What to Put Into a Career Development Plan

Summary

Creating a career development plan is essential for managers to show they value their team members and want to help them grow. The process involves setting clear career goals, mapping out potential roles, identifying the skills and experiences needed, and filling any gaps through targeted actions. This not only boosts employee motivation and retention but also improves team performance and the manager-employee relationship. The video provides a step-by-step guide, including creating a career map, deciding on the next roles, researching qualifications, and developing an action plan to achieve career progression.

Takeaways

• 🎯 Creating a career development plan with team members demonstrates value and investment in their growth.
• 📈 Developing employees' skills is beneficial for motivation, retention, and improving team performance.
• 🤝 A strong career development plan can enhance the manager-employee relationship and contribute to company success.
• 🚀 Encourage employees to create their own career development plan if their manager doesn't initiate one.
• 🎓 Set a clear career goal for the employee, which can be adjusted over time but should be focused to aid career progression.
• 🗺️ Create a career map outlining potential roles and paths to reach the target position.
• 🔍 Research the skills, experience, and qualifications required for the next two roles in the career path.
• 🔄 Analyze skill and experience gaps between the current role and the desired future roles.
• 📋 Develop an action plan with specific tasks and projects to fill the identified skill and experience gaps.
• 📚 Provide a mix of self-motivated learning opportunities and job-integrated development activities.
• ⏰ Regularly evaluate progress with the team member to ensure milestones are met and goals are achieved.

Q & A

What is the primary purpose of creating a career development plan for team members?

The primary purpose is to demonstrate value and investment in the team members' growth, improve their motivation, enhance retention, strengthen the manager-employee relationship, and increase the team's skill level, ultimately benefiting the company.

Why is it important for employees to develop their skills and deliver more for the business?

Developing employees' skills is crucial for their professional growth, which in turn increases their motivation and reduces the likelihood of them leaving the company. It also improves the team's overall performance and efficiency.

What should be the time frame for a career development plan?

A recommended time frame for a career development plan is five years or more, allowing for clear direction and long-term goals.

How can a manager support their team members in identifying their career goals?

A manager can work with team members to decide on their career goals, considering their current position, aspirations, and the time frame they have in mind for achieving those goals.

What is the role of a career map in a career development plan?

A career map shows the different routes available in terms of specific roles between the current position and the desired target role, helping team members visualize their career progression and identify suitable paths.

Why is it beneficial for a team member to know their next two roles in their career path?

Knowing the next two roles provides a focused career development plan for the next five years, which helps team members stay motivated and gives the manager insight into their aspirations, aiding in retention and succession planning.

What should be included in the research of skills, experience, and qualifications needed for a career development plan?

The research should identify the specific qualifications required, list and grade the skills and experiences needed for the next role, and consider the current skills and experiences of the team member to understand the gaps that need to be filled.

How can a manager help their team member fill the identified skill and experience gaps?

A manager can create an action plan with specific actions such as task swapping, problem-solving, project assignments, cross-team collaboration, training others, and providing learning opportunities like courses and qualifications.

What is the significance of periodically evaluating progress in a career development plan?

Regular progress evaluation ensures that both the team member and the business are investing in the development and that the team member is meeting the agreed milestones and targets, which is essential for the success of the career development plan.

How can team members be motivated to take initiative in their career development?

By creating a mix of learning opportunities that require self-motivation and those provided as part of their day-to-day jobs, team members are encouraged to take an active role in their career growth.

What resources are available to help create career development plans?

Templates and examples of career development plans can be found in the management skills hub, which can speed up the process of creating and implementing these plans for the team.

Outlines

00:00

📈 Creating a Career Development Plan

This paragraph emphasizes the importance of creating a career development plan for team members to demonstrate value and commitment to their professional growth. It highlights the benefits of such plans, including increased employee motivation, improved retention, better manager-employee relationships, and enhanced team skill levels. The speaker, Jess Coles, shares their 25-year management experience and suggests that career development plans are crucial for motivating staff and maximizing their potential. The video also teases 11 suggestions for building employee skills and experiences, which will be discussed later.

05:00

🎯 Setting Career Goals and Creating a Career Map

The second paragraph focuses on the initial steps of creating a career development plan: deciding on career goals and creating a career map. It suggests starting with a clear goal and a time frame, such as five years, and encourages specificity in the target role. The paragraph also addresses the importance of succession planning and the flexibility of career goals. It then explains the process of mapping out potential roles and seniority levels to visualize the career path, and recommends choosing the next two roles to target, considering the average duration spent in each role.

10:02

🔍 Researching and Analyzing Skills and Experience

This paragraph delves into the research required for a career development plan, including identifying the qualifications, skills, and experiences needed for the next role. It emphasizes the importance of overcoming qualification barriers and provides methods for researching the necessary skills and experiences. The paragraph also discusses analyzing the gaps between the current skills and those required for the next role, and suggests ways to fill these gaps, such as swapping tasks, assigning projects, and cross-training initiatives. It concludes with the importance of periodically evaluating progress and maintaining a balance between self-motivated learning opportunities and those provided as part of the job.

Keywords

💡Career Development Plan

A structured approach to guide an individual's professional growth within an organization. It involves setting career goals, identifying the necessary skills and experiences, and creating a roadmap to achieve those goals. In the video, it is emphasized as a tool for managers to use to motivate employees, improve retention, and enhance team performance.

💡Team Members

Individuals who are part of a work team, responsible for contributing to the team's objectives and goals. The video highlights the importance of involving team members in the career development process to foster a sense of belonging and commitment.

💡Motivation

The drive or willingness to engage in activities or tasks, particularly those related to one's job. In the context of the video, motivation is linked to the development of employees' skills and careers, suggesting that when employees see a clear path for growth, they are more likely to be motivated to perform better.

💡Retention

The ability of an organization to keep its employees over time. High retention rates are often associated with satisfied employees who see opportunities for growth and development within the company. The video emphasizes the role of career development plans in improving employee retention.

💡Manager-Employee Relationship

The dynamic between a manager and their direct reports, which can significantly impact the work environment, productivity, and job satisfaction. The video suggests that career development plans can enhance this relationship by involving managers in the growth of their team members.

💡Skill Level

The degree of proficiency or expertise an individual possesses in a particular area. The video discusses the importance of improving the skill level of a team to enhance its ability to deliver results more effectively.

💡Succession Planning

A strategic process for identifying and developing potential replacements for key positions within an organization. It ensures continuity and stability by preparing for future leadership needs. The video encourages managers to view succession planning as a positive aspect of career development.

💡Career Map

A visual representation of the potential career paths an individual can take within an organization, showing the progression from one role to another. It helps employees understand the steps needed to reach their career goals.

💡Action Plan

A detailed strategy outlining the specific steps to be taken to achieve a goal or objective. In the context of career development, an action plan would include the tasks and activities designed to fill the skill and experience gaps identified for an employee's career progression.

💡Gaps Analysis

The process of identifying the differences between an individual's current skills, experiences, and qualifications and what is required for their desired future role. This analysis is essential for creating a targeted development plan.

Highlights

Creating a career development plan is a powerful way to show team members that you value their growth and contributions.

Developing employees' skills can improve motivation, retention, and the overall skill level of the team.

A career development plan can significantly accelerate an individual's career progress.

Deciding on a career goal is the first step in creating a career development plan.

A recommended time frame for a career development plan is five years or more.

The target role should be specific and may or may not be within the current company.

Creating a career map helps visualize the different routes to the desired position.

Choosing the next two roles in the career path provides a focused plan for the next five years.

Researching the skills, experience, and qualifications needed for the next role is crucial.

Analyzing the gaps between current skills and those required for the next role is fundamental to the career development plan.

Creating an action plan to fill the identified skill gaps is the next step.

Actions should push individuals out of their comfort zones to build necessary skills.

Swapping tasks, assigning projects, and cross-team collaboration are effective ways to fill skill gaps.

Teaching others, job shadowing, and studying for qualifications are valuable for skill development.

Providing a mix of self-motivated and job-integrated learning opportunities supports career growth.

Regularly evaluating progress with the team member ensures accountability and effectiveness of the career development plan.

Transcripts

creating a career development plan with

your team members and then putting it

into action creates a very strong

message to those team members that you

value them and you want to develop their

skills and careers

i've always found that developing

employees skills and what they can

deliver for the business is great

firstly for motivation of those

employees

secondly improving retention

employees who are growing professionally

have less reason to leave

third improves the manager employee

relationship

fourth improving the skill level of your

team so the team can deliver more or

deliver better or deliver faster all of

which help the company and you

having a career development plan is a

great tool every manager should use

if your manager doesn't create a career

development plan with you then you

should create one for yourself

creating a career development plan will

help your own career progress

significantly faster

so what to put into a career development

plan

here is what you're covering today

and towards the end of the video i share

11 suggestions of ways to build employee

skills and experience that i've used or

have seen used very successfully all

great for what to put into a career

development plan

[Music]

my name is jess coles and i've had a

25-year management career in corporates

and household names through to smes

in my experience career development

plans are such a good exercise to go

through and deliver against to motivate

staff members and to get the best out of

them and if you're new to this channel

enhance.training shares business and

people management expertise to help you

improve your performance and that of

your team and business

and if you like this video please give

it a thumbs up and

subscribe so the first action to create

a career development plan is deciding on

the goal

work with your team member to help them

decide on their career goal

a useful starting point can be deciding

on the time frame for that goal

for instance if you have just started

your career your time frame may be

fairly short because you're not sure

where you want to end up and you have so

many routes open

or for example you might have

professional exams to complete before

expanding your horizons

if you're further on in your career you

are likely to have longer time frames as

you have a clearer direction

i recommend a time frame of five years

or more for your career development plan

if your employee doesn't really know

what they want a good default is the

header function in which they actually

sit for example you know marketing or

sales or finance

just remember everyone is different

some people don't want the hassle and

effort of pursuing a career into

management or senior management

for others the head of function or

beyond in a particular size and type of

company is exactly where they want to

get to

employee to be as specific as possible

the team member needs to identify a

specific role to aim at which we will

call the target role

the target role may or may not be in

your company and to get this role the

team member may need to do your current

job too

try not to worry or feel threatened by

employees wanting your role

i've always used team members wanting my

job as a great opportunity to free

myself up to allow me to move on to the

next level myself

succession planning is very useful to do

for your own career development

and lastly the career goal in your

career development plan is not set in

stone your goals may change as time goes

on that said sticking with the goal

chosen and focusing your efforts to

achieve that goal will progress a

person's career that much quicker than

changing goals periodically

the second action for how to write a

career development plan is to create a

career map

once your team member has decided on an

end goal you know a specific position

that they want to get to then create a

career map showing the different routes

available in terms of specific roles

between where they are now and where

they want to get to

within the career map group the

different roles at similar seniority

levels so you can see the options

available as you progress through each

seniority level

the career map may have few levels

between the current role and the tiger

role say you know a marketing manager to

the head of marketing or there might be

many levels say with a marketing

training all the way through to

marketing director

get your team member to think about

which of the routes available to them

would appeal to them the most

help them to work through the suitable

routes based on what you know of their

current strengths abilities and

interests

if the team member is unsure on their

preferred route get them to do some

high-level research on each of the roles

to see what skills experience and

qualifications are needed

in action four we go through how to do

this

the third action in how to build an

effective career plan is to decide on

the next two roles

ask the team member to choose their next

role that they would like to work

towards ideally this role will be

available within the business

choose the next role to target as a

minimum before undertaking any detailed

research

the average person spends just over

three years in each role during their

career per recruitment stats

so as a result i recommend getting your

team member to choose the next two roles

of their career path so they are focused

on a career development plan covering

the next five years

you might be thinking that if i help my

employee work out their career path or

their next step on their career path

then they are much more likely to leave

my team

i have found the opposite is the case

if they want to leave they will leave

taking actions to help them get to their

next step delays them leaving the

company and it also gives you the

knowledge of what they want and think

and the ability to help them meet their

career aspirations

these steps all help you retain your

staff not encourage them out the door

career development plan templates are

available in our management skills hub

to speed up creating your team's career

development plans and capturing all the

points the fourth action when thinking

about what to put in a career

development plan is research the skills

experience and qualifications needed

the easiest part of the research is

identifying what qualifications are

needed

does the team member already have the

right qualifications or will they need

to study for them

qualifications tend to be a serious

barrier to get many jobs so it's

important to plan how to overcome this

barrier

next help the team member list out all

the different skills and experience that

they will need to build over the next

five years

it is important to go into some detail

and specify the level of skills and

experience needed

you know for example if the next role

was operations manager just putting team

management experience would not help

much

writing something like team management

of 10 plus factory full staff plus app

and staff including recruitment

performance management planning and

organizing and day-to-day direction will

be a lot more specific and helpful

another option is to grade the skills or

experiences needed from 1 to 10 with a

score of 1 being a low skill level and

low importance and a score of 10 being a

high school level and high important

different ways for the team member to

research what skills and experience are

needed for the next role include firstly

looking at job adverts and listing down

the common requirements

secondly interviewing or speaking to

individuals actually doing the role or

who have actually done the role in the

past

third job shadowing those doing the role

fourth looking at internal job

descriptions if available

help them fill in any gaps that they

have if you can from your own experience

and do share your views and experiences

too these can be extremely valuable for

your team member

the fifth action when creating a career

development plan is to analyse the gaps

a career development plan is

fundamentally about filling the gaps

between where your employee is now in

terms of their skills and experience and

where they need to get to for their next

role or two

you have a list of skills and experience

needed for the next role or two and have

graded it

now repeat the process of listing down

and grading the employees current skills

and experience in the same way as you've

done for the future role

both of you will then be able to look at

the skills needed for the future roles

and the skills built up so far

this gives you an easy way to identify

the gaps and the scale of the gaps to

overcome

when you're both clear about the gaps

your team member has in their skills and

experience and the scale of the gaps you

can start planning the actions to fill

those gaps

the sixth action for what to put into a

career development plan is to create an

action plan

your action plan will contain the

actions needed to start filling in the

gaps identified

identifying the actions is going to

require some careful thinking on your

part

you're likely to have several team

members each with different development

needs and there are only so many

opportunities available within the

business to develop them

i found it easier to get to this

position with several of the team

members or all of them depending on the

size of your team and then work out

which task activity project or other

development opportunity i will give to

which employee

i tend to favor the better performers or

those with the best attitudes first and

then work down the list of staff

this usually gives you the most bang for

your buck in terms of what you the team

overall and the company gets out of

creating and actioning career

development plans

each action should be focused on moving

the individual out of their comfort zone

to build skills that you've jointly

identified and to deepen experiences

that they need more of the same will not

help them very much

some ideas to help you include you know

firstly swap tasks or re-allocate

responsibilities within your team for a

period of time you know say six months

secondly identify problems with

processes accounts systems etc that you

could give to a team member to build

solutions and then implement those

solutions

third look around for projects within

your responsibilities that you could

assign to a specific employee or a group

of employees

fourth ask other departments to see what

cross-team projects or projects full

stop could benefit the business that you

could get your team members involved in

fifth ask team members to train others

teaching is a great way of learning

yourself

sixth introduce a buddy system or a

cross-training initiative within your

team or across teams

seven build up a reading list of

business books or a watch list of videos

etc of relevant subjects for your team

members

eight organize the comments to other

departments or inclusion on specific

projects

nine release your team members for say i

don't know morning a week to work with

another team you know for instance

finance to work with sales to work on

new business tenders

ten book courses for your team members

to attend and ask them to teach the rest

of the team after taking the course

and 11. enroll them for specific

qualifications and provide study support

in terms of time and money

there are lots of ways of helping to

support team members develop their

careers that directly helps you your

team and the business become even more

successful

i would also suggest you don't hand

training and development on a platter to

your team members create a mix of

learning opportunities some that need

the employee to work from their own

initiative and to motivate themselves

and others that are provided as part of

their day-to-day jobs

and as a final point make the time to

sit down and evaluate progress

periodically with the team member if you

and the business are investing in the

team member you want to see them keeping

up their side of the bargain namely

reaching the agreed milestones and

targets as a result of creating a career

development opportunities for them

so they have six key actions to take for

what goes into a career development plan

a quick recap on the actions to take are

firstly decide on the goal

secondly create a career map

thirdly decide on the next two roles to

take

fourth research the skills experience

and qualifications needed

fifth analyze the gaps and then sixth

create an action plan

for templates and examples of career

development plans take a look at our

management skills hub

and if you have any questions please

leave them in the comments below and i

will get back to you

thanks very much for watching and i look

forward to seeing you again soon

[Music]

you