Employee Development Plan Template

People are motivated by self-development. Therefore, if you want to attract and retain top talent, you must invest in employee development.

A survey, run by Payscale, found that two out of three employees have quit jobs over ‘’inadequate career development’’.

In a similar fashion, according to The Conference Board, only 33 percent of U.S. employees were satisfied with the development programs at their place of work.

This is why Process Street has created this employee development plan template. 

An employee development plan is a process. It looks at an employee’s goals and establishes the steps that need to be taken to reach those goals, whilst taking into consideration the needs of the organization. 

It's a way to provide your employees with opportunities to develop, whilst also making sure the company is achieving its goals.  

Typically, employee development sits within the HR department. The HR manager would be responsible for creating the employee development plan, but the employee’s line manager  would be responsible for taking the employee through the development plan and following up on actions. 

People often think that employee development and employee training are the same. But they’re not.

Employee development plans are long-term. They are futuristic in nature and focus on developing employees for future positions, assignments, and responsibilities. 

Training plans are short term. They focus on how to improve the employee’s skills and capabilities for their current role. 

Take a look at our employee development plan template and use it to improve employee engagement, encourage retention and establish a pipeline of promotable talent.

Feel free to take bits out, add bits in, change it up and adapt it to suit your organization.

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This section would typically be completed by the HR Manager.

Enter the employee's details in the fields below.

In this task, set the date of the employee's development plan.

Assign the below tasks to the employees line manager, so they can complete the development plan with the employee. 

Assign tasks 6 - 16 to the employee’s line manager.

Describe the employee's career aspirations in the field below. 

Identify the employee's top three long-term professional goals in the fields below. 

Identify the employee's top three short-term professional goals in the fields below. 

List 2 – 3 activities that will help the employee achieve their goals.

Include details on how they will complete each activity and what resources they might need.

Then, set a deadline for each goal and assign the responsibility. 

Long-term Goals

Long-term goal 1: {{form.Long-term_goal_1}}

Long-term goal 2: {{form.Long-term_goal_2}}

Long-term goal 3: {{form.Long-term_goal_3}}

Short-term Goals

Short-term goal 1: {{form.Short-term_goal_1}}

Short-term goal 2: {{form.Short-term_goal_2}}

Short-term goal 3: {{form.Short-term_goal_3}}

Review the employees long-term goals and identify the tasks, in their current role, that are contributing to their long term goals.

Then, describe what actions need to be taken to make sure these tasks are performed more frequently and assign the responsibility. 

Overview of long-term goals:

1. {{form.Long-term_goal_1}}

2. {{form.Long-term_goal_2}} 

3. {{form.Long-term_goal_3}}

Review the employees long-term goals and identify the tasks, in their current role, that are NOT contributing to their long term goals.

Then, describe what actions need to be taken to minimize, remove or delegate these tasks and assign the responsibility.

Overview of long-term goals:

1. {{form.Long-term_goal_1}}

2. {{form.Long-term_goal_2}} 

3. {{form.Long-term_goal_3}}

Describe the additional skills, knowledge or experience that the employee might like to acquire, that may directly or indirectly, help in their current job or future positions.

List the actions needed to get the skills, knowledge and experience and assign the responsibility.

It's important to set regular progress checks to make sure the employee is progressing with their development. 

You can either select the progress check date in the field below, or you can use the dynamic due dates feature to automatically set a progress check date.

Find out more about setting dynamic due dates here. 

Sources 

• Talenteam - How to write a Career Development Plan
• Payscale - 2019 Compensation Best Practices 
• PR Newswire - Labor Day Survey: 51% of U.S. Employees Overall Satisfied with Their Job
• eLearning Industry - HR Or Operations: Who Should Be Responsible For Employee Training In An Organization?
• Bamboo HR - Employee Development Plans: 4 Winning Steps to Engaged Employees
• Management Study Guide - Training and Development - A Key HR Function
• Chron - What Is a Gap Analysis for Human Resources?

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