When working with an employee, it's helpful to work together to put together an Individual Development Plan (IDP). This tool can help you plan an employee's development. It translates goals into concrete action steps, and helps the employee to stay on track to achieve the stated goals.

Download the Individual Development Plan (pdf)

The IDP should include:

Reasonable, Achievable Goals

The employee should identify 1-3 areas, based on priorities, and commit to 1-3 goals during this phase.

Goals should be concrete enough to guide behavior change and growth. For example, rather than "I want to improve my communication skills," which is vague, say "I want to have the skills to clearly present and organize information in groups" or "I want to polish my writing skills to more clearly and effectively communicate information."

Action Steps

The IDP should be action oriented, outlining the steps needed to realize the short- and long-term goals.

Identify as many action steps as needed to reach the goals. First, try brainstorming many possible activities, then sort through and specify which action steps make the most sense. Again, be concrete.

Resources

From formal classes to self-directed activities to on-the-job experiences, determine which learning formats are most effective for the employee, given the employee's learning style.

Benefits

The employee should think through what they want to be different as a result of thedevelopment efforts, and how those changes will be measured.

For assistance with the IDP, the Employee Career Enrichment Program (ECEP) can help:

• Rosie Barry - 626-1004; barry023@umn.edu
• Cindy Schultz - 626-0769; schul803@umn.edu
• Teri Spillers - 626-2624; tspillers@umn.edu