Why Development Planning Shouldn’t be an Afterthought

Most of us who have spent time in the HR or training space understand that development planning often manifests itself as an ugly compromise within organizations. Those who see learning and development as a line-item expense rather than an investment in future performance fight to minimize the impact development planning has on taking people away from productive work.

Whether you just finished your performance review or have one right around the corner, I often see that this is the only time employees have a conversation about development.

Suppose the bullet points employees add to their plan wind up shoved in a drawer or submitted online (buried in a virtual drawer). In that case, the result is often the same: a forgotten conversation that excludes learning and development, the people the organization has hired to help grow employees’ skill sets.

So it’s easy to despair or dread launching into an uphill battle for new processes or new tools. However, I believe effective development planning can still be done with nothing more than a generic “areas for development” box on an annual appraisal. Employees and managers need a little help.

Five ways to get employees engaged in personal development:

1. Send an email or other communication to employees before the annual appraisal approaches, letting them know about the L&D team, where to find information on already-provided training, how to request additional training, and to consider these things as they complete the development part of the appraisal. Remind them to consider revisiting earlier training or prompt them to take additional training beforehand. Meridian’s Career Explorer offers tools to identify skill gaps and plan training to bridge them.
2. Exposing job descriptions and requirements so that employees can easily browse and apply for open opportunities. Remind them of this during the development planning season. Encourage them to conduct an honest internal review of what they have been doing to fulfill those obligations, and what steps they have taken to grow beyond those descriptions.
3. Point employees to an easily searchable resource that lists available training interventions for desired skills, competencies, or jobs. If all you have is a spreadsheet, make it available! Your learning management system (LMS) provider will likely have tools to make this process easier.
4. Suggest a structure for filling out that aspect of the form. Something like, “I want to get better at ______ so that I can _____. To achieve this, I am going to ______.” Asking for the “what, why, and how” of each part of the plan elicits essential context.
5. If you can’t capture what’s being added to plans via an automated system, send out a standalone survey to ask what development needs are and what learning opportunities are desired. Your LMS has survey capabilities to gather that data.

At the end of the day, development planning is much less about a system and more about employee-manager conversation and the ability to create meaningful, actionable next steps. That means the “What’s in it for me?” becomes more apparent when framed around future aspirations. Most importantly, learning and development should occur monthly, if not weekly. Encourage your employees to use the training available to them. Your LMS has features that let you highlight or promote additional training based on an employee’s job title or previous interests. Take advantage of LMS automation to promote the usage of your learning management system. Review your LMS reports frequently to see who is engaging and who isn’t. Employee development is a two-way street. Engaging your employees in learning and development will encourage them to take ownership of their success.

When L&D can set the table for these conversations, everyone benefits. To help you brainstorm on some of those topics for your conversations, read the whitepaper from the Aberdeen Group to help bridge the gap between content and employee development.