled times for reviewing and reflecting on progress and adjusting the plan if needed.
  • Opportunities for feedback and discussions with supervisors or mentors.

Development Plan Templates

Development plan template, professional development plan, employee development plan, individual development plan, career development plan, personal development plan, what makes a good development plan template.

A good development plan template should have several key attributes.

Clarity and simplicity : The template should be easy to understand, with clear and concise language. Avoid unnecessary jargon or complexity to ensure broad accessibility.

Customization : The template should be adaptable to various contexts, allowing individuals or organizations to tailor it to their specific needs.

Comprehensive sections : Include sections for personal or organizational details, goal setting, action steps, timeline, resources, and evaluation.

Inclusion of performance metrics : Clearly define how progress will be measured and evaluated. Include specific metrics or criteria for assessing success and areas for improvement.

Visual appeal : Use a visually appealing format with clear headings, bullet points, and sections to enhance readability.

Accessibility : Make the template easily accessible, whether in a digital or printable format, to facilitate regular updates and reviews.

7 Types of Professional Development Plans for Employees

A professional development plan for employees can be tailored to their needs, career stage, and organization goals. Here are some common types of professional development plans:

1. Skill development plan

Focuses on developing specific skills relevant to the employee’s current role or future career aspirations. Involves targeted training, workshops, or certifications to improve technical or soft skills.

2. Leadership development plan

Designed for employees aspiring to leadership roles. Includes activities such as leadership training, mentorship programs, and opportunities to lead projects or teams.

3. Career advancement plan

Geared toward employees with a desire to advance in their careers. Outlines steps and milestones for climbing the corporate ladder, including acquiring additional qualifications or experiences.

4. Cross-training plan

Involves learning and mastering skills beyond the employee’s current role. Develops versatility and prepares employees for diverse responsibilities.

5. Mentorship or coaching plan

Establishes a structured relationship between the mentor and employee. Aims to provide guidance, share insights, and facilitate professional growth.

6. Performance improvement plan

Developed for employees facing performance challenges. Outlines steps to address weaknesses and improve performance through targeted training and support.

7. Succession planning development plan

Identifies and develops employees for future key roles within the organization. Includes a focus on building skills and experiences necessary for leadership positions.

How to Implement Professional Development Plans Across the Organization

An effective professional development plan involves a few key steps.

1. Individual assessment

Get employees to evaluate their current skills and strengths in relation to organizational goals.

2. Goal alignment

Clearly define individual professional goals aligned with both personal aspirations and organizational objectives. Make sure that these goals contribute to the overall success of the organization.

3. Create the development plan

Structured plans are created outlining specific actions and timelines for achieving professional goals.

4. Allocate resource

Identify resources, such as training and support, needed for successful plan implementation.

5. Implementation and support

Actively engage in planned activities within a supportive organizational environment.

6. Regular review and adjustment

Carry out periodic reviews and adjustments to the development plan based on progress, feedback, and evolving organizational and individual needs.

Create Development Plan Templates with Creately

Creately ’s visual collaboration platform offers a variety of features ideal for creating and collaborating on development plans.

Interactive workspaces

Creately offers interactive, shared workspaces where teams can collaborate in real-time on visually laying out and organizing development plans. Its infinite canvas lets you host even multiple development plans, action plans and more. Attach files or embed multimedia elements directly on the canvas or via per item notes panel to consolidate relevant information.

Versatile drawing tools

You can create visually appealing development plans with Creately’s range of drawing tools, including shape libraries for over 70 types of diagrams, automatic drawing with Plus Create, preset color themes, and styling options. With Creately VIZ ’s AI capabilities, you can now automatically generate diagrams to expand your ideas.

Its versatile table shape makes it easy to merge cells, customize margins, and insert shapes. This makes it easier for you to format and customize your development plan template as needed. You can also use it as a frame and turn it into an action plan or Kanban board, where you can assign tasks, track progress, and assign roles.

Real-time collaboration

Multiple users can work on the development plan template simultaneously with synced previews, live mouse tracking, and more. Contextual comments can be used to add comments and feedback directly on the board.

Customizable templates

Get a head start with pre-designed templates for development plans, career plans, and for multiple scenarios spanning across industries with in-app templates libraries and the template community.

In conclusion, a good development plan is like a roadmap for personal and professional growth. By embracing this proactive approach, individuals and teams can navigate their journey toward success and adapt to changes. A development plan template isn’t just a document; it’s a dynamic tool that evolves with your goals and experiences, guiding you towards your best self.

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

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Amanda Athuraliya is the communication specialist/content writer at Creately, online diagramming and collaboration tool. She is an avid reader, a budding writer and a passionate researcher who loves to write about all kinds of topics.

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Building a Personal Development Plan: A Comprehensive Guide for Employees and Managers

Penny Locey December 22, 2023 Talent Management, Career Advice, Career Management

In any recent study on retention and engagement , companies’ perceived investment in employees’ personal development is one of the top factors in employees’ investment in the company. Organizations that actively support employees’ personal development are more likely to retain top talent. Employees appreciate employers who invest in their growth, fostering loyalty and a sense of belonging.

Recognizing the importance of individual growth, both employees and managers are turning to Personal Development Plans (PDPs) as a strategic tool to align personal aspirations with organizational objectives. When employees can discuss what matters to them now and in the future and match it with what the organization needs, both have a win-win. And when those discussions result in documented steps and an action plan, they are much more likely to succeed.

What is a Personal Development Plan?

Pdps: a strategic framework for growth.

Personal Development Plans (PDPs) outline an individual’s goals, aspirations, and actionable steps for continuous personal and professional improvement. These plans are dynamic, evolving with changes in an individual’s career, skills, and organizational needs. PDPs serve as roadmaps, guiding employees through their professional journey by providing a clear vision of where they want to go and how they plan to get there.

Key Components of a Personal Development Plan:

  • Delineate the long-term vision – what is it that matters to the employee to achieve? What motivates them?
  • Establish short-term and long-term objectives that align with both personal ambitions and organizational needs and strategies.
  • Define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals.
  • Identify current skills and competencies and those needed for future roles or responsibilities.
  • Develop plans to acquire new skills through training, mentorship, or hands-on experiences.
  • Outline specific activities such as training programs, workshops, conferences, and courses that contribute to skill enhancement.
  • Include both technical and soft skills development to ensure a well-rounded professional growth.
  • Establish a realistic timeline for achieving each goal and milestone.
  • Break down larger objectives into manageable tasks with associated deadlines.
  • How will the manager support the plan? What other people need to contribute?
  • Define a process for obtaining feedback from peers, mentors, and managers.
  • Regularly evaluate progress and adjust the plan as needed to address changing circumstances or priorities.

The Relationship Between PDPs and the Performance Review Process

Certainly, performance reviews provide feedback useful to individuals in assessing their skills, contribution, employee brand and strengths. However, an increasing number of companies separate Personal Development Plans and discussions from the Performance Review process. The intention for those firms is that PDPs provide a structured and forward-looking approach to individual growth and should be focused on future development, motivation, and what matters to the employee. Separating those from evaluation can allow for more wide-open discussion. When an employee is new or not performing up to speed, then the performance evaluation informs a more immediate term PDP.

In either scenario – whether the discussion is part of the performance review or separate- by aligning personal aspirations with organizational goals, PDPs contribute not only to the professional development of employees but also to the overall success and sustainability of the organization. Recognizing and investing in the potential of individuals during performance reviews is a strategic move that pays dividends in terms of employee satisfaction, engagement, and long-term organizational success. Using the PDP is beneficial to the performance review process in the following ways:

Focused Discussions:

Entering a performance review also having had prior development planning conversations and PDPs allows both employees and managers to assess areas where job crafting (changing some of the duties, the approach to the role, or who they work with) could improve motivation and performance. It also improves their ability to focus on specific strengths and achievements to capitalize on going forward, and learning or changes in approach that can improve results.  

Alignment with Organizational Goals:

Integrating personal development goals into the performance review process can help employees see the impact of their work on the organization’s overarching objectives more clearly, a key factor in engagement.  They and their managers can also discuss business-focused goals for the following year in the context of how they advance the organization’s agenda, as well as how these can be used to at the same time help the individual develop.

Skill Gap Identification:

Performance feedback can be incorporated into PDPs since it can identify gaps in skills and competencies required for current and future roles. This information is invaluable for both employees and managers in crafting targeted development plans that address specific needs. When PDPs are viewed across an organization, they can also provide a view of organizational talent gaps.

Continuous Improvement:

By integrating personal development discussions into performance reviews, or doing both separately, organizations foster a culture of continuous improvement. Asking employees to reflect on their achievements, learnings, and areas for growth, and requiring PDPs can set the expectation that even employees who are high performers and love their jobs can and should develop. contributing to ongoing individual and organizational success.

Practical Tips for Employees

Conduct a self-assessment:.

Conduct a thorough self-assessment to identify strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. Seek feedback from peers, managers, and mentors for a well-rounded perspective. It is also important to reflect on your long-term career goals during your self-assessment, considering both personal and professional aspirations to guide the development of your PDP. A few key questions to ask yourself:

  • What would career success be for you now?
  • What aspects of your work excite/interest/ energize you? Has this changed?
  • Are you getting enough of those? How well does the current work match your strengths, motivators, or values?
  • What skills would you like to use more?
  • What do you want to achieve in the next 2-3 years? What long term career goals do you have?
  • What difference would you want to make? To whom/what?
  • What would you like to do/learn about but have not had the chance?

Set SMART Goals:

Setting goals in any format is great, but to ensure you are setting yourself up for success, it is important to make sure your goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART). It is also helpful to break down larger your goals into smaller, more manageable tasks, creating a step-by-step plan that facilitates progress tracking. It is much easier to check off a smaller goal and being able to see the progress as you go makes it seem less daunting and keep track of the progress you have made, rather than trying to see the big picture while tackling all the small aspects of a large, overarching goal.

Continuous Learning:

Identify and enroll in relevant training programs, workshops, and conferences to enhance your skills. Embrace a growth mindset, actively seeking opportunities for cross-functional training to broaden your knowledge and expertise.

Networking and Mentorship:

Build a robust professional network within and beyond your organization. Seek guidance from mentors who can offer valuable insights and advice based on their experiences, contributing to your holistic development. Join professional groups in your field, go to conferences, and use LinkedIn to identify people who could assist you in achieving your career goals.

Practical Tips for Managers

Encourage open communication:.

Cultivate an environment where employees feel comfortable discussing their career goals and development needs. It is important that you conduct regular check-ins with team members, rather than only discussing development and performance during the annual performance review process. This will provide opportunities to understand their progress, address challenges, and offer support and to keep the lines of communication open, fostering trust and honest feedback/discussion.

Provide Resources:

Allocate resources, such as time, budget, and training programs, to support employees’ development initiatives. It is important to ensure that employees have access to the tools and training necessary for their growth, emphasizing the organization’s commitment to their success.

Recognize and Reward Progress:

It is critical that progress is not forgotten about. Make sure to acknowledge and celebrate achievements and milestones reached through the PDP. It is important to Implement a system for recognizing and rewarding employees who actively engage in their personal development, reinforcing the organization’s appreciation for continuous improvement, as that will ensure it does not get overlooked. It is also a great catalyst to recognize and reward managers who are good at doing these conversations.

Facilitate Cross-Functional Opportunities:

Encourage employees to take on projects outside their immediate roles, providing opportunities to gain new skills and perspectives. Foster collaboration and knowledge-sharing across departments, creating a culture of innovation and adaptability.

Professional Development Plans: Essential for Individual & Organizational Success

Personal Development Plans emerge as essential tools for individual and organizational success. By fostering a culture of continuous improvement and aligning personal goals with overarching objectives, companies not only empower their employees to thrive but also position themselves for sustained growth and innovation. Investing in personal development is an investment in the future, where both individuals and organizations can flourish in tandem. As the saying goes, “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”

Keystone Partners has been helping companies of all sizes in all industries improve their performance review process and conduct successful career conversations. Interested in learning how Keystone can help with your career management and leadership-related needs? Contact us today to learn more ab

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Ramp Up Professional Growth with Individual Development Plans

The changing nature of economic competition and globalization requires knowledge workers, professional exempt-level employees who arrive in a role fully trained and willing to work aggressively, to expand their knowledge, skills and abilities continuously. Today’s dynamic, fast-paced world creates the opportunity for self-motivated learners to accelerate their professional growth through self-directed, lifelong learning.

As adult learners advance through the cycles of life, learning becomes self-directed, self-initiated, self-regulated and self-motivated. To accelerate the pace of employees’ learning, corporations use an individual development plan (IDP). This document details an employee’s intentions and learning outcomes as well as support necessary to meet his or her tangible growth goals.

The IDP of tomorrow should incorporate components of adult learning, organizational development and corporate culture. Professional development comprises an individual’s formal course work and educational programs of study as well as the formal and informal development of professional skills that occur in the workplace.

Beneficial IDPs reflect adult learning strategies, experiential learning and symbolic interaction. The first action, or andragogy, acknowledges that adults:

  • Are self-directed.
  • Need to understand context (why they learn).
  • Learn through problem-solving.
  • Learn best when the topic is of immediate value.

Adult Learning Tools, Techniques

Case studies and role-playing can serve adult learning well. Competency development that incorporates cognitive skill development, intrinsic motivation, self-awareness and communication skills often is customized to meet the needs of the corporation and the IDP learner. Deliberate role modeling, coaching and mentoring also strongly support IDP development.

Experiential learning is grounded on the common sense view that ideas are being formed and reformed constantly by life experiences. Instead of the standard corporate development response (i.e., just call HR and take a course), experiential learning encompasses the 70 percent component of the classic 70/20/10 corporate development models; that is, 70 percent of workplace learning includes efforts on the job, in the role—efforts that are self-directed in the current context of the situation.

Influenced by our learning style, experiential learning incorporates the Kolb learning cycle , moving from concrete experience to observation and reflection. Learners then progress to generalization and abstract conceptualization and finally to active experimentation. The learning style is the manner in which an IDP learner perceives, interacts with and responds to the learning environment. The learner advances by incorporating natural style awareness as determined by various assessment instruments, such as MBTI, DiSC and Insights Discovery.

Third, symbolic interaction includes the importance of self-awareness, self-image and self-esteem. We construct and deconstruct our “self-system” as we achieve IDP growth through personal change. Learning suggests that we are self-motivated and extends to our beliefs, values, emotional maturity, ethics and integrity as a whole person.

Years ago, change and transformation was prescriptive. Employees could depend on their employers to provide necessary training in the form of subject matter knowledge, using predefined, fixed methods of training. Training in many organizations is still defined as the delivery of events, not as holistic learning. Training as an organizational function across some companies remains stuck with the fundamental weaknesses it has had for decades: a fixed body of knowledge, competency deficiencies, knowledge transfer for passing tests and teachers responsible for what adult learners should learn.

IDP learning, on the other hand, is holistic. Most employees will grow and develop through their jobs and throughout their career. Learning from the IDP is a complex process influenced by the conditions under which it occurs. IDP growth incorporates fear, worry, anxiety and stretch as a normal part of any change cycle. Delivered strategically and managed tactically, IDP learning is viewed as an enduring change in behavior or a capacity to behave in a given fashion that results from practice or from other forms of experience. The proverb “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” fits neatly into today’s emphasis on IDP learning, self-development and career resiliency.

John T. Mooney is principal of the training and coaching firm Consultive Source, based in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, area.

Adapted with permission from John T. Mooney – Consultive Source.

© (2010) John T. Mooney– Consultive Source . All Rights Reserved.

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A Personal Development Plan (PDP) Guide & Template

What is a personal development plan.

Personal development is an ongoing process that drives you to improve your knowledge, skills and experience, so that you can achieve your goals. A personal development plan (or PDP) is a method of focussing your goals into achievable steps, which helps you keep track of your personal development.

Download Free PDP Example/Template

Why Should I Create a Personal Development Plan?

Your plan may be aimed at your education, career or personal goal, or a mixture of all three – that is up to you to determine. Whatever the case may be, a good plan will provide you with a clear sense of focus. It helps you map out a path towards your goals, strategise a plan to achieve them, record the actionable steps you will take, and set a timeframe for completing them. Focussing your goals into a PDP helps you maintain your vision, keep on track to achieve your targets, and reflect on your progress.

Simply put, a PDP can help you build a clear understanding of what you want to achieve and how you are going to achieve it.

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A clear plan can also support your positive mental wellbeing and improve your level of satisfaction. It can provide a sense of direction, purposefulness and a feeling of success as you start to fulfil your potential. All of these can have very positive impacts on your mental health. 

Therefore, discovering what your goals are, getting organised and giving yourself a sense of direction can be incredibly beneficial. This article will give you an understanding of how to write a personal development plan, as well as provide you with a handy template to support your development journey.

How to Write a Personal Development Plan

There are seven steps to writing a PDP:

  • Set yourself goals.
  • Prioritise those goals.
  • Set yourself deadlines for when you want to achieve them.
  • Recognise threats and opportunities.
  • Develop your skills or increase your knowledge.
  • Use your support network.
  • Measure your progress.

person filling in PDP diary progress

1. Set Yourself Goals

The first step is to set yourself goals . Think about what you want to achieve, whether that’s within a few weeks, within a year, or over your lifetime.

Deciding what you want is not only the first step in planning, it’s also the hardest. Once you’ve figured out what you want to do, that goal will provide clear direction and a structure for your resulting plan.

At this stage, your goals will feel big. You might be wondering how you are ever going to achieve them. Don’t worry – the next step is to prioritise and turn those goals into smaller, actionable steps that will support you on your way to achieving them.

2. Prioritising Your Goals

Now that you have your goals, the next stage is to break them down into smaller steps. When doing this, it’s important that your goals are SMART:

  • Specific. Avoid large, ambiguous steps. These won’t support you on your way to achieving your goals. Insted, make sure that your goals are specific and clearly highlight the skill, knowledge or experience you want to develop.
  • Measureable. You need to be able to monitor and reflect on your progress. Therefore, your goals need to be measurable, such as by setting a goal to develop your SEO knowledge with a measurable target of growing your website traffic by a set, defined percentage.
  • Attainable. Your goals need to be achievable and realistic. You need to think about if it is something you can realistically achieve with the time and resources you have. If not, you will likely be setting yourself up for failure. 
  • Relevant. It’s important to keep your overall goal in mind and make sure that every step you take is supporting you to achieve it. You don’t want to be spending time doing things that don’t get you where you want to go.
  • Time-bound. Set yourself key targets to achieve and deadlines in which to achieve them. This will help you stay focussed on achieving your goals. However, it’s important to make sure you are realistic in what you can achieve in any given period. Don’t try to achieve everything all at once. It’s unrealistic and you won’t be setting yourself up well to achieve them. Remember that personal development is a journey – your PD plan can continue to grow and develop as you take those steps towards your goals.

Once you have your goals, you’ll need to prioritise them. 

In your PDP, you should be setting yourself mini goals to make the big ones happen.

For example, if you wish to pursue a career in academia as a senior lecturer and then a professor, a necessary step to succeeding in this goal is to achieve a PhD. So that would be one of your long-term goals. You then need to break it down into steps, such as:

  • Learn about the PhD application process.
  • Find a suitable university and supervisor for a PhD.
  • Look at routes for funding.
  • Find studentships to apply for or apply to your university of choice.
  • Write and submit your PhD application.

3. Set Yourself Deadlines

Knowing when you want to achieve a goal is crucial, and picturing your future is an important source of motivation and inspiration.

Having goals and a set deadline will drive your motivation to achieve them. For example, if your goal is to buy a home, knowing when you want to achieve it will help you calculate exactly how much money you need to save each year in order to get your deposit. The same is true for your skills, knowledge and experience development. As mentioned above, setting realistic and time-bound goals are essential to achieving them. 

One good way to understand more about achieving your goals is to speak to those who have previously trodden a similar path. Learning about  their experiences can help you understand key barriers to, or methods of, success that may also be applicable to your PDP.

typing up a personal development plan

4. Recognise Threats and Opportunities

When considering your goals, you should identify your own strengths, consider areas of weakness you can develop, look at the opportunities available to support you in achieving your goals, and any threats that may hinder you in your progress. This is called a SWOT analysis. Note that these threats may be external or they may be core skills that you can develop as part of your PDP.

For example, a lack of motivation could hinder your plans to apply for a PhD. However, once you’ve identified your tendency to procrastinate or lose focus, you can put in place methods that will keep you motivated.

There are also going to be things that you could do, and connections with people or resources you could take advantage of, that will help you on your way. These are your opportunities that you should commit to doing.

For example, if there’s a conference coming up, take advantage of that. Go along and network, stay up to date on the latest knowledge, or even present a paper. These are all opportunities that could help you achieve your goals.

5. Develop Yourself

Once you have an idea of what could help or hinder you, this is when you can capitalise on those opportunities you recognised. Make an action plan about how you’ll make that progress.

Whatever it is that hinders you, there’s a way to stop it. Your plan is the first step to making sure you stay on track. 

So, why not take a look at how to upskill yourself , develop transferable skills in today’s rapidly changing jobs market, or even discover an online learning opportunity .

6. Use Your Support Network

The next thing you need to realise is that:

You don’t have to do everything by yourself.

And you shouldn’t. The support network around you is a valuable asset, so use it and don’t underestimate it.

In your PDP, list the people who can help you. This could be a financial advisor, a friend, or a colleague. People are often so happy to help you, more than you might realise.

friends supporting PDP

7. Measure Progress

After you’ve achieved some progress, whether it’s big or small, take time to reflect on how far you’ve come.

Recognising what has gone well is an effective way to bolster your motivation and remain dedicated.

And after a setback, this is another time to take stock.

Wallowing – briefly – is a good way to feel what you need to without holding on to it. Holding onto sadness, anger or frustration, however, will only deter you. These emotions will take you nowhere and will only hinder you.

You should also spend a little time figuring out why it went wrong. Can you identify a skills or knowledge gap? 

 If you can, then you can get yourself back on track by focussing on your next step. This will reignite your sense of purpose and help you regain control, which is integral to making progress.

Continue to reflect on your progress. You can gain significant insight from your reflections and this can help you grow. Remember that you should update your plan where necessary. Don’t overload it at any one time but, once you have achieved your small steps, reflect and then update your plan to focus on your next move.

Free Personal Development Plan Example & Template

In this article, we have discussed how you can create your own personal development plan, so you should now feel ready to start considering your goals and developing your own plan. To help you produce an effective personal development plan, we have created an editable template that you can use. Take a look at our example PDP, and download your free template below:

Further Resources:

  • How to Upskill Yourself
  • What are Personal Development Goals for Work?
  • Using Key Phrases in Performance Reviews & Appraisals
  • Resilience Quiz
  • Resilience in the Workplace: What are the Benefits and How Can Businesses Develop It?
  • How to Stand Out in a Virtual Interview: Preparation Tips
  • What is CPD? A Guide to Continuing Professional Development
  • Writing A Professional Development Plan – Example & Template
  • Business Essentials Courses

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Katie Martinelli

Her favourite article is Five Top Learning and Development Trends for 2020

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How to Create a Personal Development Plan: 3 Examples

Personal Development Plan

For successful change, it is vital that the client remains engaged, recognizing and identifying with the goals captured inside and outside sessions. A personal development plan (PDP) creates a focus for development while offering a guide for life and future success (Starr, 2021).

This article introduces and explores the value of personal development plans, offering tools, worksheets, and approaches to boost self-reflection and self-improvement.

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Goal Achievement Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients create actionable goals and master techniques to create lasting behavior change.

This Article Contains

What is personal development 7 theories, coaching in personal development and growth, how to create a personal development plan, 3 examples of personal development plans, defining goals and objectives: 10 tips and tools, fostering personal development skills, 3 inspiring books to read on the topic, resources from positivepsychology.com, a take-home message, frequently asked questions.

Personal development is a fundamental concept in psychology and encompasses the lifelong process of self-improvement, self-awareness, and personal growth. Crucial to coaching and counseling, it aims to enhance various aspects of clients’ lives, including their emotional wellbeing, relationships, careers, and overall happiness (Cox, 2018; Starr, 2021).

Several psychological models underpin and support transformation. Together, they help us understand personal development in our clients and the mechanisms and approaches available to make positive life changes (Cox, 2018; Passmore, 2021).

The following psychological theories and frameworks underpin and influence the approach a mental health professional adopts.

1. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

As a proponent of the humanistic or person-centered approach to helping people, Abraham Maslow (1970) suggested that individuals have a hierarchy of needs. Simply put, they begin with basic physiological and safety needs and progress through psychological and self-fulfillment needs.

Personal development is often found in or recognized by the pursuit of higher-level needs, such as self-esteem and self-actualization (Cox, 2018).

2. Erikson’s psychosocial development

Erik Erikson (1963) mapped out a series of eight psychosocial development stages that individuals go through across their lifespan.

Each one involves challenges and crises that once successfully navigated, contribute to personal growth and identity development.

3. Piaget’s cognitive development

The biologist and epistemologist Jean Piaget (1959) focused on cognitive development in children and how they construct their understanding of the world.

We can draw on insights from Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, including intellectual growth and adaptability, to inform our own and others’ personal development (Illeris, 2018).

4. Bandura’s social cognitive theory

Albert Bandura’s (1977) theory highlights the role of social learning and self-efficacy in personal development. It emphasizes that individuals can learn and grow through observation, imitation, and belief in their ability to effect change.

5. Self-determination theory

Ryan and Deci’s (2018) motivational self-determination theory recognizes the importance of autonomy, competence, and relatedness in personal development.

Their approach suggests that individuals are more likely to experience growth and wellbeing when such basic psychological needs are met.

6. Positive psychology

Positive psychology , developed by Martin Seligman (2011) and others, focuses on strengths, wellbeing, and the pursuit of happiness.

Seligman’s PERMA model offers a framework for personal development that emphasizes identifying and using our strengths while cultivating positive emotions and experiences (Lomas et al., 2014).

7. Cognitive-Behavioral Theory (CBT)

Developed by Aaron Beck (Beck & Haigh, 2014) and Albert Ellis (2000), CBT explores the relationship between thoughts, emotions, and behavior.

As such, the theory provides practical techniques for personal development, helping individuals identify and challenge negative thought patterns and behaviors (Beck, 2011).

Theories like the seven mentioned above offer valuable insights into many of the psychological processes underlying personal development. They provide a sound foundation for coaches and counselors to support their clients and help them better understand themselves, their motivations, and the paths they can take to foster positive change in their lives (Cox, 2018).

Coaching in Personal Development

The client–coach relationship is significant to successful growth and goal achievement.

Typically, the coach will focus on the following (Cox, 2018):

  • Actualizing tendency This supports a “universal human motivation resulting in growth, development and autonomy of the individual” (Cox, 2018, p. 53).
  • Building a relationship facilitating change Trust clients to find their own way while displaying empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive regard . The coach’s “outward responses consistently match their inner feelings towards a client,” and they display a warm acceptance that they are being how they need to be (Passmore, 2021, p. 162).
  • Adopting a positive psychological stance Recognize that the client has the potential and wish to become fully functioning (Cox, 2018).

Effective coaching for personal growth involves adopting and committing to a series of beliefs that remind the coach that the “coachee is responsible for the results they create” (Starr, 2021, p. 18) and help them recognize when they may be avoiding this idea.

The following principles are, therefore, helpful for coaching personal development and growth (Starr, 2021).

  • Stay committed to supporting the client. While initially strong, you may experience factors that reduce your sense of support for the individual’s challenges.
  • Coach nonjudgmentally. Our job is not to adopt a stance based on personal beliefs or judgment of others, but to help our clients form connections between behavior and results.
  • Maintain integrity, openness, and trust. The client must feel safe in your company and freely able to express themselves.
  • Responsibility does not equal blame. Clients who take on blame rather than responsibility will likely feel worse about something without acknowledging their influence on the situation.
  • The client can achieve better results. The client is always capable of doing and achieving more, especially in relation to their goals.
  • Focus on clients’ thoughts and experiences. Collaborative coaching is about supporting the growth and development of the client, getting them to where they want to go.
  • Clients can arrive at perfect solutions. “As a coach, you win when someone else does” (Starr, 2021, p. 34). The solution needs to be the client’s, not yours.
  • Coach as an equal partnership. Explore the way forward together collaboratively rather than from a parental or advisory perspective.

Creating a supportive and nonjudgmental environment helps clients explore their thoughts, feelings, and goals, creating an environment for personal development and flourishing (Passmore, 2021).

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A personal development plan is a powerful document “to create mutual clarity of the aims and focus of a coaching assignment” (Starr, 2021, p. 291). While it is valuable during coaching, it can also capture a client’s way forward once sessions have ended.

Crucially, it should have the following characteristics (Starr, 2021):

  • Short and succinct
  • Providing a quick reference or point of discussion
  • Current and fresh, regularly revised and updated

Key elements of a personal development plan include the following (Starr, 2021):

  • Area of development This is the general skill or competence to be worked on.
  • Development objectives or goals What does the client want to do? Examples might include reducing stress levels, improving diet, or managing work–life balance .
  • Behaviors to develop These comprise what the client will probably do more of when meeting their objectives, for example, practicing better coping mechanisms, eating more healthily, and better managing their day.
  • Actions to create progress What must the client do to action their objectives? For example, arrange a date to meet with their manager, sign up for a fitness class, or meet with a nutritionist.
  • Date to complete or review the objective Capture the dates for completing actions, meeting objectives, and checking progress.

Check out Lindsey Cooper’s excellent video for helpful guidance on action planning within personal development.

We can write and complete personal development plans in many ways. Ultimately, they should meet the needs of the client and leave them with a sense of connection to and ownership of their journey ahead (Starr, 2021).

  • Personal Development Plan – Areas of Development In this PDP , we draw on guidance from Starr (2021) to capture development opportunities and the behaviors and actions needed to achieve them.
  • Personal Development Plan – Opportunities for Development This template combines short- and long-term goal setting with a self-assessment of strengths, weaknesses, and development opportunities.
  • Personal Development Plan – Ideal Self In this PDP template , we focus on our vision of how our ideal self looks and setting goals to get there.
“The setting of a goal becomes the catalyst that drives the remainder of the coaching conversation.”

Passmore, 2021, p. 80

Defining goals and objectives is crucial to many coaching conversations and is usually seen as essential for personal development.

Check out this video on how you can design your life with your personal goals in mind.

The following coaching templates are helpful, containing a series of questions to complete Whitmore’s (2009) GROW model :

  • G stands for Goal : Where do you want to be?
  • R stands for Reality : Where are you right now with this goal?
  • O stands for Options : What are some options for reaching your goal?
  • W stands for Way forward : What is your first step forward?

Goal setting creates both direction and motivation for clients to work toward achieving something and meeting their objectives (Passmore, 2021).

The SMART goal-setting framework is another popular tool inside coaching and elsewhere.

S = Specific M = Measurable A = Attainable/ or Agreed upon R = Realistic T = Timely – allowing enough time for achievement

The SMART+ Goals Worksheet contains a series of prompts and spaces for answers to define goals and capture the steps toward achieving them.

We can summarize the five principles of goal setting (Passmore, 2021) as follows:

  • Goals must be clear and not open to interpretation.
  • Goals should be stretching yet achievable.
  • Clients must buy in to the goal from the outset.
  • Feedback is essential to keep the client on track.
  • Goals should be relatively straightforward. We can break down complex ones into manageable subgoals.

The following insightful articles are also helpful for setting and working toward goals.

  • What Is Goal Setting and How to Do it Well
  • The Science & Psychology of Goal-Setting 101

Fostering Personal Development Skills

1. People skills

Improving how we work with others benefits confidence, and with other’s support, we are more likely to achieve our objectives and goals. The following people skills can all be improved upon:

  • Developing rapport
  • Assertiveness and negotiation
  • Giving and receiving constructive criticism

2. Managing tasks and problem-solving

Inevitably, we encounter challenges on our path to development and growth. Managing our activities and time and solving issues as they surface are paramount.

Here are a few guidelines to help you manage:

  • Organize time and tasks effectively.
  • Learn fundamental problem-solving strategies.
  • Select and apply problem-solving strategies to tackle more complex tasks and challenges.
  • Develop planning skills, including identifying priorities, setting achievable targets, and finding practical solutions.
  • Acquire skills relevant to project management.
  • Familiarize yourself with concepts such as performance indicators and benchmarking.
  • Conduct self-audits to assess and enhance your personal competitiveness.

3. Cultivate confidence in your creative abilities

Confidence energizes our performance. Knowing we can perform creatively encourages us to develop novel solutions and be motivated to transform.

Consider the following:

  • Understand the fundamentals of how the mind works to enhance your thinking skills.
  • Explore a variety of activities to sharpen your creative thinking.
  • Embrace the belief that creativity is not limited to artists and performers but is crucial for problem-solving and task completion.
  • Learn to ignite the spark of creativity that helps generate innovative ideas when needed.
  • Apply creative thinking techniques to enhance your problem-solving and task completion abilities.
  • Recognize the role of creative thinking in finding the right ideas at the right time.

To aid you in building your confidence, we have a whole category of articles focused on Optimism and Mindset . Be sure to browse it for confidence-building inspiration.

With new techniques and technology, our understanding of the human brain continues to evolve. Identifying the vital elements involved in learning and connecting with others offers deep insights into how we function and develop as social beings. We handpicked a small but unique selection of books we believe you will enjoy.

1. The Coaching Manual: The Definitive Guide to the Process, Principles and Skills of Personal Coaching – Julie Starr

The Coaching Manual

This insightful book explores and explains the coaching journey from start to finish.

Starr’s book offers a range of free resources and gives clear guidance to support new and existing coaches in providing practical help to their clients.

Find the book on Amazon .

2. The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level – Gay Hendricks

The Big Leap

Delving into the “zone of genius” and the “zone of excellence,” Hendricks examines personal growth and our path to personal success.

This valuable book explores how we eliminate the barriers to reaching our goals that arise from false beliefs and fears.

3. The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are – Brené Brown

The Gifts of Imperfection

Brown, a leading expert on shame, vulnerability, and authenticity, examines how we can engage with the world from a place of worthiness.

Use this book to learn how to build courage and compassion and realize the behaviors, skills, and mindset that lead to personal development.

We have many resources available for fostering personal development and supporting client transformation and growth.

Our free resources include:

  • Goal Planning and Achievement Tracker This is a valuable worksheet for capturing and reflecting on weekly goals while tracking emotions that surface.
  • Adopt a Growth Mindset Successful change is often accompanied by replacing a fixed mindset with a growth one .
  • FIRST Framework Questions Understanding a client’s developmental stage can help offer the most appropriate support for a career change.

More extensive versions of the following tools are available with a subscription to the Positive Psychology Toolkit© , but they are described briefly below:

  • Backward Goal Planning

Setting goals can build confidence and the skills for ongoing personal development.

Backward goal planning helps focus on the end goal, prevent procrastination, and decrease stress by ensuring we have enough time to complete each task.

Try out the following four simple steps:

  • Step one – Identify and visualize your end goal.
  • Step two – Reflect on and capture the steps required to reach the goal.
  • Step three – Focus on each step one by one.
  • Step four – Take action and record progress.
  • Boosting Motivation by Celebrating Micro Successes

Celebrating the small successes on our journey toward our goals is motivating and confidence building.

Practice the following:

  • Step one – Reflect momentarily on the goal you are working toward.
  • Step two – Consider each action being taken to reach that goal.
  • Step three – Record the completion of each action as a success.
  • Step four – Choose how to celebrate each success.

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others reach their goals, check out this collection of 17 validated motivation & goal achievement tools for practitioners . Use them to help others turn their dreams into reality by applying the latest science-based behavioral change techniques.

Personal development has a rich and long history. It is underpinned by various psychological theories and remains a vital aspect of creating fulfilling lives inside and outside coaching and counseling.

For many of us, self-improvement, self-awareness, and personal growth are vital aspects of who we are. Coaching can provide a vehicle to help clients along their journey, supporting their sense of autonomy and confidence and highlighting their potential (Cox, 2018).

Working with clients, therefore, requires an open, honest, and supportive relationship. The coach or counselor must believe the client can achieve better results and view them nonjudgmentally as equal partners.

Personal development plans become essential to that relationship and the overall coaching process. They capture areas for development, skills and behaviors required, and goals and objectives to work toward.

Use this article to recognize theoretical elements from psychology that underpin the process and use the skills, guidance, and worksheets to support personal development in clients, helping them remove obstacles along the way.

Ultimately, personal development is a lifelong process that boosts wellbeing and flourishing and creates a richer, more engaging environment for the individual and those around them.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Goal Achievement Exercises for free .

Personal development is vital, as it enables individuals to enhance various aspects of their lives, including emotional wellbeing, relationships, careers, and overall happiness.

It promotes self-awareness, self-improvement, and personal growth, helping individuals reach their full potential and lead fulfilling lives (Passmore, 2021; Starr, 2021).

Personal development is the journey we take to improve ourselves through conscious habits and activities and focusing on the goals that are important to us.

Personal development goals are specific objectives individuals set to improve themselves and their lives. Goals can encompass various areas, such as emotional intelligence, skill development, health, and career advancement, providing direction and motivation for personal growth (Cox, 2018; Starr, 2021).

A personal development plan typically comprises defining the area of development, setting development objectives, identifying behaviors to develop, planning actions for progress, and establishing completion dates. These five stages help individuals clarify their goals and track their progress (Starr, 2021).

  • Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory . Prentice-Hall.
  • Beck, A. T., & Haigh, E. P. (2014). Advances in cognitive therapy and therapy: The generic cognitive model. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology , 10 , 1–24.
  • Beck, J. S. (2011). Cognitive behavior therapy: Basics and beyond . Guilford Press.
  • Cottrell, S. (2015). Skills for success: Personal development and employability . Bloomsbury Academic.
  • Cox, E. (2018). The complete handbook of coaching . SAGE.
  • Ellis, A. (2000). Can rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) be effectively used with people who have devout beliefs in God and religion? Professional Psychology-Research and Practice , 31 (1), 29–33.
  • Erikson, E. H. (1963). Youth: Change and challenge . Basic Books.
  • Illeris, K. (2018). An overview of the history of learning theory. European Journal of Education , 53 (1), 86–101.
  • Lomas, T., Hefferon, K., & Ivtzan, I. (2014). Applied positive psychology: Integrated positive practice . SAGE.
  • Maslow, A. H. (1970). Motivation and personalit y (2nd ed.). Harper & Row.
  • Passmore, J. (Ed.). (2021). The coaches’ handbook: The complete practitioner guide for professional coaches . Routledge.
  • Piaget, J. (1959): The Psychology of intelligence . Routledge.
  • Rose, C. (2018). The personal development group: The students’ guide . Routledge.
  • Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2018). Self-determination theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness . Guilford Press.
  • Seligman, M. E. (2011). Authentic happiness using the new positive psychology to realize your potential for lasting fulfillment . Nicholas Brealey.
  • Starr, J. (2021). The coaching manual: The definitive guide to the process, principles and skills of personal coaching . Harlow: Pearson Education.
  • Whitmore, J. (2009). Coaching for performance . Nicholas Brealey.

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A complete guide to effective HR strategy planning (& a free template!)

personal development plan template hr

Businesses are beginning to recognize the strategic value of human resources. In fact, our State of People Enablement Report found that 79% of people ops leaders felt their C-suite saw them as important.* They no longer viewed HR as an administrative or supportive department, but as vital to the organization’s success.

As the role people teams play expands and grows in importance, taking a more systematic, data-driven approach is essential. Effective, intentional strategies ensure your human resources department stays aligned with overarching company goals while positively impacting the employee experience and making your organization a truly enjoyable place to work.

To that end, this article covers the essential steps you need to take for successful HR strategy planning. We’ve also included a best practice HR strategy template you can customize or use as inspiration for your own team.

* Leapsome’s State of People Enablement Report , 2023 ‍

🤿 Dive right into HR strategy development Our customizable HR strategy template includes all the essential stages and action points you need to structure and flesh out your ideas. 👉 Download template here

What is an HR strategy & why does it matter?

An HR strategy is a comprehensive plan that aligns team management with organizational goals. By integrating the two, companies can ensure that they recruit and retain the right talent to keep their initiatives and long-term objectives on track.

However, an HR strategy goes beyond hiring and keeping positions filled — it can help you engage, empower, and develop employees in a way that supports sustainable growth and fosters a positive work environment. 

When human resources plays a more strategic role, the company can also take a more proactive stance in its industry and build workplace resilience . People teams can forecast staffing needs and spot potential gaps and issues before they escalate into larger problems. For instance, you might anticipate turnover and escalate or adjust hiring efforts instead of scrambling to bring people on board as team members leave. ‍

💭 “In the future of HR, the People function continues to be a strategic partner to the business that is highly integrated into company performance and no longer seen as just a support and administrative function. Well-supported People functions and teams will result in better business results, deeper engagement, high employee enablement, and happy customers.” ‍ — Luck Dookchitra , VP People at Leapsome

Last, remember that while HR managers may take the lead, the best strategies are a collaborative effort between leaders, team leads, and team members. Including stakeholders from every area of your business gives you a more holistic perspective, ensuring that your plan will benefit the entire company. ‍

Free download: Our actionable HR strategy template

Screenshot of the first page of Leapsome’s HR strategy plan template

Human resources strategies aren’t one-size-fits-all. It’s best to tailor them to your company’s unique needs, goals, and culture rather than adopting a generic blueprint.

That said, having a detailed template can provide you with a structure and save you time on planning. You can check that you haven’t missed any essential steps and customize the strategy to suit your context. 

That’s why we’ve provided this free, downloadable template based on Leapsome’s own strategies and values. ‍

🏆 Create a winning HR strategy Streamline your HR planning processes with our comprehensive template that covers every step and checkpoint.  👉 Download template here

8 steps to creating an effective HR strategy plan

Whether you’re working off a template or starting from scratch, there are some essential steps that should go into the development of any great human resources strategy. Here’s everything you need to consider at each stage. ‍

1. Establish your HR strategy’s aims

Setting clear goals is essential as they will guide all the future decisions you make about your HR strategy. This step involves understanding your organization’s broad objectives and determining how you can support them, ensuring your plan contributes directly to the company’s aspirations and long-term success.

For example, your leadership team might clarify that their long-term objective is to enter the European market and establish a strong presence within the next two years. HR and the C-suite could collaboratively decide on the following aims:

  • Hire 80% of the team for the new branch locally
  • Relocate the remaining 20% of team members from existing branches

Speaking to other departments allows you to assess where your interests align and how you can support each other most effectively. In the example, HR might work alongside legal and accounting to find potential regulatory roadblocks to hiring in Europe.

When you’re developing cross-departmental aims and sharing them across the organization, tracking them can be challenging. Using goal-setting software like Leapsome allows you to establish complex objectives and track your progress toward them. Choose a platform that accommodates various methodologies, such as OKRs and SMART goals , so you can easily tailor your workflow to your company’s needs and preferences.

A screenshot of Leapsome’s goal management feature with progress bars.

2. Review your industry

Staying up-to-date with industry happenings is essential to keeping your HR strategy relevant and competitive. You need to research the current state of recruitment, retention, and team management to understand what’s realistic before you develop any plans.

Going back to the example in step one, imagine you’re investigating the current European job market. You discover that there’s a talent shortage in your industry, which means that you may struggle to hire locally.

Look at official sites like Eurostat , the International Labor Organization (ILO), and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for the most recent information. HR thought leaders such as SHRM and the Harvard Business Review also report on job market trends.

Evaluating your position within the market can give you extra insights into developing a realistic strategy. You can see where you need to improve, where you already shine, and where competitors outmatch you. For instance, while looking into European expansion, you may notice that another company already has a strong foothold in the job market.

During your research, see where you can update your current HR tools and resources to support your strategizing. People enablement platforms like Leapsome can automate time-consuming parts of your workflow, such as distributing surveys, data collection, and scheduling meetings, so you can prioritize the planning itself. Automation also has the power to make you more adaptive to changes during the strategizing process — 63% of companies said it helped them to pivot. ‍

3. Analyze & check in with your team

Consider your team’s composition to evaluate the talent you’ve got and look for gaps. You might look into:

  • Employee demographics
  • Tenure and experience levels
  • Job performance
  • Salary and benefits

Let’s say you’re considering which team members would be ideal candidates to relocate to your new European branches. You might note that a high percentage of the team are digital nomads who are highly likely to be interested in traveling and living abroad.

To conduct an effective analysis, you need to go deeper than superficial numbers to uncover your team’s needs and wants. Running engagement surveys can help you measure employee sentiment about upcoming company initiatives. Use a flexible tool like Leapsome’s Surveys module so you can come up with questions that are specific to your organizational goals and strategy or customize a ready-to-implement template. Setting up an anonymous suggestion box also creates a space where employees can share concerns that you haven’t covered in your survey.

To keep employees at the forefront of your initiatives, use their feedback to create action points for your strategy. For example, you might discover that team members would be willing to relocate to head an expansion abroad if it meant they were getting a promotion. Tools like Leapsome’s AI-powered sentiment analysis can help you summarize written responses while our post-survey action plans can analyze them to give you quick suggestions. 

A screenshot of Leapsome’s action plan tool within the Survey module.

🎯 Put employees at the center of every plan Our engagement surveys can help you uncover your team’s concerns and align your strategies with their best interests. 👉 Learn more

4. Consider development opportunities 

Now that you’ve got a better understanding of your current team, see whether your company has the skills and expertise it needs to meet its objectives in-house. If not, determine how quickly you can fill any gaps through learning and development initiatives.

Start by conducting a skills gap analysis to compare the talent you need against your team’s current capabilities. Visualizing the knowledge and expertise you need for your company initiatives on a competency framework can help you spot areas for development. You’ll also see how many steps employees need to take to reach an optimal skill level. Leapsome’s AI-powered competency framework can help you get started — just input your department name, number of competencies, and number of levels to generate a framework in minutes.

A screenshot of Leapsome’s Competency Framework feature

Let’s say that you’re looking for employees to manage payroll for new branches in the United Kingdom. While no one in the existing accounting department is familiar with British regulations, one person has experience in international finance.

Once you’ve got a clearer idea of your talent needs, explore how effectively you can meet them by developing existing team members. For instance, you might:

  • Ask managers to hold career development talks and report on which team members would be open to learning new, critical skills.
  • Assess your current learning and development programs to see if you can adjust them to include the desired expertise.
  • Research which training courses on the market cover the competencies you need.
  • Explore the possibility of creating personalized courses to equip team members with the specific skills they need.

A screenshot of the learning pathways feature in Leapsome’s Learning module.

5. Explore pathways for career progression

As you develop your HR strategy, decide how roles should change to align with organizational goals and employee needs. You may need to create new positions if your current team structure doesn’t support your plans, especially if you’re growing or expanding.

Again, a competency or career progression framework could help you determine which employees can be upskilled or are ready to move into the positions you need. Leapsome’s Compensation and Reviews modules could save you time here by providing you with relevant data on all your internal candidates. You can also use the platform to collaborate with each employee’s team lead to make informed, well-rounded decisions.

For example, your company might need a sales manager to head a new branch in another country. After looking at your employee data, you might identify a salesperson who’s got experience heading a team, and a quick chat with their team lead may reveal that they’re eager to advance professionally. You can then see how to support them and upskill them to move into the new role.  ‍

6. Examine recruitment & turnover

Hiring and retention are often at the heart of human resources initiatives. For example, reducing turnover can help businesses maintain a knowledgeable and experienced team while they launch new ventures. A stable team is also vital to protecting employee well-being and company culture during changes. When colleagues are constantly coming and going, surveys show that team members are up to 25% more likely to resign .

Using the following steps, you can get clarity into how hiring and retention may play into your HR strategy:

  • Measure your recruitment and turnover levels
  • Filter the results by department and role
  • Benchmark your results against the industry standard
  • Review reasons for job offer rejections and resignations
  • Consider whether you can expect these numbers to change
  • Estimate how many positions you’ll need to fill

A people analytics tool like Leapsome can help you implement many of these steps. Our platform not only collects and analyzes your HR data, but gives you AI-driven actionable insights . For instance, Leapsome can sort your information to indicate the biggest impact drivers and filter out less relevant details. You can also benchmark this data against competitors and use predictive analysis to uncover future trends in turnover.

Ultimately, you can see how to solve potential turnover issues at the same time as you discover them, saving valuable time. ‍

7. Design HR initiatives & strategies

Now, you should be ready to translate all the aims and the insights you’ve collected into actionable steps. Write objectives that relate to both the overarching business goals and your team’s needs. If you’re using a cascading goal framework like OKRs, you can tie them directly to each of your company’s aims. 

If you find the OKR methodology tricky to implement correctly, consider using Leapsome’s AI-powered OKR generation feature: Simply provide a descriptive objective as a prompt, and allow the AI tool to generate key results and initiatives tailored to your overall goal. You can then refine your choices from the generated list by selecting the most suitable key results, and include relevant and realistic deadlines and metrics for your organization.

Let’s return to our example of the organization that’s looking to expand abroad. You might establish the following objectives and key results:

Company-level

  • Objective: We operate in the EU within the next two years to diversify our market presence and increase our resilience. 
  • Key result: We have five teams of 750 local hires and 250 relocated employees working across offices in London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, and Rome.
  • Objective: We have full teams with the best skills, experience, and culture add to run our European offices to ensure the success of our expansion.   ‍
  • Key result: There are ten managers from our existing offices working in our new European ones who have successfully undergone our relocation program.  ‍
  • ‍ Initiative: We arrange meetings to discuss career opportunities with the top 30 candidates.

Any key results should be measurable so you can track your progress and see whether you’re staying on course. For instance, the metrics in the examples above are the number of people hired and successful relocations.

Once you’ve written your objectives, finalize them with leadership, department heads, and employee representatives. You’ll need to double-check that everyone is aligned on the strategy. Returning to our example, perhaps the C-suite has agreed that ten managers can relocate and employees are on board, but department heads fear that it’ll leave them short-staffed. It’s essential to address these concerns: In this instance, you could consider implementing a transitional plan that outlines how the company will manage workload and resources during the relocation period. ‍

8. Monitor progress & review 

Your HR strategy plan doesn’t end with implementation — you need to decide how you’ll monitor how it’s going and potentially adjust your approach as your needs change and evolve. ‍

💭 “We’ve emphasized continuous improvement since our first HR strategy. Our approaches evolved as we gained insights from experiences and integrated more comprehensive training and development programs. We also honed our communication channels: Fostering transparent dialogues with staff proved essential in understanding their changing needs. By adopting the right technology, we’ve made HR processes more efficient and user-friendly. Our HR strategies have ensured we attract the right individuals who align with our company ethos and contribute meaningfully to our mission. We’ve seen significant benefits: increased productivity, improved teamwork, and a notable boost in our quality of service.” — Sarah Jeffries, Managing Director, First Aid Course Leicester

Using data analytics, you can continue to observe trends in:

  • Recruitment and retention
  • Onboarding, training, and development
  • Engagement levels
  • Punctuality and absenteeism

Looking at the data, you can determine whether you’re seeing the expected results. For example, if you’re expanding your organization abroad, you should see changes in recruitment levels and employee demographics. You might be interested in investigating your onboarding times if you’re hiring a lot of candidates to check that training is running smoothly.

You can also use the data to evaluate how well your company has managed the changes. Retention and engagement levels are often telltale signs — if the initiatives have improved job satisfaction, you can expect an increase in both.

A screenshot of Leapsome’s data analytics tool.

You can run surveys to get a clearer idea of employee responses toward the initiatives. When you’re managing hundreds of people over different locations, reading every answer won’t be feasible. Instead, turn answers to Likert and multiple choice questions into data to gauge your team’s overall sentiment using data analytics.

If you ask open-ended questions, you could use a tool like Leapsome’s AI survey comment summaries . Our Natural Language Processor interprets qualitative survey results to give you a deep analysis of written responses.

Screenshot of Leapsome’s AI survey comment summaries

How Leapsome enables HR professionals

A screenshot of the goal analytics tool within Leapsome’s Goals module.

‍ Human resource teams should be a vital part of any business’s big-picture strategies. With their input, organizations can strike an ideal balance between working toward ambitious company objectives and supporting team members.

To enable HR professionals to thrive as they take on more strategic roles within your organization, you need the right tools. Our people enablement platform is ideal for creating HR plans that are tailored to your specific business needs. We allow you to manage:

  • Company-wide goals and OKRs
  • Employee feedback and surveys
  • Career advancement processes
  • Onboarding, learning, and development
  • People analytics

With Leapsome, you can easily collaborate on any human resources strategy and get data-driven insights to make the best possible decisions for your organization’s future.  ‍

🖼️ Focus on the big picture, not the fine print Leapsome automates data collection, survey distribution, and review cycles so you’re free to strategize. 👉 Book a demo

Leapsome Team

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How to write a professional development plan

Continuous development is important in a career, no matter your line of work. Whether it’s to keep up with technology or upskill for promotions, ongoing learning and training will only benefit you. 

This is where a well-structured professional development plan (PDP) comes into play. A PDP helps you stay competitive and relevant in your field, and ready to take advantage of any job opportunities that come your way. It serves as a guide, outlining your career objectives , the skills you want to develop, and the steps required to achieve them. 

Here’s how to create a PDP that will help you realise your career aspirations .

How to write a development plan

Creating a professional development plan takes time and consideration. You have to make sure it’s realistic and in tune with your overall career objectives – the things you want to achieve in your work life. Whether you’re just starting out in your career or looking to take the next step, here are some personal development plan examples to get you on your way.

1. Self-assess to find areas of improvement 

The first step of creating a PDP is self-assessment. This involves taking a look at where you are professionally, where you hope to be in the future, and any skill gaps that might be stopping you from getting there. To do a self assessment, begin by asking yourself these questions:

  • Where am I in my career? Are you a graduate just starting out , a mid-level manager aiming for a more senior role or someone looking to change into a new industry? Look at your current job responsibilities, achievements, abilities – and any feedback you’ve received from peers or supervisors.
  • Where do I want to be in X years’ time? Whether it’s a 5-year or 10-year plan, having a clear idea of where you want to be is important. This could be landing a leadership position , becoming an expert in your field, or starting your own business. Your goals should be achievable, pushing you to grow but remaining realistic.
  • What skills am I currently lacking? Identify the skills and knowledge gaps that are stopping you from reaching your goals. This could include technical skills relating to your industry, soft skills like communication, or broader like critical thinking .

Useful tools for self-assessment

  • The Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF): this provides information about sector-specific job roles and the skills required for them. You can refer to this when identifying the skills you need to develop.
  • Holland Code Assessment (RIASEC) : the Holland Codes refer to personality types. Determining yours can help you understanding what career path best match your interests and passions.
  • MBTI personality test: the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator can offer insights into your personality type, helping you understand your work preferences, communication style and how you interact with others in a professional setting. You can do free tests online to find out yours.

Case studies and examples

  • Maya is a marketing professional. After carrying out a self-assessment, she realised her lack of data-analysis skills was getting in the way of becoming a marketing manager . By identifying this gap, she was able to enrol in the right courses and take on projects at work that improved her ability to analyse digital marketing data specific to her industry.
  • Raj is an IT professional. Through the RIASEC model, he discovered his strong investigative interests, leading him to transition from a generalist IT role to a specialised career as a cybersecurity analyst , aligning his career path with his interests and skills.

2. Establish clear goals

Setting clear goals is an important part of your professional development plan . These goals should be short-term, mid-term and long-term, providing stepping stones towards your larger career objectives.

Short-term goals (within a year)

Short-term goals are goals you can achieve in a year. These might include finishing a course, learning a skill or networking with industry professionals . For example, a software developer might aim to learn a new programming language within six months.

Mid-term goals (2–5 years)

Mid-term goals are goals you can achieve in two to five years. They often build on your short-term goals. For example, the software developer building their own portfolio site after learning several coding languages.

Long-term goals (5+ years)

Long-term goals are goals you set out to achieve in the next five years or so. For example, the software developer being promoted to a senior independent contributer role at a leading tech company. 

3. Build strategies

Once you have worked out exactly what your goals are, the next step is to build strategies to help you achieve them.

  • Identify top development goals: focus on the goals that will drive your career forward. Prioritise them based on what will bring the biggest benefit to your professional growth.
  • Include a target date to achieve your goals: this helps in tracking progress. 
  • Identify resources required: determine what learning resources you’ll need to achieve your goals, such as a short course or mentorship . 

4. Create a timeline to achieve your goals 

It’s important to break down each goal into smaller tasks and add a timeframe, so your goals seem more manageable and you can stay on track . 

Example of a professional development timeline

  • Year one: complete a course 3D animation and attend at least three workshops and/or industry events.
  • Years two to three: use 3D animation skills to get a promotion. Mentor junior designers. Create an online portfolio of work. 
  • Years four to five: aim for a team leader position or build a freelance client base. 

Flexibility is key in any development plan. Give yourself options in case something doesn’t go to plan. If your goals change, adjust your timeline. Regularly review and update your plan to reflect your current situation, new opportunities and changes in the industry.

Professional development goals and organisational objectives

Your professional growth at a company should be tied to the goals of the organisation you work for. By matching your professional development with the organisation’s aims, you can play a role in the company’s success, which creates a win-win scenario that will skyrocket your opportunities there. 

Examples of beneficial alignment

  • Mutual benefit: when your professional development goals are in line with your organisation’s objectives, it benefits both parties. For instance, if your company is focusing on using generative AI for content, developing skills to harness that technology furthers your career and benefits your organisation.
  • More job satisfaction: employees who see their personal growth reflected in their work tend to be more engaged and satisfied. 
  • More opportunities for promotion: companies are more likely to promote from within when an employee’s skill set and ambitions align with the company’s future direction.

Use HR resources for professional development

Many organisations offer resources and budgets for employee development. Talk with your HR department to understand what’s available to you. This could include:

  • Free access to training programs and workshops
  • Sponsorship for professional courses or certifications
  • Opportunities for internal job rotations so you can learn new skills 

Some companies allocate a specific budget for each employee’s professional development. This can be used for attending conferences, enrolling in courses or buying educational materials. 

Professional development plan template

A well-designed PDP guides you towards achieving your professional goals. It includes key information such as short-term and long-term goals, action steps and timelines. Here’s a professional development plan example to guide you.

Short-term goals

Goal:  i mprove public speaking skills

Action steps:

  • Enrol in a public speaking workshop
  • Practise by presenting at team meetings

Measurement:

  • Receive feedback from peers and mentors.
  • Deliver a presentation to the whole department.
  • Complete the workshop in 3 months.
  • Present at a team meeting every month

Long-term goals

Goal: get  a managerial position in the marketing department

  • Develop leadership skills through training
  • Take on more responsibilities in current projects
  • Successfully lead a team project
  • Receive positive performance reviews and feedback from superiors
  • Achieve within 2–3 years.

Without a professional development plan, you may find yourself wondering what’s next in your career. It’s worthwhile taking the time to make one, assessing your skills and setting  structured goals , where your ambitions line up with your organisation’s objectives. A personalised PDP can help keep you motivated, driving you towards short-term goals and  moving you forward in your career . 

What do you write in a professional development plan?

In a professional development plan, you write specific, actionable goals along with strategies to achieve them, a timeline for completion and methods for measuring progress. This includes short-term and long-term goals, skills to be developed, resources needed and any potential obstacles.

What are the five steps of a professional development plan?

The five steps of a professional development plan are:

  • Perform a self-assessment
  • Establish clear, measurable goals
  • Build strategies for achieving these goals
  • Create a timeline for completing each goal
  • Regularly review and adjust the plan

What are the 4 key components of any professional development plan?

The four key components of any professional development plan are:

  • Your current skills
  • Your future goals
  • Action steps to take
  • A timeline 

Why is a development plan important?

A development plan is important because it gives you something to aim for and a roadmap for getting there. It helps to bridge skill gaps and encourages continuous personal and professional growth. It can prevent you from feeling stuck or stagnant in your career, and can move you closer to any larger aspirations. 

How do you format a professional development plan?

A professional development plan should be formatted with clear headings for each section: goals (short-term and long-term), action steps, measurement criteria and a timeline. It should be easy to read, with each goal and plan of action clearly outlined (see above examples).

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