- Career goals and aspirations
- Strengths and talents
- Development opportunities
- Action plans
Career goals and aspirations
The career goals and aspirations section should include a list of the employee’s achievable productivity and advancement goals, as well as target and actual dates for achieving them. It may include specific projects the employee wants to complete, productivity results they would like to achieve, and aspirations they have for advancing to a specific level in the company.
Strengths and talents
Use the employee’s performance review or list of core competencies to identify specific knowledge, skills, and talents they possess. Positive feedback is important, and highlighting strengths helps employees build confidence and readiness to take on new challenges.
Development opportunities
List each development opportunity along with its corresponding goal. For example, if the development opportunity is “communication skills”, the goal could be a satisfactory grade from an active listening or public speaking course.
Action plans
Action plans should be specific, individually tailored, and achievable. They should also work for the benefit of the employee’s team.
Here are some typical actions an employee might include:
- Mentoring others
- Learning from a mentor
- Completing a development course
- Joining a professional organization
- Gaining professional certifications
- Leading or presenting at meetings
- Cross-training for another position
- Attending professional conferences or seminars
- Creating educational programs for other team members
- Taking on more difficult tasks in the current role
- Coordinating integration events
- Volunteering in social groups
How to implement development plans?
- Create your own plan – when employees see supervisors working on their own improvement, it builds trust and encourages everyone to evaluate themselves honestly.
- Prepare for the conversation with your employees – distribute a development plan questionnaire to each employee. In these forms, employees are to specify their:
- Career goals and aspirations
- Things that inspire and motivate them
- Passions, skills, and talents
- Development opportunities
- Review your employees’ answers and use performance reviews and other materials to prepare for individual discussions. Your goal is to connect the employee’s understanding with ways they can achieve their goals and help your company as well.
- Meet with each employee – let the employee lead the discussion about their goals, passions, and skills. Then collaborate with them to determine specific action steps that will help them achieve their goals. The session should be collaborative.
- Help the employee prepare a sample plan – determine the best ways to achieve goals, consider what is feasible for the employee in the context of the organization and their skill set. Key questions to keep in mind are:
- What can the employee achieve by performing their core responsibilities?
- How much can your company afford in terms of budget and employee time?
- Are the included action steps specific and measurable enough?
- Which action steps will benefit both the employee and your company?
