Employee career development plan offers an ideal career advancement roadmap for young professionals and new hires to expand their knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSA). HR officials can develop this plan to help employees grow as professionals and contribute to the organization’s success.
In this blog post, I will discuss what a career development plan for employees is, how to create and implement one, and the major aspects related to it. So, let’s start the walkthrough of this all-important plan.
What is an employee career development plan?
An employee career development plan is a documented guide with strategies to help employees enhance their skills to perform optimally, helping the company grow.
This plan assists employees in staying focused on their growth, making it easier for managers to identify potential and provide necessary support.
For example, a career development plan for a marketing officer would include the following:
🟦 Professional goals to achieve in the first 30/60/90 days
🟦 Professional goals to achieve in the 1st/2nd/3rd/,… year
🟦 Skills to attain in the 1st/2nd/3rd/,… year
🟦 Marketing KPIs to meet during specific periods
🟦 Skills to attain particular goals
🟦 Training sessions to attend for particular skills
🟦 Action plans for each set of goals
🟦 Mentors to work with.
These parameters help employees build their careers with the support of their supervisors and mentors.
Benefits of a Career Development Plan
Employee motivation is the key benefit that an employee career development plan offers. Employees feel motivated to do their jobs and learn new skills. Other benefits include:
- Continuous learning and skill development. Employees feel more eager to learn and develop with a set plan and documented goals.
- Set organizational objectives. HR can help employees align their goals with organizational goals so that both sides are on the same page.
- Enhanced employee engagement. Employees have greater job satisfaction with set goals in mind and appropriate support, helping them feel more engaged in work.
- Improved productivity. Individual and overall team productivity increases, boosting organizational performance and smooth flow of processes.
- Reduced Turnover. You can retain more employees as they feel the scope to grow in the organization. It also helps optimize your retention strategy.
How to create an employee career development plan?
To create a career development plan, you as an HR officer, need to know the whole process of crafting it. Let’s take a look at it:
Developing an employee retention strategy
Organizations create and use employee retention strategies to reduce employee turnover, prevent attrition, increase retention, and foster employee engagement. An employee career development plan is part of the retention strategy so that employees can develop their skills and meet the organization’s productivity needs.
So creating a robust employee retention strategy is the first step for ensuring a professional growth plan.
Besides an employee career plan, important elements of a retention strategy are:
- Work environment: making sure the workplace environment is conducive to carrying out duties and building professional ties.
- Corporate culture: developing a company culture where employees feel welcome and want to stay from the onset. This is essential for a synced and productive team.
- Benefits Package: having a par or better than market remunerations and benefits. Employees should be rewarded accordingly for their work and performance, along with other benefits that will motivate them to stay with the company.
Analyzing employee skill development needs
Training employees is an investment. Thus you need to determine which employee needs what training to grow professionally. Training Needs Analysis (TNA) is the process of identifying the gaps between the organization’s objectives and the employee’s skills and ensuring the right employees receive the right training.
TNA involves evaluating both individual and organizational needs to ensure that training efforts are targeted, efficient, and aligned with company and team objectives.
A TNA will help spot the areas of improvement and support the employee by arranging the appropriate seminars/workshops/training/courses.
Focusing on employee performance improvement
Once you know the skills or knowledge gaps of specific employees, the focus will be on improving their performance.
You can create a checklist of the aspects that need improvement. This does not have to be direct hard skills that reflect on the KPIs of the employee. It could be soft skills like emotional intelligence, behavior molding, negotiations, etc.
At this stage, you need to talk with the employee and let them know what the company’s expectations are and hear what their expectations are. Then set development goals and action plans accordingly.
For instance, a marketing employee may want to advance their career as a sales professional in your industry. However, you may feel his analytical abilities could be used fruitfully in online space or digital marketing. And thus, you want him to develop his digital marketing skills. In such a case, you need to convey your requirements with data or documented results of his performance. And help him see why he would be a better fit in the digital marketing space.
Setting employee development goals
When the employee and you are committed to meeting the organization’s objectives and goals, it’s time to set their goals for the long term in alignment with the company’s.
Development goals can be for the immediate future (next 3 months) or long-term (3 or more years. These goals can be created on an individual level, to help the employee improve their skills and abilities without focusing on specific company objectives. Or, the goals can be to develop KSAs that will feed into improving a particular organizational goal in a specified time.
An example of a company-aligned goal is “learning an SEO management tool like GetGenie to increase traffic to the company website by 15% in the next 6 months for the marketing team.”
The end goal is usually to equip the employee with the right KSAs and promote the employee under succession planning for a future higher role.
Crafting a career progression strategy
Next, you need action plans to help the employee get to those goals. Some elements that you may want to include in the action plans are:
- Scheduling activities: These could include training courses, attending events, reading relevant books or articles, or shadowing a more experienced team member.
- Mentor assignments: Such as mentoring, coaching, or tagging with a Subject Matter Experts (SME).
- Timeline: This should detail when team members or individuals will complete each activity.
- Cost per item: Identifying company costs for allotting each aspect of the employee career development plan and strategies.
Calculating Costs of a Career Development Plan
Measuring the costs associated with a Career Development Plan involves assessing the monetary expenditure required to implement the strategies of the plan.
The costs include:
- Direct Costs: these are the costs associated with training, materials, resources, logistics, venues, and trainers. Examples include fees for courses or workshops, training software subscriptions, conference room rents, etc.
- Indirect Costs: these costs represent employees’ wages spent for attending the session or the involvement of supervisors taking time off from their regular duties and mentoring the trainees.
- Opportunity Costs: when an employee or group of employees attend a training session on a weekend or after the office instead of allocating time elsewhere, that is an opportunity lost for them. The trainees could have generated some income out of the office during the weekend.
Investing in a development plan needs the right ROI to be fruitful or successful. You should compare the costs with expected benefits, such as:
- Increased employee productivity.
- Higher retention rates (reducing hiring costs).
- Enhanced organizational capabilities.
If the ROI is not up to the mark, the plan should be disposed of or modified accordingly.
Designing an employee training program
When you know from which point to which point on the roadmap the employee has to travel to meet their development goals, you can plan and/or design the exact training programs for them.
You need to consider the following factors for the training programs:
The training program you offer the employees should be transferable to their jobs. That is, they can implement it on their job and you can assess their progress after the training. This is part of the employee learning & development that eventually determines whether a trainee can be promoted or considered for a higher role.
Including Career Planning Tools
Another way to develop a career growth plan for employees is by using various career planning tools with templates, charts, milestones, lists, etc.
Examples include:
- Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) – a popular personality assessment test tool
- Lucidchart – SWOT Analysis Tool to identify strengths and weakness
- TalentGuard – All-in-one Career Development Planning Tool
- Coursera – online skill-based learning platform that enables one to upskill in various fields
- Qooper – mentorship platform that connects employees with industry experts for guidance
Understanding the role of a professional growth plan for a leadership development program
After implementing the growth plan, the employees who can:
- Learn quickly
- Adopt new or advanced skills correctly
- Perform at par or better than expected
Can be placed in a leadership development program.
A leadership development program hones an individual’s leadership skills both personally and professionally, helping the organization to succeed. The best leadership development programs build needed competencies and develop leaders to tackle the real-world challenges of top management.
For instance, participants and trainees may perform role-plays where they enact the role of leaders or CEOs with challenges. Or, they may be critically and ruthlessly questioned in an interview session conducted by multiple judges.
Many renowned institutions like Harvard, MIT, Yale, etc. offer leadership programs both online and offline that employers can send employees to attend. These programs equip the employees with the right leadership tools and methods to execute their potential.
How does an employee mentorship program feed into a career advancement roadmap?
As per Forbes, 70% of Fortune 500 companies include mentorship programs to help their employees grow professionally. Thus, assigning mentors to employees who need a career development plan can be a highly effective move.
A mentor can guide them in each step of their career advancement roadmap with the sharing of knowledge, stories, and experiences. A senior organizational member has both the functional knowledge and the company cultural knowledge to help the employee grow holistically.
Challenges of employee career development plan
HR Managers often face challenges in ensuring these employee career development plans are successful. Some key challenges and insights into addressing them:
🔴 Insufficient Budget and Resources
Career development requires investments in training programs, mentoring, and tools. Limited budgets can restrict opportunities for employees.
Solution: Prioritize cost-effective methods such as online courses, internal mentoring programs, or partnerships with educational institutions.
🔴 Limited Employee Participation
Employees may lack interest or motivation to actively participate in development plans, particularly if they don’t see immediate benefits or alignment with their career goals.
Solution: Engage employees in creating their plans, ensuring they align with personal aspirations and professional growth.
🔴 Balancing Workloads
Having employees participate in training or development activities can disrupt regular workflows, impacting productivity and team dynamics.
Solution: Plan development activities during slower business periods or integrate them into employees’ schedules with minimal disruption.
🔴 Lack of Managerial Support
Managers play a crucial role in facilitating employee development. However, some may lack the skills, time, or willingness to guide their teams effectively.
Solution: Train managers to be mentors and actively involve them in career discussions with employees.
🔴 Rapidly Changing Skill Demands
In fast-evolving industries, the skills employees need today may quickly become outdated, making long-term planning difficult.
Solution: Focus on developing adaptable skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and learning agility, in addition to technical competencies.
🔴 Retention Concerns
Organizations may worry that investing in employee development will lead to employees leaving for better opportunities elsewhere.
Solution: Build a positive work culture, offer competitive compensation, and create internal advancement opportunities to retain developed talent.
🔴 Resistance to Change
Some employees may resist career development plans due to fear of failure, comfort in their current roles, or reluctance to learn new skills.
Solution: Foster a culture of continuous learning and emphasize the benefits of skill development for both personal and professional growth.
🔴 Evaluating Effectiveness
It can be challenging to track the success and ROI of career development programs, making it difficult to justify continued investment.
Solution: Set measurable goals, such as increased productivity, employee satisfaction, and retention rates, to evaluate the plan’s impact.
Final Words
Employee career development plan is a continuous process that helps pick out potential employees who have a bright future with the company and their careers. The plan helps equip them with the right tools and shows them the way to grow in their careers.
Career growth plans act as a gift from employers to employees to help them overcome a lack of skills and shine in their fields. If utilized properly, the plan creates leaders of tomorrow.
So, what are you waiting for? Craft a compelling career development plan for your employees and earn the trust and respect of all!
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