How to Create a Great Employee Development Plan: Steps and Examples

earning and development strategies can significantly affect employee retention. It is one of the key benefits of employee training. 

Yet, if you want maximum effect, you should pay particular attention to the employee development plan. Look at it as the roadmap, and if your business has such a plan, why employees won’t?

Read on to learn more about the principles of employee development, the components of the plan, and worthy employee development examples.

What is An Employee Development Plan?

An employee development plan is a deliberate framework, or series of documents, that define the goals, paths, and ways for employees to grow and enhance their skills, knowledge, and capabilities. 

Thus, the right components of the effective employee development planning framework refer to:

• Individualized goals. These should include the objectives that address each employee's unique aspirations and needs.
• Skill gap analysis. Consider the employee skills and gaps that require improvement to align with specific roles or job requirements.
• Training and resources. Some development goals may require particular training curriculum, and thus, consideration of how you would offer knowledge, expertise, or courses.
• Milestones and timelines. Employee development plans should have short and long-term goals, setting measurable targets within realistic timeframes.
• Regular feedback. Another part is the constructive guidance and gathering insights that help track employee’s progress and adjust the plan if needed.

Note: the successful employee development plan is built around the concepts of collaboration, flexibility, and lifelong learning. That way, the L&D specialists would ensure the participation of the employees, adaptability to role changes, and tangible long-term effects.

In the end, the ultimate goal of such a plan is to cultivate a skilled workforce, drive organizational success, and affect employee job satisfaction and retention.

What Are the Benefits of Having Employee Development Plans? 

From a strategic perspective, employee development is not just about professional growth. It contemplates creating a win-win situation for employees and employers if aligning with organizational goals.

The benefits for the employees are:

• Skill enhancement. The development of new skills and upskilling help workers excel in their roles and prepare for future opportunities.
• Career growth. A clear plan offers a vision of how to achieve advancement and answer employee’s career aspirations. Thus, it affects job satisfaction and motivation.
• Increased engagement. Except for clarity on the career, the employees feel valued when the company prioritizes their development.
• Job security. Continuous upskilling under a plan makes employees more adaptable to industry changes.

The benefits for the organizations are:

• Improved retention rates. The key benefit is that employee development plans foster loyalty and reduce turnover by creating a supportive workplace culture.
• Enhanced productivity. As trained employees feel valued, they are likely to work more efficiently.
• Talent and leadership development pipeline. Plans help discover talents and prepare employees for leadership roles, supporting succession planning.
• Competitive advantage. A skilled workforce helps the organization adapt to trends and outperform competitors.

Individual Employee Development Plan Template

Let’s look at the simplest template of the employee development framework that you can replicate in Google Sheets, Google Docs, Figma, or Canva. 

To make this work, you should reflect all the components we mentioned before. You set goals, link them to skills, and offer action items to take. Sure, you can add transitional parts and milestones. 

The general structure is that. Yet, if you want it more complicated, you will need to do some digging, add structure, and consider employee and organizational needs, skills, and goals. Notably, that’s why there are different types of employee development plans. 

How to Create an Employee Development Plan? 

So, having a template just beside you, let’s cover the key steps on how to make it more complicated or make it applicable to the different professional development scenarios. 

• Step#1. Identify professional and organizational goals 
• Step#2. Analyze skills gaps via assessments and feedback 
• Step#3. Determine training resources and methods to use
• Step#4. Offer plan with developed action items and deadline 
• Step#5. Do regular checkups and reviews
• Step#6. Track their performance and adjust to changes

Note. if you want to create employee development plans that help employees and your business, find a way to make them a part of your continuous learning strategy.

Step 1: Identify professional and organizational goals

The foundation of any plan is a clear goal. So, the first step in creating a professional development plan is to identify and align both the employee’s aspirations and the organization’s strategic objectives. 

That way, the employee's individual growth will be able to contribute directly to business success.

How to do it right? Well, start by discussing the employee’s career goals, both short-term and long-term. 

Let’s consider some professional goals examples:

• Short-term goals might include mastering a specific skill or handling a task or project. 
• Long-term goals could involve transitioning to a leadership role or gaining cross-functional expertise. 

Yet, make sure that these goals should follow the SMART framework (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) to ensure clarity and feasibility.

What about the organizational goals side? Clearly define how employee development supports broader objectives. 

You may include certain skills in the agenda that are essential in terms of business goals or changes.

• If the organizational short-term priority is improving customer satisfaction, for a support or sales role, the plan could target soft skills like communication or problem-solving.
• If the company’s long-term goal is digital transformation, an employee’s development plan might as well focus on acquiring advanced technical skills or certifications. 

Lastly, when you align short-term and long-term professional goals with organizational priorities, the plan can bring better results. In particular, you can link skill certification to specific roles, or support professional initiatives via business project opportunities.

Step 2: Analyze skills gaps through assessments and feedback

Next, once goals are established, it’s essential to assess the employee’s current capabilities and identify gaps in skills or knowledge. 

What are the important tools to collect data before crafting an effective employee development plan? 

• Performance reviews
• 360-degree feedback
• Quizzes or polls
• Skills self assessment tools or custom schemes (including Google Forms, iMocha Interview, Skillmeter, or Brilliant Assessment,)

In particular, feedback from team members, peers, or managers can provide insights into strengths and soft skills areas for improvement, such as communication, technical expertise, or strategic thinking.

As a result, finding and understanding skills gaps allows you to prioritize development areas. Moreover, assessments offer employees a sense of direction and help them understand what is needed to achieve their career goals.

Step 3: Determine training resources and methods to use

With skill gaps identified, the next step is to select the right training resources and development methods.

In other words, you would need to determine and develop a training curriculum. That’s where employee training programs and delivery methods will matter.

For instance, you can just hire an agency to offer a chain of courses, invite an expert for mentoring, or encourage an employee to take a course.

Also, you can resort to an internal workforce and expertise, asking employees to share knowledge. Much depends on the organizational resources.

In most cases, the chances are you would need a training platform, L&D tools, or training management system to provide online access, course delivery, engagement, and reporting. 

Note. EducateMe is such an LMS, offering an intuitive solution for employee training and course delivery, solid format variety, and great feedback and reporting tools.

Step 4: Offer the plan with action items and deadlines

What is next? 

With goals set and gaps identified, present a detailed development plan offering clear action items, short-term and long-term objectives, milestones, and deadlines.

The action items should be specific and reflect the objective or skill gap. 

Each action item should underline what needs to be done, why it’s essential, and how progress will be measured. For example:

• Short-term action item: “Complete a project management certification within three months to improve task delegation and team members coordination.”
• Long-term action item: “Lead a cross-departmental project within the next 12 months to develop leadership and strategic thinking skills.”

At the same time, action items should be linked to deadlines. They ensure accountability and help track progress. 

Lastly, it is crucial to break down long-term goals into smaller, manageable steps, and set milestones. They will offer clarity and stability.

Note. The milestones require recognition and acknowledgment, especially for continuous development or long-term goals. 

Step 5: Do regular checkups and reviews

Other than that, you as an L&D, HR specialist, or corporate trainer, should review employees' progress. 

Why? It allows for keeping the employee growth plan on track. 

Thus, a good employee development plan leaves room for: 

• Check-ins every several weeks or months to assess whether goals or action items are completed, it that the employee is benefiting from the training.
• Feedback collection upon courses or projects to discuss any challenges or roadblocks, such as time constraints or resource availability. 
• Mentor training sessions and 1on1 with managers to help refine the process and keep the employee motivated.

Note. In this case, an LMS with feedback tools and reporting can be a great tool to streamline checkups, especially if you have different departments, a bunch of courses, or multiple groups.

Look at the reporting options EducateMe provides:

In the end, the regular check-ins and conversations demonstrate the organization’s commitment to employee growth, building trust, and engagement.

Step 6: Track performance and adjust to changes

Lastly, the final step is to consistently track the employee’s performance and make adjustments to the plan as needed. 

Use metrics like task completion rates, new skills applied, or measurable contributions to team projects to evaluate success.

Nevertheless, be flexible. If the employee’s role evolves or organizational priorities shift, revisit and update the plan to reflect these changes.

For example, if a new role is introduced, development efforts may need to focus on mastering cooperation with a new role instead of previously planned skills.

In the end, tracking performance and adapting ensures that employee development programs remain relevant and effective. Such an approach aims to foster continuous improvement for both the employee and the organization and support engagement.

Employee Development Plan Examples

Now, we’d like to provide you with examples of employee development plans and show how you can fill all the data in your template depending on the employee development plan types. 

Note. You can add more skills and competencies regarding position or performance, depending on your skills gap analysis or employee professional goals.

1. Skill development plan example

Let’s start with one of the most simple types of employee development plans, a skill development plan. 

A skill development plan is concerned with improving specific skills or competencies required for an employee's role, having specific items to develop certain skills.

An employee skill-development scenario: A marketing specialist in a mid-sized company needs to enhance their digital marketing skills to manage paid ad campaigns more effectively. Their goal is to become proficient in PPC advertising and analytics.

Here is how they can write it in their employee development plan:

2. Leadership development plan example

Next, let’s consider a more developed type that may need several skills and competencies.

A leadership development plan contemplates preparing employees for leadership roles by developing management, strategic thinking, decision-making, and communication skills.

An employee leadership development scenario: A team lead in an IT company aspires to become a project manager. Their goal is to improve leadership and strategic planning to handle larger teams and complex projects.

Note. You can add several skills, as leadership positions contemplate significant improvement and can have bigger timelines.

3. Career advancement plan example

Career advancement plans are concerned with a focus on aligning long-term career aspirations with organizational needs, helping employees transition to higher-level roles.

An employee career development plan scenario: A customer service representative aims to become a customer success manager in an e-commerce business. Thus, they will need to develop customer relationship management (CRM) expertise and improve processes.

Note. Similar to leadership development, career development plans may take different skills to improve, thus, the list of competencies may be longer.

4. Performance development plan example

A performance development plan is concerned with enhancing employee performance by addressing specific weaknesses or improving productivity.

Performance development scenario: A sales executive in a B2B company is underperforming in meeting quarterly targets. The objective will be to enhance negotiation skills and product knowledge to improve sales performance.

Note. The performance development plan is similar to the skill development plan, yet, there, the gap analysis takes performance as the main thing to evaluate the goals and needs.

5. Ad-hoc development plan

An ad-hoc development plan contemplates the creation of the plan for immediate or unique needs, such as a sudden promotion or urgent upskilling requirement.

Ad-hoc development scenario: A graphic designer is promoted to art director after an unexpected team restructuring. The goal here is to quickly develop team management and creative direction skills.

Wrapping Up: Are Employee Development Plans Beneficial to All?

So, employee development plans are crucial for fostering business growth, improving employee retention, and aligning individual ambitions with organizational goals. 

Firstly, they significantly benefit employees by enhancing skills and providing career advancement palms and opportunities. Secondly, businesses gain a more productive, skilled, and loyal workforce. 

Yet, to handle employee development, L&D, and HR teams should carefully analyze skill gaps, set SMART goals, and deliver relevant employee development programs. Much depends on preparation, communication, and tools.

In this regard, EducateMe LMS serves as an excellent software for creating and managing training courses, monitoring progress, and gathering feedback. It is super intuitive and offers great reporting capabilities to track employee development. Try it now or book a demo to find out more.