Individual plan for each employee legislation. Drawing up individual development plans

Problem 1. What to do if the individual development plan drawn up for an employee does not work?

Problem 2.What to do if an employee does not agree with the individual development plan?

Problem 3.How often should an individual development plan be adjusted?

The situation on the labor market is such that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find a person suitable for both professional and personal qualities. Therefore, employee training and development is becoming one of the highest priorities for many companies. How to retain key and promising employees? How to preserve the company's human resources potential? The solution to these problems can be individual development plans, which are a necessary tool in personnel career planning. In addition, without it it is unthinkable to work with the personnel reserve, as well as attract young specialists to the company.

Why do you need an individual development plan?

An individual plan contains a detailed algorithm of actions to develop the necessary qualities, knowledge and skills of an employee, which will ultimately increase the personal effectiveness of a particular employee. As a rule, the plan is drawn up for a period of three months to one year. It is optimal to create an individual plan as an element of a comprehensive system of adaptation, motivation, training and assessment of personnel. In this case, an individual development plan will be useful to both the employee and the company (Table 1).

Benefits of an individual plan

Benefit for the employee	Benefit for the company
The plan helps the employee focus his efforts on the chosen areas of development, that is, it allows him to understand: “What should I do in order to achieve my goals?”	The plan provides an opportunity to integrate the employee's goals with the company's goals. Achieving his development goals, the employee simultaneously works to achieve key business indicators
Together with the manager, the specialist determines priority areas for growth, which allows you to better understand your own desires	Increases employees’ readiness to solve assigned tasks and also motivates them to be goal-oriented
Allows an employee to significantly accelerate the pace of their development and encourages them to work better	Allows the company to plan and conduct training based on the real needs of employees
The employee gets the opportunity to be an active participant in the process of his development, influence it, and independently evaluate personal progress and achievements	With the help of a plan, a company can unlock the potential of its best employees and direct it to solve critical business problems.
There is no need to think about changing jobs, since the employee imagines the stages of his career in this company	When working with a personnel reserve, the plan makes it possible to track the stages of development of reservists

Marina Shurupova, Head of HR Department of the United Consulting Group (St. Petersburg):

“One of the factors determining the success of an individual development plan is the active position of the employee, his need, readiness and desire to participate not only in the development of the plan, but also in its implementation. I know of an example where a plan was not implemented because employees were not interested in it.

Thus, in one trading company, due to undeveloped customer service and low motivation of salespeople, a process of falling sales began. The company's managers, together with an invited consultant, developed a number of activities: a series of trainings, the introduction of a new sales technology and a new bonus system. In addition, an individual development plan was drawn up for each sales manager. What happened in the end? Riot on the ship. Employees refused to participate in training and education events. After identifying the reasons, it turned out that when choosing training, the interests and wishes of sales people were not taken into account, while they had low awareness of the training goals and were not ready for changes - each of them was hostage to their habits and measured work process and at the same time considered themselves a unique specialist."

HR Dictionary

Individual development plan– this is a document containing the goals and program for training an employee, developing his professional and personal qualities.

Who draws up the individual development plan?

Ideally, an individual development plan should be drawn up by a manager together with his subordinate during a conversation. The HR manager oversees this process. You will need to evaluate the effectiveness of your activities: the results of certification and other types of employee assessments will be useful. Try to ensure that the employee takes an active part in drawing up his development plan. This will make it possible to more accurately determine his needs, career expectations, desires to develop in one direction or another, etc.

An individual development plan usually consists of three blocks:

information about the employee (full name, position, etc.);
a list of competencies that need to be developed;
actions that an employee needs to perform to develop competencies.
In addition to the above, the following information can be included in an individual development plan:
about the position being filled by the employee;
about possible employee movements within the company (as part of both horizontal and vertical growth);
about the employee’s goals regarding professional growth;
about possible career prospects*.

Elena Guryeva, Manager for recruitment and adaptation of personnel at Stoliya Group of Companies LLC (Volgograd):

“There are times when one of the employees does not agree with the individual development plan. To avoid this, it is necessary, first of all, to motivate the employee to fulfill the development plan. How to do it? First, you should explain why such a plan is needed, show with specific examples what positive changes in your career will result from its implementation. Then describe each point of the plan, discuss what each party will receive as a result. It is important not to impose a development plan on an employee, but to help him decide on methods and methods of training that will contribute to his career. Ideally, he would independently prepare a plan for himself and submit it to his manager for approval.”

Who needs an individual plan?

key specialists;
personnel reserve or applicants for high positions;
managers at all levels.

In practice, an individual development plan is drawn up mainly for key specialists and applicants for high positions.

Tatiana Iliopulo,

“In our group of companies there is an opportunity for both professional (horizontal) and career growth (vertical). We use horizontal development if employees are not capable of being managers (and this is not always what the company needs). Such employees have the opportunity to acquire new knowledge and skills in their area of functionality or in related areas, and become mentors, participants or leaders of new projects and innovation groups. For horizontal development, we do not draw up a detailed development plan. A simple list of activities is enough. Strategically, their implementation is monitored by the company's top management (twice a year), and more quickly - by immediate managers and HR employees responsible for this work. Vertical development is planned for employees who share the company's values and are very loyal. A well-developed and long-term career development plan must be drawn up for them.”

When drawing up an individual development plan, take into account not only the employee’s goals and expectations, but also his concerns regarding the implementation of the plan.

How often should an individual development plan be adjusted?

To work effectively with the plan, it needs to be adjusted. We recommend adjusting the development plan at least once every six months after assessing the results, for example, in the form of an individual conversation. In addition, ask employees about the results and the need to change development plans.

In what cases is it necessary to make adjustments to the plan? It happens that the position for which an employee applies after the plan is completed is vacated earlier (for example, due to the dismissal of the employee from the position he replaced) than the development plan is implemented. In such situations, many employers take risks and promote an employee who is clearly not fully prepared, but with great desire and ability, to a leadership position. In this case, it is necessary to make certain changes to the plan, for example, reduce the amount of theoretical training and focus on acquiring the practical skills necessary for a manager. Also, the reasons for adjusting the plan may be the employee’s low motivation to carry out the plan, its formal implementation, or lack of time for training.

Possible problems when implementing an individual plan and how to overcome them

Once a plan has been developed and approved by both parties, the company may encounter difficulties in implementing it. The most common problem is lack of motivation. To avoid this, ensure that the plan is balanced and takes into account the employee's personal aspirations. Then there will be no problems with motivation.

The second problem is that the development plan exists only on paper or is carried out formally. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to clearly plan the professional and career growth of the employee. To do this, it is necessary to determine the employee’s potential, his development needs and, most importantly, whether his growth within the company is realistic.

Third, the employee does not meet the employer's expectations according to this plan. The reason for this may be a lack of understanding of the employee’s development goals or incorrectly selected training. In the second case, it is necessary to clearly define what theoretical and practical knowledge the employee needs and correctly indicate the preparation time frame. In addition, emphasis should be placed on acquiring practical skills that will be useful for performing the job.

Lada Seredyuk, Deputy General Director for HR of Navigator LLC (St. Petersburg):

“When an individual development plan is carried out formally or does not work at all, then the first thing that really needs to be done is to identify the reasons and errors that led to such a situation. For example, talk to the employee, find out what prevents him from implementing the plan, whether there are results after completing training programs, what he liked and what, in his opinion, needs to be changed, etc. If the employee did not meet the employer’s expectations, you should not blame this is just his. This means that when drawing up an individual plan, a clear development goal that was equally understood by both the employee and the employer was not formed. With an agreed upon goal, we can map out the smaller steps of the plan. Any problem is always easier to solve when we break it down into smaller ones.”

In addition to the insufficient level of motivation and formal execution of the individual plan, the following organizational risks may arise:

cancellation of some corporate courses (for example due to dismissal, illness of an internal trainer);
termination of relations with the training company (for example, due to a reduction in training costs, provision of low-quality services, etc.);
reduction or freezing of the training budget;
priority of business goals over the goals of the individual development plan.

To keep these risks manageable, consider how you can support your employees and managers as they implement their individual plan; do not forget to monitor the implementation of the plan (diagram on page 94).

Tatiana Iliopulo, Deputy Director for Personnel and Organizational Development of the Novard Group of Companies (Moscow):

“The main problem we face when implementing an individual development plan is the employee’s workload with operational activities. As a rule, the person himself needs to understand that in order to develop, he will have to sacrifice some of his personal time. If it exists and manifests itself in practice, then this is already 80 percent of success.

Ideally, when an employee completes the development plan and within a month takes the position for which he was trained. But in practice this does not happen often. As a rule, you have to wait some time (six months or even more) for a corresponding vacancy to appear. And the main thing here is that the employee does not burn out. The competent work of the company’s personnel management service will help with this.”

An individual employee development plan is one of the tools of the personnel management system. According to some experts, in order to reduce the risks when implementing an individual development plan, it is necessary, already at the stage of hiring employees, to give preference to candidates who are initially aimed at professional improvement and who perceive the individual plan as help in determining the direction of their development.

Do not use components of material motivation (bonuses, bonuses, etc.) to interest an employee in fulfilling an individual plan. As practice shows, in such cases the staff begins to perceive the individual plan as a source of income and treats its implementation formally.

An individual employee development plan is a program of activities aimed at increasing the employee’s efficiency and his professional growth in the company.

Formation of a personal “schedule” is a strategically important point. The specialist has a clear idea of how to build his career, which is an obvious incentive. For an organization, this is the formation of a pool of loyal and worthy personnel. The Rabota.ru portal decided to find out how companies create personal career plans.

A career “guide” is compiled personally for each employee. An individual plan determines priority areas, strategies and recommendations for the development of a specialist. It contains a precise list of actions. For example, an employee may be recommended to undergo certain trainings and seminars to improve their skills, study specialized literature, study foreign languages, develop specific skills - for example, for conducting business negotiations. In addition, a career plan may include performing special tasks and developing any projects, etc.

An individual career “map” not only gives a specialist an idea of future prospects for working in the company, but is also an excellent incentive for high-quality performance of work duties and for career advancement.

Labor market experts told the Rabota.ru portal about their experience in drawing up an individual development plan, the methodology for its formation, what a personal “guide” can contain, and most importantly, what can an employee get after achieving his goals?

Case 1. "LANIT"

Ekaterina Chebysheva, Deputy Director of the Management Consulting Department,
Management systems and consulting department, LANIT company:

“An individual development plan is a document that reflects the main tasks and activities
related to the professional and personal development of an employee for a certain period of time.

Typically, a development plan is drawn up by a manager, an HR specialist or the employee himself to achieve specific goals. For example:

— preparation for work in a new position;
— fulfillment of new responsibilities;
— development of skills necessary to improve performance in the current position;
— ensuring the interchangeability of employees, universality of knowledge and skills;
— preparation of personnel reserve, etc.

A development plan can be formed as a directive document if, for example, an employee’s performance is low due to a lack of knowledge or experience. In this case, the training and development plan is drawn up by the manager or HR specialist, and the employee is obliged to complete them within the specified time frame. Also, the plan can be drawn up as a document agreed upon by the employee and the line manager, and take into account not only the employer’s requirements and expectations for professional development, but also the employee’s opinions and wishes in the field of professional development.

In this case, drawing up a development plan is usually part of the procedure for regularly assessing the employee's performance and qualifications. At a meeting-feedback session during summing up the results for a certain period, the manager and employee discuss the results of work and jointly identify areas and areas of development of the specialist, taking into account the strengths and areas requiring development, as well as the employee’s career prospects in the company.

An individual development plan, as a rule, contains a list of developmental activities. Depending on the company’s field of activity, this list can be very diverse and, among other things, may include:

— training (both in the company and external);
- selfeducation;
— participation in projects where an employee can gain valuable experience;
— job rotation;
— mentoring;
— mentoring and coaching;
— internships;
— performing additional tasks, roles, assignments;
— passing certification.

Development plans usually do not include tasks related to achieving specific KPIs or targets. They are included in performance plans. But there are situations when employee development goals are part of his performance targets.

At LANIT, development plans are formed taking into account the results of employee competency assessment (corporate and technical) and the results of performance assessment. Development plans for beginners are drawn up for six months, for more experienced ones - for a year. The manager and employee jointly decide what knowledge and skills the employee needs to move to the next career level (the requirements for each level are formalized). The manager also explains which specialists in which areas the company needs for further development. The employee’s achievements and strengths, how best to develop his talents, and in which areas he can fully realize his potential are also discussed. When properly organized, such meetings can motivate employees to improve their skills and work efficiency and bring enormous benefits.

The subordinate and the manager have the opportunity to provide full and regular feedback and determine the professional and career prospects of the employee in the company. The result is reflected in the development plan in the form of a list of specific measures that need to be taken to achieve the goals. To maintain development plans, LANIT uses a specialized software solution, ETWeb Enterprise. This system also organizes the accounting and approval of applications for training and certification, as well as the costs of developing each specialist. The entire history and all data about the stages of employee development are saved.

Development plans are not directly related to material incentives for employees. Professionals interested in professional and career growth have the opportunity to receive the necessary resources and assistance. In cases where improving the qualifications of an employee and obtaining certain certificates is important for the company, tasks from development plans can be included in the performance plan and the employee receives bonuses for their implementation.

When conducting a final assessment, the manager always pays attention to the completion of the tasks included in the development plan and how the employee feels about improving his own qualifications. This information can influence the size of the salary increase, the decision to transfer to the next career level, or inclusion in the personnel reserve.”

Case 2. Euroset

Pavels Romasins, Director of the Personnel Development and Training Department,
corporate culture of Euroset Corporation:

“Two key thoughts:

1. Are you afraid that if you teach them, they will leave you? Be afraid that you won't train them and they will stay!

Developing your (sic!) employees is beneficial in all respects. And truly powerful business teams can do this! We at Euroset are proud of the market value of those who have worked with us for at least a year, and the speed with which they find work.

2. We are also proud that our managers “of their own free will” rarely leave us, because Euroset is a real University of Power (UM).

If we don’t work well with someone, good luck to him in his new place. If someone couldn’t handle it and we’ve exhausted the time limit for him to be “integrated” into our system for creating powerful results, let him succeed in another company.

An individual development plan is always and directly related to the concept of personnel reserve. Essentially, it is a development plan that employees complete to achieve a higher-level (usually managerial) position.

Very rarely in Western companies an individual development plan is used for horizontal rotations (the so-called mobile reserve), which is important for retail companies with a developed branch network. But! For us, this is most likely not relevant for a number of reasons. In the Russian Federation, such a practice is not observed, primarily because employers are looking for employees on the principle of “with experience in this profile.” In addition, the Russian labor market today is still an employer’s market, which can hire an external employee who is ready to work, rather than retraining his own, which is an order of magnitude more expensive. Retraining within the company has become exotic for the same reasons.

Place of an individual development plan in the personnel reserve training system: assessment of a reservist - identification of development zones (gap analysis) - preparation of IPR - implementation of IPR - assessment of the degree of implementation of IPR - recommendations for appointment to a leadership position.

An individual development plan is a list of activities aimed at the professional and managerial development of an employee. Event types:

— educational (aimed at obtaining new knowledge);
— developmental (aimed at improving in one’s professional field);
— reinforcing (events that reinforce skills).

The plan is individual, since it is based on identifying individual gaps between the level of professional competencies that the employee currently has and the one that will be required of him in a higher position.

The IPR is compiled on the basis of various assessment procedures, including a conversation between the manager and the employee himself. In this case, everything depends on the specifics of the activity and the position the specialist occupies.

Depending on what training and development goals we set, appropriate assessment methods are used.

The classic IPR contains three elements - knowledge, skills and abilities that are supposed to be developed by a reservist.

The widest range of tools is used in the implementation of IPR. It depends both on the results of the reservist’s assessment and on the position for which we are preparing him.

Most often, IPR includes attending internal and external trainings and advanced training (the entire possible range - from internship in a more complex area to obtaining an MBA), as well as various project tasks, usually of a managerial nature.

The elements of internships and the level of complexity of the tasks delegated to this employee are specified separately. As a rule, they are an order of magnitude more complex than usual.

At the moment, the Euroset corporation has clearly set a course for the constant training of a certain number of reservists for the positions of store directors and regional directors (operational managers managing the “cluster” of stores). These are hundreds of people throughout Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

This task is the most ambitious because it involves the assessment, training and development of a large number of employees.

The individual development plan for reservists will include mandatory management courses and trainings, project work related to the analysis of economic variables in the operation of the store, and a plan for the implementation of managerial tasks delegated by the immediate supervisor.

The training of a reservist for a higher position lasts about a year, sometimes less, depending on the position for which we are preparing him. We train a director for six months, a regional director for a year. However, a lot depends on each individual person. For some, three months is enough to be ready for a promotion, while for others it is difficult to meet the stated six months or a year (which is not necessarily a “contraindication” to the appointment).

The result of a successfully completed IPR is a recommendation for appointment to a higher position. If a reservist cannot cope with the implementation of an individual development plan, then he may be expelled from the personnel reserve or continue to study.

What is the risk that older employees will quit? There is a risk if the number of reservists is incorrectly planned. If they are not prescribed in the next 1-2 months.”

Case 3. “BAT Russia”

Anton Gevorkyan, training and personnel development manager at BAT Russia:

At British American Tobacco Russia, an individual development plan is drawn up for each employee by his immediate supervisor.

As a rule, the IPR is designed for 1 year, but in some cases, for example, when planning the career of high-potential employees, longer-term planning is used - for 3-5 years. In our company, drawing up an individual development plan is mandatory for each employee.

The plan is drawn up with the aim of identifying all the skills and abilities necessary for effective work in the current position, identifying among them those skills that need to be focused on the development in the first place, as well as the skills that are necessary for the employee’s further career growth. At the same time, an individual development plan provides an understanding of what tools a specialist will use to develop missing competencies.

The “reward” in case of successful implementation of the development plan will be increased efficiency of the employee’s professional activities, carefully thought-out career growth, as well as a high level of self-realization and job satisfaction.

The following tools can be used to draw up an individual development plan:

— feedback from the manager based on the employee’s performance;
— self-assessment by a specialist of the level of his competencies;
— “360 degree” survey;
— testing;
— a set of exercises aimed at identifying strong and missing skills and competencies. Completion of tasks is checked by professional trainers, who subsequently provide feedback.

The development plan may include the following training tools:

— trainings;
— online learning (e-learning);
— coaching and mentoring;
— reading professional literature;
— participation in cross-functional projects;
— attending conferences;
— training other employees;
— development in the workplace, that is, the development of one or another competence in the process of work.”

Practice shows that an individual employee development plan is an integral element of personnel management and development in large companies. This tool raises the professional level of a specialist, which, in turn, is extremely important not only for the employee himself, but also for the company. Highly qualified, efficient staff is the key to a successful business.

“I've been teaching for 12 years, and I'll tell you this: there are many other ways to develop skills and gain knowledge. Moreover, in some cases they are even more effective than training.” Anton Krasnobabtsev talks about how individual development plans for employees help them survive the crisis.
So, “Feast” during the plague.

about the author

Anton Krasnobabtsev, business coach, managing partner of the training company Key Solutions. Conducting trainings since 2002.

Completed a number of projects for the companies Sberbank, Rosatom, Gazprom, VEB-Leasing, Inditex, SIBUR, TMK and many others.

He led the personnel service of a distribution company, a group in a training company, and worked as a senior trainer.

Working with efficiency is inexpensive?

The crisis requires the company to change and increase its efficiency. Now we have to sell more and faster, provide better service, make decisions faster, manage more effectively... To do this, performers and managers need to acquire new skills and improve those that have already been mastered.

And here we are faced with a harsh reality: there is no money in the budget for additional training, especially during a crisis. Are they always needed? Is this problem only solved by expensive training? My answer is no.

Non-training development

I've been teaching for 12 years, and I'll tell you this: there are many other ways to develop skills and gain knowledge. Moreover, in some cases they are even more effective than training. In addition, they complement the latter very well, increasing their effectiveness.

Self-study

The simplest option when you need new knowledge is to study on your own. In a matter of minutes, you can find material on almost any topic on the Internet - from cold calling techniques to accelerated breeding of orchids. And these will not only be detailed written guides, but also videos.

Observation of a specialist

If there is a person nearby who has the necessary skill, then it can be an excellent visual aid, and 100% practical. To look at the actions of a colleague in a work environment, get an explanation and advice, try to do something together - this is how a professional, even without teaching talent, turns into a mentor.

Does the company not have an expert? And if you “ask” for an internship with an outsider, perhaps even for free or for symbolic money.

Analysis of student work

Having the right skills is also very helpful in assessing progress and providing direction for future development. By observing and sorting out the “student’s” work, he provides him with an invaluable service: he points out mistakes, how to correct them, and shares “tricks.”

If the work cannot be observed directly, then audio and video recordings can be used for analysis. Sometimes a verbal description is enough to receive valuable feedback: something like “I did this and this turned out, then I did this.”

I am sure that any specialist who works with people needs qualified feedback regularly, at least once every six months.

Such feedback is especially important after training, self-study or learning from experience. It is very difficult to look at ourselves from the outside, which is why it often seems that we are doing everything correctly, according to technology, although in fact we are missing a lot of non-obvious, but significant details.

In active sales, this is so important that the practice of “double visits”, or field support, when a mentor is sent to points along with a sales representative to analyze the work of a newcomer, has become almost irreplaceable.

Development while working

During training, when independently studying the material, when learning from experience or receiving feedback, a person acquires information not so much for reflection, but for application. Algorithms, effective techniques, “tricks” - all this needs to be introduced into your work.

To do this, we need to determine which work situations will allow us to develop each of the skills and how.

For example, we read material on time management and decided practice prioritization using the Eisenhower matrix.

We will do this, firstly, at the end of each working day, and secondly, every time a new task arrives.

How exactly: make (supplement) a list of tasks, assign them to the squares of the Eisenhower matrix, and during the day, first do the tasks from the first square, then “steaks” from the second, and so on.

Development on the job is practically the only way to develop skills, and it is more effective in this than training. Its convenience is that to practice skills you do not need any resources other than work situations.

But what to do if these very situations do not exist? For example, how can a HR specialist develop leadership skills? After all, he most likely doesn’t have to manage anyone yet!

"Special Projects"

You can create other work situations! These are tasks that go beyond normal duties, for example:

to develop leadership skills, you need to be a mentor for someone or lead a project working group;

to develop negotiation skills - to meet with a new, more complex type of clients (for example, with top officials);

to develop presentation skills, prepare and conduct a short training session on this topic for colleagues.

Development plan

Defining development goals

A systematic development plan begins with development goals, which identify situations in which efficiency needs to be improved; set the direction for improvement; motivate the employee.

There are two main approaches to setting development goals.

Achieving performance indicators, for example:

Execute additional sales plan. equipment for May by 100%.

Come to an average amount of discounts provided that does not exceed 5% of sales volume for May 2015.

Achieving qualitative changes in work, for example:

Learn to use an individual motivational approach to each subordinate before September 1, 2015.

Each approach has its advantages. In the case of the first, development is easier to control, and the second does not allow you to forget about its essence.

It is important to “sell” all the work with the development plan to the employee so that he understands why he needs all this and why he needs to act this way. This understanding increases the initiative and responsibility of the employee, and relieves his manager of the need for “educational conversations” and unnecessary control.

So, the tools and goals have been identified, now you need to create a development plan that will use them.

We draw up an action plan with control points

Of course, it is necessary to do this together with the employee so that he is a co-author of the plan, and the chosen actions are realistic and productive from his point of view.

For a plan for each goal, you can use the following form.


	Actions
Self-study	Find and study materials on working with price objections and draw up a summary of methods.
Adoption of experience	Three trips with specialist Ivan to negotiate with the client. Discussion with Ivan of the results of each joint meeting. Make a list of the main arguments that Ivan uses to deal with price objections.
Development while working	Use independently studied methods (from the notes) and Ivan’s arguments (from the list) during negotiations with clients.
Feedback	On a double visit, get feedback from the manager on my work with price objections.	(at least 2 times)

We track progress and move on

Meet with the employee periodically, such as once a month, to discuss progress, improve the plan, and set new development goals.

This approach teaches employees to take responsibility for their development and gives better results than occasional training.

Oksana Smuschenko, financial director of TSK Gelster.

We do not draw up an individual development plan for all employees, but only for promising personnel, which lack certain qualities to be most effective. This could be a specialist whom we see as a manager in the future, or an employee whose professionalism we want to develop at his current place of work.

In both cases drawing up an individual development plan begins with a conversation with an employee, because its preparation makes sense only for those employees who really strive for development. Therefore, to begin with, we talk with the employee and discuss the plans of the specialist himself. If a specialist is ready to develop in the company and work on himself, we move on to the next stage and together try to identify the skills that need to be worked on.

The manager and employee independently draw up a list of the specialist’s pros and cons and subsequently discuss them.

In my experience, the lists of a boss and a subordinate will be different. This is quite natural, since some character traits are better visible from the outside, while others, on the contrary, are visible only to the specialist himself. Therefore, it is very important that there are two lists, because this is the only way to get a complete picture and develop a comprehensive development plan. It is important not to limit yourself only to the employee’s shortcomings. Praise is a great motivator and promotes further development of skills.

Based on the results of the discussion of the employee’s pros and cons, we draw up an individual development plan.

It should include several points:
1. What needs to be improved or developed? This point presupposes the knowledge and skills that a specialist must master in a certain period of time.

2. What is the purpose of developing a skill? This indicates how the skill or knowledge will be useful in the job and why the employee needs it.

3. How and with the help of what or who should these skills be developed? This block describes specific methods by which knowledge and skills must be acquired.
A separate block describes additional materials that should help achieve the goal: literature, trainings, company events and help from colleagues.

4. In what time frame and in what form should the result be presented?

It is important that this paragraph sets out the result criteria and milestone dates for consolidating the skill. The form of reporting will depend on the skill itself. For example, this could be a review written by employees about a book they read or reaching a certain agreement with partners, as well as a specific date when this should be done.

As a rule, an individual development plan is drawn up for a period of three to six months. A shorter period of time may not be enough to master even one skill. A longer period may reduce employee motivation.

If there is a lot to master, then it is better to group them into blocks and divide them into several stages. Each stage should include a separate employee development plan.

Throughout the entire development period the manager must monitor the employee’s results and motivate the specialist to achieve them. It is important to create such conditions so that the subordinate can master everything planned.

If something doesn’t work out for a specialist, then he and his manager need to analyze in detail what happened and develop ways to solve the problem. An individual development plan involves very close work between the subordinate and his mentor on the path to common goals.

In an ideal situation, all declared skills should be mastered on time. Otherwise, both the manager and the subordinate will waste six months. As soon as all the goals laid down in the plan have been achieved, it is necessary to talk to the subordinate about the results, discuss how he himself evaluates the work done and whether he feels changes. This will help both for the employee’s self-analysis and for his further motivation.

Only after this can you move on either to the next stage of skill development and a new plan, or to the promised prospects: increased responsibility, expanded range of professional responsibilities, or promotion.

5 steps to a working Individual Development Plan

Why are IPRs needed at all? You probably know the expression that our thoughts are air, if we told someone about them, they are water, if we wrote them down, they are stone. By recording our goals on paper and writing down the steps to achieve them, we become somewhat closer to our development goals than when we simply think that “it would be nice for me to learn English.”

So how do you create a workable development plan?

The classic version of the IPR structure is as follows:

Development Goals
Development focuses with a description of the desired end result
Development methods
Developmental activities
Deadlines, completion marks and achieved results.

What is important to remember?

IPR cannot be an end in itself. This is precisely the mistake that many companies have: the presence of an IPR as a fact, so that “it will be”, because HR requires it. IPR is a tool, not a goal. And the goal is what this plan is drawn up for. The goals section of an individual development plan usually sets out the employee’s business goals, usually for 1 year. For an employee from the talent pool, the goal may be promotion to the next position.

If you write an IPR for yourself, you can also describe either your business goal or the goal of your development, let’s call it the Big Goal.

You can ask yourself questions:

What work/business goals do I have this year?
- What is the main challenge facing me now?
- What do I want to achieve in 1 year?
- Who do I want to be in 1 year?

Now that you have identified your Big Goal (business goal or career and/or professional development goal), we move on to choosing the competencies (direction/focus of development) that we will develop in order to achieve the big goals. It is recommended to choose more than 2 focuses of attention for the year. According to research, a simple skill can be developed in 1-2 months, more complex ones in 6-9 months, and complex competencies consisting of several skills and abilities develop in about 2 years.

Answer the following questions:

What competence will I develop?
- What specific knowledge/skills/skills do I lack to achieve results?
- What knowledge/skills/skills will be important in my future role?

As you know, development occurs according to our strengths. They say that 80% of the success we will achieve next year will be based on our strong competencies. And developing our strengths is much easier, faster, more effective, enjoyable, and we ourselves are able to evaluate our progress without outside assessment.

The development of our weaknesses requires much more effort, time, motivation, and here it is important to remember that most likely we will not be able to turn this into our strength, but we will be able to reach it to an “acceptable” level.

When to develop weaknesses (or “development areas”, as they are correctly called):

When the tasks associated with this competency cannot be delegated and/or the impact of this quality cannot be reduced by using one of the strengths;
When necessary to effectively perform current work;
When we understand that we will need this quality in our new role and must be present in us to one degree or another.

Here it is also necessary to define visible or measurable development results for each competency:

How will the development of this competence affect the results of my immediate activities?
- How will my manager understand that I have strengthened this area?
- What will happen if I do not develop this competence?
- What can I do when I develop this competency? What does success look like?
- What will I do differently?
Next we move on to choosing development methods:
- How will I develop this competence?

As you know, 70% of everything we learn - we learn in the process of working in the workplace by solving real work problems or participating in various projects, another 20% is learning from the experience of others, working with an experienced mentor, coach, mentor and only 10% of our development comes from “passive” development methods, such as trainings, seminars, webinars, lectures, books, etc. For development, it is better to choose at least 3 different development methods.

Developmental activities - what exactly will I do?

Here it is necessary to prescribe specific actions, for example, if I develop the “Persuasiveness in Communication” competency, then my development actions could be:

Provide at least 3 arguments when presenting your position.
In advance of negotiations or presentation, think through possible objections of the interlocutor and formulate counterarguments.
Selection and use of examples and metaphors in presentations.
Study and application of graphic visualization methods in work.
Requesting feedback after each meeting with key people, etc.

Create an action plan for each competency you develop. To do this, ask yourself the following questions:

What task/project in the workplace will develop this skill or ability? What else? What else?
- How can I use my strong skills and abilities as “substitute” or “compensatory” for this competency?
- Who and how can I attract from managers, colleagues, experts or coaches and how could they help me in the development of this area and in what way?
- What courses/books/electronic resources can help me develop this area?
- How else can the development gap be filled?

Record each action on a separate line. The number of developmental actions is not limited, but must be realistic.

Determine the time frame for the action plan. You can specify either a specific deadline for completing each action or the frequency of regular actions (daily, once a month, etc.). Consider the complexity of the field and the urgency of the need. Next to each action, leave a space to indicate that it was actually completed.

What else is important?

It is important to think about the resources needed:

How much time can you devote to your development per month/week/day?
- What other help and support do you need? How can you get this help?
- How can you support yourself?
- How will you monitor progress?

It is important to have a development mentor and/or coach. A mentor is needed to suggest or even show how to do it or where to find the necessary information, and with a coach you can choose the most optimal ways of development for yourself, discuss the difficulties you encounter in the course of development, and celebrate progress. It’s good if your manager can act as a mentor. If this is not your case, agree with one of your colleagues or senior comrades. You can also find yourself a development partner (someone who is also focused on developing a certain skill or ability) and discuss your progress with him weekly according to a simple scheme: what worked, what didn’t work, what are your plans for the next week.

It is important to regularly monitor your IPR from the point of view of its relevance, because life does not stand still, business tasks can change, and the focus of your development may also change.
And don’t forget to evaluate the results of your development at the end of the period and celebrate your successes!