Individual Development Plan – What Is It And How Does It Work?

Individual Development Plan (IDP) is a plan for the step-by-step growth of an employee internally in the company. It covers the growth of hard and soft skills, and it depends on the specialist's goals and the company's needs.

Why is an Individual Development Plan (IDP) needed?

• The employee never stops growing and constantly develops and improves his competence;
• the employee can state his goals and the desired development vector, align his vision with the company needs, and proceed in the direction he is interested in;
• a specialist develops according to a clear plan and does not spray on a million technologies, therefore this plan is effective;
• a specialist can change the direction of work, which makes "work" a hobby that brings pleasure;
• based on the results of IDP, a specialist can successfully move up the career enough and increase his importance in the company.

How and by whom is IDP created?

In each company, the approach to creating IDP is an individual matter. Currently, in our company, the IDP is drawn up every six months (as practice shows, this is the most effective term). The process is as follows:

• we schedule a meeting for department heads, HR specialists, and employees;
• we estimate the current employee's skills and abilities (if this is the first IDP, then we analyze if the trial period was successful), we determine weaknesses, strengths and direction of development;
• we form an employee's and the company goals and discuss them;
• an IDP is drawn up by an employee, in which tasks, deadlines, and the future result are prescribed and approved by all participants, and approved by the head of the department.

Who is responsible and who controls the implementation of IDP?

Implementation of IDP is the specialist's responsibility, he should be the person most interested in its implementation because he is the one who needs all these opportunities. The company's responsibility is to help to set up the correct development vector for the specialist and to provide a platform for the practical usage of new knowledge.

The head of the department supervises the execution of the plan. They have regular meetings regarding deadlines, at which the manager and the employee assess the task status. Also, if necessary, the specialist can invite additional meetings with the manager, in case of difficulties with the task.

Implementation of IDP during working or non-working hours?

Everything depends on the chosen goals and methods. Items related to current tasks and projects are mainly implemented during working hours or upon completion of current tasks of the specialist's plan. Everything related to improving skills for the current position (lack of qualifications) or a future promotion in the position is implemented outside working hours.

So, let's summarize

IDP is a very useful and essential component that helps to clearly and effectively develop and move up the career, and the most important thing is that competent specialists will help to develop a plan for your IDP and set up a growth vector.

Grow with pleasure!🚀