What is a People Development Plan, and Why is it Important?

“The best investment you can make is in yourself,” said Warren Buffet. 

Even better if your employer is willing to invest in your development on your behalf. And that’s exactly what they should do to keep their company thriving and profitable.  

But the concept of "development" is both vague and unique to every individual in your organization. For some, it might mean acquiring leadership skills to set them up for a future in the C-suite. For others, it could mean gradually strengthening their toolkit with specialist skills to become an expert in their field. 

This guide describes how to create a people development plan as a strategic way to support and progress every employee in your org chart. 

What is a people development plan? 

A people development plan is also known as an employee development or professional development plan. It acts as a formal roadmap connecting the dots between an individual's current skills and the ones they need to advance in their career. The plan outlines the employee's professional goals and the training or other development types they'll use to reach them. 

By gathering all the information you need in one place, each employee and their manager has a blueprint to support their continuous growth during their time at the company. 

What are the key components of an effective people development plan? 

There’s no set approach to people development planning; your L&D team should feel free to create an employee development plan template that meets the specific needs of your organization, then customize it for each person. But in most cases, your plan will include the following components: 

Individual goals

The SMART goal-setting process can help managers and their employees build specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals. 

Example: Junior developer Agam wants to become a senior developer within the next two years. To kickstart her progression trajectory, she’ll enhance her proficiency in React.js by completing an intermediate-level online course within the next three months. Following the course, she’ll apply these skills to build a fully functional web component, deliverable within six months. 

Development types 

An employee development plan must be actionable. It’s not enough to benchmark an employee’s current position and map out where they aspire to be. To get them from A to B, you should pinpoint the specific development opportunities available to support them.

For example, these might include: 

• Formal training courses
• Mentoring partnerships
• Peer-to-peer employee development programs 
• Networking event and conference attendance 
• Business coaching 
• Job shadowing opportunities 
• Secondments to other departments or teams within the organization 

Evaluation methods 

Your plan should define how and when you'll evaluate if an employee is progressing effectively, both in terms of picking up new skills and experience and at the rate you expect. 

You might use: 

• Skills assessment scores 
• Course completion rates 
• 360-degree feedback from peers and colleagues 
• Managerial feedback 

Resources and tools 

Aligning closely with the development types you've already selected, also articulate the tools, platforms, and resources you’ll make available to support each employee’s development.

Examples can be:

• Employee learning and development portals 
• Access to online courses and certifications 
• Leadership training programs 

5 key benefits of a people development plan

People development plans aren't the only way to progress your employees. If your company has a training budget and commits to informal mentoring partnerships, you've already made a great start in developing your team members. An employee development plan goes the extra mile by assembling everything you're already doing, but making it formal and more organized. Doing so offers the following benefits: 

Revealing new talents 

Rather than remain stagnant, a development plan encourages employees to gain exposure in different areas of the business. Job secondments or rotations introduce workers to roles they’ve never considered before, and that they may show a natural flair for. 

Bridging skills gaps 

Individual plans also highlight the difference between current and desired skill sets. According to Springboard’s State of the Workforce Skills Gap study, 70% of leaders report an existing skills gap in their respective organizations, and almost 40% reveal the gap is widening further.  

Your plan provides the perfect framework to anticipate future talent shortages and bridge these gaps before they become critical. 

Creating a culture of learning 

Employees must feel “permitted” to learn. People development plans are a strong signal that their employers are supportive of their continuous education in the workplace. They legitimize the idea that learning is a crucial part of their job and career progression. 

This is cemented further when managers proactively create an employee's plan and find ways to motivate them and continue their development. 

Example: Manager Adriana suggests her direct report, Liri, attends a lunch and learn session on the subject of public speaking, a topic Liri has expressed interest in but hasn't had much experience with yet. Discussing the session together afterward gives Liri confidence to grow in new areas. 

Aligning employee development with organizational goals 

Employees arrive at your organization with their own unique blend of skills, knowledge, and experience. They also have their own personal career goals. The trick is finding a balance between what the employee wants to achieve, and how their goals will benefit the company. This alignment has been the top priority for L&D professionals this year, according to LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning report. A plan provides the perfect space to do this. 

Example: Imagine Janeanne arrives at the company with a degree in marketing and aspires to become the company’s next marketing director. She creates her career development plan with her manager, who identifies that Janeanne would benefit from learning more about customer insights and market research methods. This also ties into the company’s goal of increasing customer satisfaction levels by gathering better data on their target market. 

Reducing employee turnover

Some 86% of employees would be inclined to leave their current employer if they lack professional development opportunities. To prove they don't put growth on the back burner, companies can commit to proper development planning. 

By investing in their employees' learning and career progression, employers show they value each team member and are committed to helping them grow. This leads to higher engagement, job satisfaction, and better employee retention rates. 

8 manager steps to implement a successful development plan

Managers can instigate the process of developing exciting employee growth paths for every individual by following these steps: 

1. Gain buy-in 

Multiple levels of the organization must be committed to designing and implementing a development plan for it to be successful. Here’s who to gain buy-in from: 

• Executive leadership: Are they willing to approve a training budget, cover the costs of employees acquiring a new certification, or hire external trainers? Present a business case detailing why these investments are necessary to achieve the company's goals. 
• Employees: Pause for a second and check if your employees actually want to progress. Do they have the growth mindset required to keep building on their skills? Book regular 1:1s with your direct reports to understand their extrinsic and intrinsic motivators and what they want from their time with the company. 
• Team leads: Are they willing and able to offer constructive feedback to keep employees moving toward their goals? Provide communication to shape how they evaluate the development process. 

2. Define manager responsibilities

Leaders and HR should clarify what role managers will play in building and maintaining effective employee development plans. To do so: 

• Conduct quarterly development check-ins with employees to review progress toward goals. 
• Ask clarifying questions to help employees identify their goals and preferred future careers 
• Provide suggestions for learning and development opportunities 
• Create a supportive environment where employees feel comfortable discussing their progress and any challenges they’re facing

3. Loop HR in to support your managers 

Creating effective development plans can be a tremendous responsibility for managers. Human Resources professionals can support them by: 

• Crafting initial development frameworks: HR can design customizable templates for their managers to follow, ensuring a consistent yet versatile approach to individual development. 
• Delivering dedicated manager training programs: Some managers may require or prefer to complete formal training so they know how to progress their direct reports. 
• Setting up regular collaboration opportunities between HR and management: HR can offer bi-annual or quarterly review sessions with managers to discuss progress and share best practices. 

4. Select relevant tools to implement your plan

Unless scraps of paper do it for you, consider using software to design and distribute your employee development plan. You might: 

• Invest in a dedicated employee development software
• Activate a learning and development module within your existing HRIS platform 
• Opt for something more basic, like a Google Doc or spreadsheet 

Whatever your preference, ensure your tool of choice allows multiple people to view and comment on the plan and that it can be stored in a central location for easy access. 

5. Conduct a skills gap analysis 

After completing your prep work, the next step is assessing your employee's skills. This enables you to identify any gaps between the requirements of their role and their current position. It's also a great starting point for understanding what they need to achieve to progress toward their next role.

The basic steps involved in a skills analysis are: 

• Identifying the core competencies needed for current and future roles
• Assessing each employee’s proficiency in those competencies 
• Comparing the results to identify development needs 
• Reviewing any additional skills or knowledge that would help employees transition into a new role within the company 

6. Identify growth opportunities

Managers can apply extra focus to any areas where their employees need to improve. 

Example: Jana's skills gap analysis identifies her struggles to follow instructions in team meetings. She knows that to become a future team lead, she must improve her active listening and note-taking skills. Her manager can suggest opportunities to develop these attributes, like participating in communication workshops or taking courses on how to be an effective team player. 

7. Develop a comprehensive action plan 

This is where your skills analysis comes back into play. Consider what resources, learning opportunities, and support you can offer employees to upskill in their deficient areas and achieve their goals. 

Example: Jana’s manager agrees to send her on a communication workshop and assigns her a mentor who can provide guidance and feedback as she works on improving her active listening and note-taking skills. Additionally, they agree on a timeline for regular check-ins to track Jana’s progress, which looks like this:

• January: Attend communication workshop 
• February: Implement strategies learned in the workshop and receive feedback from mentor 
• March: Complete a course on effective note-taking techniques 
• April: Successfully demonstrate improved skills in all team meetings

8. Review and update your people development plan

Setting up feedback loops is critical to the success of any development plan. These should be frequent and ongoing, for example, monthly or quarterly, rather than a once-a-year performance appraisal. Managers can: 

• Schedule regular one-on-one meetings with employees to discuss their progress and address any issues that arise 
• Ask for feedback from employees on how the action plan is working for them
• Adapt the plan as needed based on employee feedback or changes in company goals 

What are the biggest challenges in employee development planning?  

Some common roadblocks appear when drawing up employee development plans. Here's what to look out for and how to overcome them: 

Budget and resource limitations 

Unless you have a bottomless development budget, most companies will need to be strategic about how they upskill their employees. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean sacrificing quality in favor of cost. Some solutions include: 

• Investing in online courses or webinars that offer high-value training at a lower cost than traditional classroom-based options 
• Encouraging managers to source and share free resources and opportunities with their employees 
• Prioritizing employee development initiatives based on company goals and critical skills needs 

Employee resistance

Not all employees are open to the idea of developing new skills, especially if they feel comfortable in their current role. As a manager or HR professional, you can address this by: 

• Communicating the benefits of learning and development opportunities for both the employee and the company as a whole
• Being transparent about how the development plan ties into career growth and opportunities within the company 
• Encouraging employees to take ownership of their own development and choose areas they are interested in improving 
• Providing support and resources for employees who may be experiencing a lack of confidence or fear of failure when trying new things 

Integrations with existing HR processes 

Employee development perfectly complements other essential people processes, such as performance management and succession planning. Ensure your professional development plans align and integrate with these processes to get the most out of all your HR efforts. Do this by:

• Building development goals into performance evaluations 
• Using succession planning data to identify high-potential employees who would benefit from targeted development opportunities 
• Collecting feedback from managers and other stakeholders on the effectiveness of your development initiatives and using this to inform future plans 

Develop your people with Benepass 

Benepass is a benefits administration platform that puts your people at the front and center of your business. We work with companies who prioritize their employees’ growth, both by providing upskilling opportunities and creating a company culture their workers never want to leave. And by doing so, they ensure the continued growth of their business and the people who work there. 

Benepass provides a wide range of pre-tax and post-tax perks and benefits that support this quest, including our Professional Development Account, which meshes seamlessly with people development planning. Here's how it works: 

• You’ll decide how much of a budget you want to allocate to each individual In your organization 
• You'll define eligible spending categories within your account, such as books, courses, coaching, networking memberships, etc. 
• We’ll code your unique account policy into our Benepass platform to generate your unique Visa Benepass 
• We’ll connect Benepass to your payroll system to automate enrollment 
• You’ll communicate your new benefits offering to your employees and invite them to join Benepass from day one

Benepass believes that when your employees grow, so does your company. If you agree, book a Benepass demo today or contact sales@getbenepass.com today to connect with a benefits specialist.