Individual development plans
How to fine-tune your staff's performance
By Kathy Mills Chang and Kevin Harkins

Training is one of the most important tools you have to assure a high-performance team. It is one task that should not be left to chance and should be given ample planning and consideration.

One great way to do this is to develop an individual development plan (IDP).

An IDP is a formal, written plan that identifies an employee's learning and developmental goals. This plan contains the training, education, and development activities (formal and informal) needed to acquire the competencies to provide employees with career opportunities.

An IDP is a way to organize and set priorities for learning and development experiences that will help employees:

• Improve performance in their current work assignment or area of responsibility;
• Assist in acquiring competencies for improving their skills in their job;
• Prepare for another job or position within the practice; and
• Prepare for increased responsibility.

HOW DO IDPs BENEFIT YOU?

Using an IDP doesn't just benefit the team member — it benefits you as well. High-performing companies and practices use IDPs to work with their employees to establish objectives that support both their needs and the needs and goals of their employees.

An IDP gives the employee a clear guide for working toward long-term personal and practice goals. It also gives you a chance to channel the employee's efforts in ways that help your practice achieve its goals and mission.

IDPs can be used:

• As a planning tool to set training priorities;
• To identify future skill and competency needs;
• To compare an individual's current ability with required job competencies;
• To identify their organizational developmental needs; and
• As a budgeting tool to assess the level of financial resources needed to fulfill employee developmental goals, training needs, and seminars.

Benefits to you include:

• Identifying and assessing future developmental needs in required competency areas;
• Providing structured learning experiences linked to practice needs, goals, and job requirements; and
• Establishing an agreed-upon set of learning objectives and developmental activities as part of a formal career development program.

IDPs are an excellent tool that you can use to develop and motivate your staff. By encouraging a focused approach to their training/developmental needs, you can help employees enhance their job skills and become more effective and productive.

Organizations that use IDPs also send a clear message to their employees that they view each person's professional development as a priority. If done properly — with sincerity and follow-through — IDPs tend to be an effective motivator for most employees.

WHAT IS YOUR ROLE?

Your role in the IDP process is to provide information employees need to plan realistically and to guide them in identifying knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that will help them perform in their current job and/or upcoming performance cycle while helping your practice meet its goals.

To reach this common goal, you should help employees:

• Understand the IDP process and its purpose;
• Identify their strengths and weaknesses in performing their current work assignments;
• Identify areas in which they can take greater responsibility;
• Find possibilities for career progress in their current jobs;
• Obtain access to learning resources; and
• Find both traditional and nontraditional learning opportunities, as well as traditional training opportunities. Learning opportunities may be a mix of training and experiential learning. Besides formal training in a classroom setting (the most common and costly option), other excellent developmental opportunities include coaching, mentoring, self-directed studies, shadowing, distance learning through the Internet, cross-training, and exposure to supervisory responsibilities.

It's especially important to keep close track of planned activities with new employees and meet with them regularly to discuss the plan, review progress, and identify any changes.

Be alert for changes in the work, resources, technology, or the work environment that make it necessary to adjust IDPs.

WHAT IS THE EMPLOYEE'S ROLE?

Employees typically initiate the IDP process for career progression and personal development. Expect them to take charge of their own learning and development and participate actively in planning goals and how they will meet them.

Specifically, your employees should:

• Assess their existing skills, competencies, and interests;
• Set goals and objectives that will benefit your practice, as well as enhance their career;
• Research ways of meeting personal career goals and enhancing work performance;
• Complete the IDP forms;
• Identify developmental opportunities; and
• Evaluate their progress and keep you informed.

MAKE IDPs HAPPEN

Don't get bogged down in the details! Some organizations develop such detailed instructions that the guidance itself can actually have the unintended effect of deterring people from preparing IDPs at all.

Busy employees typically lack the time to wade through a mountain of material on the subject. The bottom line is each employee should be responsible for developing the substance of their own IDP and then getting agreement on its contents with you.

Although you don't have to use a specific form, having one greatly facilitates the process if it helps the employee assess their needs and commit them to paper. Use the IDP to match the individual's current skill levels, strengths, and develop-mental needs with your goals.

The best way to make that happen is to:

1. Integrate the IDP into your formal performance appraisal cycle;

2. Conduct an IDP meeting as part of that process, but keep discussions on past performance separate;

3. Review and update the IDP regularly (once a quarter is optimal, but at least twice a year) as part of an IDP meeting;

4. Provide guidance on the range of training resources that are available to ensure a realistic final IDP, given your available resources;

5. Ask the employee to sign the IDP and then sign it yourself, so that it becomes a nonbinding contract. The commitment causes follow-through; and

6. Follow up immediately after a training event to reinforce the importance of the training and to help employees put to use their new knowledge and skills.

A note of caution: Although the IDP is not binding, make every effort to ensure that each employee is given time for the training and developmental opportunities listed on the IDP.

Chronic failure to make time for previously agreed upon learning opportunities breeds cynicism and mistrust, completely undermining the IDP's motivational benefits.

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS

Some management experts have become critical of IDPs in recent years, arguing that IDPs are often ineffective because they typically focus too much on addressing employee weaknesses, with the misguided expectation that every employee can master all competencies and become perfectly well-rounded.

If an employee has no talent in a given area, they argue, a training course is not going to rewire his brain to make that nontalent into a new strength.

It can be argued, however, that far from discouraging anyone from preparing an IDP, such observations should simply help employees prepare more effective ones. The key is to identify the kinds of training and developmental opportunities that will boost each employee's performance most effectively.

The ideal IDP should primarily focus on:

• Leveraging each employee's strengths/talents; and
• Providing new skills and know-ledge that will help the employee perform better in his job.

Kathy Mills Chang is an associate of Kevin Harkins. Harkins is CEO of Harkcon, a management and leadership development consulting firm that specializes in customizing human resource solutions for the chiropractic profession. They can be reached through the Web site at www.harkcon.com or by calling 800-380-5337.