How to Create Employee Development Plans

The days of retaining employees with a gym membership and occasional training are over. Today’s workforce, especially Generation Z, wants to grow. They want to see the meaning in their work not just for the company, but for themselves. If you don’t offer them that opportunity, someone else will. As a result, development plans are no longer a formality but a powerful weapon in the war for talent and performance. So, if you’ve overlooked this and still view the new generation as unmotivated, you might soon be surprised by rising turnover rates.

Growth Isn’t a Perk, It’s an Expectation

A corporate culture built on growth is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s a necessity. According to a LinkedIn Learning article, 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career development. This isn’t just a statistic; it’s often the deciding factor in whether people stay or leave.

Generation Z isn’t just looking for “a nice place with career growth.” They seek authentic leadership, rapid feedback, and opportunities to learn on the job. When they plan to leave, it’s usually not about their salary but because they feel they have no room to grow.

Development Is an Experience, Not Just Training

It’s a common misconception among management, HR, and even employees that development simply means a list of courses or a subscription to educational platforms.

However, most of us learn the most important lessons in real-world situations, often outside a conference room or an LMS. The 70-20-10 model effectively illustrates this learning process:

• 70% of learning comes from practical experience—leading a project, handling a crisis, or joining another team.
• 20% comes from collaboration and support—mentoring, coaching, and feedback.
• 10% comes from formal education—training, workshops, and e-learning.

This framework embraces various formats, from practical on-the-job training and job shadowing to more structured blended learning approaches that might include distance learning courses. A development plan is not a course catalog. It is a strategic tool for connecting company goals with an employee’s personal ambitions. It is also a way to strengthen your employer branding.

How to Build an Effective Development Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide

Effective learning and development is built on a clear structure. This often starts with a career development manual that outlines opportunities for career pathing and describes the available learning programs. Perhaps you are already actively tracking talent in your company. You might have a well-defined 9-box grid, regularly discuss succession plans, and know who is worth investing time and money in. You are building your talent pool of people worth retaining. But the key question is: what’s next?

This is where the Individual Development Plan (IDP) comes in. It outlines where we are, where we’re going, and how we’ll get there. Without it, efforts often feel like a shot in the dark. We pick a course from a catalog and hope for the best, but we completely miss the mark. There’s a better way to do it—strategically, conceptually, and with a real impact. Here is a proven method for creating a plan that makes sense for both the company and the employee.

1. GAP Analysis

Forget handing employees a list of training options and letting them choose what interests them. That doesn’t work. You need to know why you are investing in specific training for a particular person. After all, education is an investment, which means you expect a return.

First, you need to identify exactly what the person needs to master their current role and meet future demands. This is done through a GAP analysis.

Tools that can help include:

• Performance reviews and evaluation discussions.
• 360° feedback.
• Development center results.

I consider working with competency models to be the foundation of development. You can build your GAP analysis on them to determine whether you need to strengthen traditional hard skills (like working with a specific system), focus on broader professional skill enhancement, or develop emerging competencies like Workforce AI Skills.

2. Setting SMART Goals

Once you know which competency you want to develop in a person, it’s time to set a goal. I highly recommend making the goal SMART—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Without these criteria, it simply doesn’t work. An unclear goal can lead to mismatched expectations; if it’s not measurable, it’s impossible to know if the employee has truly mastered the new competency; and without a deadline, the plan can remain an unfulfilled idea.

What does a SMART goal look like?

• “By the end of next quarter, I will prepare and deliver a 15-minute presentation on the team’s results to management. I will request feedback from a colleague beforehand and from my manager after the presentation to have a clear measure of my progress.”
• “Within 6 weeks, I will create an Excel macro to automate the reporting of monthly sales data. I will test the finished solution with the finance department, and it will be used by at least 2 other colleagues.”
• “Within 2 months, I will complete a cybersecurity basics course and then implement a two-factor authentication rule within my team. I will verify its success by ensuring 100% of the team logs in using two-factor authentication.”

3. The Individual Development Plan

Simply put, an IDP is an agreement between the employee, manager, and the company about what the person should learn, why, how, and by when. It contains SMART goals, specific activities, a timeline, and a few milestones to make it clear whether progress is being made or if the plan is stuck in a drawer.

As for the format, a simple Excel spreadsheet can suffice. However, I recommend using the 70-20-10 model and detailing exactly how the employee will work on their goal. But be careful—HR doesn’t create this for the employee. The employee must do it themselves, or at least in tandem with their manager.

4. Evaluate and Adjust

At the end of each period, it’s necessary to pause and reflect: what was successful, what remained only on paper, and what has changed in behavior or performance.

Both hard data (KPIs, surveys) and simple feedback and regular updates based on reality will help. Because development that isn’t reviewed ceases to be development and becomes just a list of nice-sounding promises.

Who Plays What Role in Employee Development?

This raises a critical question: who is actually responsible for employee development? Is it the sole responsibility of an all-powerful HR department? Uninformed employees? Or overworked managers?

The Employee as the “Owner of Their Growth”

If a development activity is mandated from above and the employee doesn’t know why they are participating, what goal it serves, or what benefit it has, it’s pointless. It also fails if the employee lacks motivation. Development only makes sense when a person takes ownership of it, feels responsible for their progress, is proactive in seeking opportunities, and isn’t afraid to ask for feedback.

The Manager as Coach and Supporter

The manager plays a key role in development. They don’t just sign off on the plan—they are a supporter, coach, motivator, and the one who provides feedback. It is often the manager who suggests a development path or works with the employee to find out where and how to improve. They then oversee this progress and ensure the employee has the necessary conditions to achieve it.

However, development cannot be separated from performance. It must be firmly integrated with performance management—ideally, it should be a part of every monthly or quarterly 1:1 meeting. In practice, this means that in addition to results, the manager and employee also discuss questions like, “What did you learn?” or “How did you apply it in practice?” This consistent coaching and mentoring, combined with regular employee feedback and employee recognition, fosters a culture of continuous learning. It keeps managers informed about goals, helps them support their achievement, and makes development a natural part of work, not “something extra.”

HR as Architect and Consultant

HR is the one who provides the framework for development and holds it all together. They build the entire learning system—from competency models and IDP templates to learning platforms and mentoring. They provide the tools, processes, and rules to ensure development is not a random activity but part of the company’s daily operations.

In practice, this means HR provides managers with tools for conducting development discussions, manages the LMS for tracking and planning education, organizes mentoring programs, and opens up internal mobility opportunities, for instance through a career marketplace. HR also monitors how development aligns with the company strategy and what its actual impact is.

Choosing the Right Technology

When selecting tools like learning management systems, mentoring software, or a Learning Marketplace, HR must evaluate several factors. These include pricing models, such as cost per user per month, the need for a customizable solution with a high level of customization, and whether a single-tenant solution is required to meet security or operational demands. The availability of advanced features should also be weighed against the company’s specific development needs.

Beyond performance, development is also intrinsically linked to well-being. Data from an employee well-being report or regular employee surveys can reveal how development opportunities impact employee engagement. Addressing growth needs can be a powerful lever for improving overall job satisfaction.

Development as a Joint Project

Development only happens when the HR-manager-employee relationship works in symbiosis. HR sets the framework and provides tools and activities. The manager provides support throughout, adjusts conditions, and gives feedback. And the employee must see development as their own priority. Without their motivation, nothing will happen.

Together, they share goals, track progress, and find ways forward. As soon as development becomes a task for just one party, it stops working.

How to Truly Bring Development Plans to Life

It’s not enough to just write and file a development plan. For it to be meaningful, it must be a living document integrated into the regular work routine—in regular 1:1 meetings, team meetings, and performance reviews. And the topic of development must have the support of the company’s top leadership. Without it, HR can try as hard as it wants, but the results won’t come. Let’s be honest, this can sometimes be very tricky, as HR and management often speak different languages, even when they are striving for the same thing.

Development needs to be anchored in the company’s strategy. This means talking to leadership not about the number of training sessions, but about the impact on the business: retention, performance, preparing future leaders, and the ability to manage change. If you can show that development is directly linked to these goals, you will get both the budget and the space to act. It also helps to regularly present data—how many people have an active IDP, how goals are being met, and what impact this has on mobility and satisfaction. This is when HR starts speaking a language that leadership understands.

By framing development in terms of business impact, HR can demonstrate how investing in leadership skills directly influences key employee metrics. This approach helps reduce employee turnover and employee attrition while boosting employee performance and employee loyalty.

Common Obstacles and Pitfalls

• Plans That Only Exist on Paper
  An IDP is created, but no one ever revisits it. The result? You’ve wasted your time on a document that remains just a piece of paper.
  👉 How to prevent this: Hold regular “growth check-in” conversations (e.g., every 6 weeks).
• Low Employee Motivation
  This happens when an employee doesn’t see the point and views development as just another mandatory task from HR.
  👉 Tip: Always connect the plan to the employee’s personal goals, not just the company’s needs.
• Managers Without Time or Support
  Performance is the priority, and development gets postponed. In other words, if you don’t have management buy-in for development activities, your efforts are pointless.
  👉 Solution: Give managers a clear role and KPIs, speak to them in the language of numbers, and train them in coaching.
• Weak Connection to Company Strategy
  The company develops skills that are not aligned with its future direction.
  👉 Prevention: Base development on competency models and business goals.
• Lack of Impact Evaluation
  Only course attendance is tracked, not behavioral changes.
  👉 Remedy: Measure what has changed in performance, engagement, or mobility.

A Quick Guide

• Link Development to Company Strategy
  If the company is planning an expansion, this should be reflected in development plans—for example, with an emphasis on language or intercultural skills. Development only makes sense when it heads in the same direction as the business.
• Collaboration Between HR, Manager, and Employee
  Development is a team sport. HR sets the framework, the manager supports, but the employee is the one truly responsible for their own growth.
• Personalize
  A one-size-fits-all plan doesn’t work. Allow employees to choose a format that matches their learning style, position, and ambitions.
• Emphasize Practical Application
  Every training session must have a clear “what’s next.” Without feedback and the opportunity to immediately apply a new skill in practice, it remains just theory.
• Measure the Impact
  It’s not about the number of courses completed. The important thing is to track what has changed—in the employee’s performance, engagement, or mobility.
• Keep the Plan Alive
  Development is not a one-year project but a continuous process. The plan must react to changes—in the role, the team, and the entire company.

The moment you start seeing development as a strategic tool—not an extra cost—the game changes. It influences recruitment, retention, and the future success of the entire company.

Because when a person grows, the company grows with them.