Managers: take a look at your employees’ development plans. If your response is, “What development plans? My employees don’t have development plans”, you are not alone.

Our research shows that only half of all companies make widespread use of employee development plans.  And even within these companies, most development plans are poor quality and ineffective.

This is unfortunate, since employee development plans are a vital means for employees to meet their goals . These plans are also important to aligning the career interests  of the employee with the objectives and talent needs of the business.

Organizations clearly need to improve this process. Here are a few tips based on our interviews with best-practice organizations.

First, in creating the plans, the employee and manager must both be engaged in order to align individual needs against the organization’s needs. Employees cannot really create high value development plans alone.  Likewise, managers cannot dictate development plans without input and feedback from the employee.  This requires the development of a “feedback culture” – which builds a dialogue of candor and transparency.
 
Ideally, multiple people throughout the organization are involved  in creating development plans – including managers, executives, peers, and co-workers. While individuals and their managers can usually work on “what skills are needed to improve,” ultimately the process depends on alignment with the internal and external needs of the organization.  So to improve the development planning process, organizations should build a talent calibration and talent review process which allows many managers and executives to discuss the development needs of their teams.
 
Second, the types of development activities prescribed will depend upon the individual and the goals. Organizations should offer a broad set of development activities, since people learn through many types of formal and informal training.  Development activities may include classroom and online training, coaching, mentoring, job rotations, cross-functional assignments, and degree programs. The choice will depend on the individual and job role.

Third, once development plans have been established, they should be reviewed periodically –ideally monthly or quarterly. Plans may change based on business conditions and the individual’s progress.  When development plans are only done once or twice per year, they are likely to be out of date and often just “thrown in the drawer” until the next review cycle. More frequent review helps the employee and manager stay aligned and allows the plan to be modified if necessary.
 
Finally, the process for creating and reviewing development plans should be consistent throughout the organization. If you have no process currently, start with one division or region as a pilot, and roll out the process from there. It will take several iterations to improve the process, but in the end, it’s well worth it. For more information on best practices in performance management and other talent processes, see The Talent Management Factbook 2009, available free to Research Members or available for purchase at www.bersin.com/tmfactbook.