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Offering professional development plans (PDP) isn’t just a cool HR trend. It’s a strategic business move to drive growth, enhance company culture, and boost employee success.
By introducing new learning and upskilling, you allow employees to explore roles where they thrive and feel empowered to build their careers. When the right employee meets the right opportunity, they’re motivated to stay and contribute their best.
Research shows that motivated employees are 87% less likely to leave their jobs. And what better way to keep that motivation high than by creating an environment where professional growth is encouraged? With a PDP, there’s so much to gain, for everyone involved.
Let’s explore how a professional development plan works, and how you can use it to promote individual and organizational success.
So, what is a professional development plan?
A professional development plan (PDP) is a roadmap for an employee’s career path. It is a critical document outlining their career goals, where they are currently at vs. where they want to go, and the actionable steps they’ll need to take to get there. With your support, of course.
Think of a PDP as one’s career blueprint. On one hand, it showcases their current skills and strengths. On the other, it highlights areas for growth aligned with their career, alongside the resources needed to achieve them.
A PDP typically starts as a broader plan that can easily be achieved with planned baby steps. For example, let’s say an employee wants to become a long-term mentor. Their broader PDP goal might be ‘to build mentoring skills,’ while the initial steps could include them attending communication courses, and learning new feedback techniques – you get the jist.
Professional development plans are primarily designed for professionals with long-term career vision. They help them prioritize tasks, sharpen skills, and stay on track of their future goals. Additionally, many organizations have already adopted PDPs to retain employees and build a thriving company culture. PDP programs are the ultimate way to boost employee satisfaction and support them in reaching their career potential, without losing them.
Professional development plan benefits
A professional team is only as strong as the company standing behind it. This is where professional development plans can make a huge difference.
Following the analogy of ‘happy employees company,’ let’s discuss the key professional development plan benefits in the workplace.
Higher Retention Rates
How to keep good employees working for you? Praise will only get you so far, so you need to start investing in people. More precisely, you need to invest in their career path. It’s the only way to make good employees stick around and encourage them to grow alongside you.
Research shows that 94% of professionals would remain loyal to a company – if they supported their career development. Educating, mentoring, and skill training are some of the ways to encourage employees to build their careers, all from within your business environment.
Offering professional development gives your employees a boost of confidence in their work. They feel appreciated and valued, which can then enhance employee retention by 34%. Not to mention, PDPs boost employee performance and morale more than any other tool out there.
Build a Bigger Talent Roster
Talented employees exist – but they are not the easiest to hold onto. They‘re aware of their capabilities and won’t stay at a company that won’t support their career goals. This is where PDPs come into play, helping you retain quality professionals by keeping them invested in their current roles and future career-building.
It’s not just about polishing talent in their current roles, though. Professional development plans also allow you to retrain good employees for new positions. This helps create job roles based on retrained employees, reducing the need for new hires. Plus, you also get to build an internal team of experts able to excel in multiple roles.
Finally, some food for thought – 74% of employees feel they cannot achieve their career goals due to the lack of professional development opportunities at their workplace. For top talent, this can be a deal-breaker. Essentially, it’s up to organizations to rethink how they support career advancements for their key players and implement changes to attract and retain top pros.
Keep Up With Industry Trends
Professional trends move with the times, and organizations need to keep up. Interestingly, helping employees stay in touch with the latest industry trends opens new opportunities for them to move the needle in their careers.
The more professionals can educate themselves on what’s in and what’s not, the more confident they will feel in their professional roles. The more confident they are, the more they will want to apply their skills to your organization.
Allowing employees to learn and adopt upcoming trends keeps them in the know–and on their toes, skills-wise. Plus, it motivates them to pursue higher goals – and excel at them.
Expanding professional networks
Professionals love networking, no matter their role or career development stage. They simply enjoy connecting with like-minded people and getting professional tips right from the experts’ mouths. In terms of career development, networking can be a great tool for engaging your employees in the workplace and contributing to their professional growth.
For example, you can encourage employees to attend workshops, events, and webinars, where they can learn new information and expand their professional circles and resources. It’s a win-win. They get quality business connections that can evolve their career – and you get firsthand business engagement from an employee who’s happy to be there and deliver.
Professional development plan examples – What are the options?
Professional development takes many shapes and forms. Ultimately, creating a solid career growth plan will depend on each employee, their learning affinities and styles, and their overall skills. Online learning is a top option these days, such as skill-specific digital workshops, but there is plenty more to choose from. Let’s go over the PDP options you can consider adopting.
- Academic courses. Academic career development will always be the right career move for employees needing technical education. From a Bachelor’s Degree to certified accreditation programs, the options are widespread. The only thing left is finding the perfect academic employee for the task and ensuring it aligns with what they’re after.
- Conferences and seminars. For employees who thrive on real-time, on-the-scene events, conferences, and seminars can be quite the career booster. They are educational and give employees access to expert insights. They can boost their presentation and communication skills, which is perfect for public, leadership, or PR-like roles.
- Coaching. Employees who want to further their careers will always be easy to coach. They thrive on soaking up expert knowledge or picking the brains of those who already fulfilled their career goals. Coaching is also quite personal, and most likely to work for employees who appreciate ongoing mentoring and constructive feedback.
- Certificates. Say what you will, but certificates still rule the industry as visual proof of one’s professional skills and practical projects. Offering certificates to your employees is a smart way to expand their skills while ensuring they love every minute.
- Job rotation. Innovative yet effective, offering employees to work in a different role temporarily can help them consider multiple career options before making a final call. Employees working in marketing might suddenly realize they like customer care more, and you’re the one to open that new career door for them.
How to align a career development plan with your business goals
The best way to efficiently execute a PDP is to keep business goals in alignment with the plan.
Here are a few key steps to help get you started:
- Understand business vs. employee goals. Get a solid grasp of your short- and long-term business goals, then determine the skills and knowledge your employees will need to achieve them. Ideally, you want to select employees whose career goals align with your opportunities.
- Bring all hands on deck. It takes a village to successfully enforce PDPs. So, the more leaders and managers you can include in the process, the better. They have a knack for planning strategies, helping streamline the entire plan, from reviews to education.
- Make education a priority. Offering growth opportunities is key to retaining quality staff. Make sure your education resources also align with your business goals and run periodic surveys to see what’s trending among employees, skill-wise and learning-wise.
- Measure, adjust, repeat. Measuring the success of your career development plans is a no-brainer. Using precise steps, roadmaps, and KPIs tools can help determine employees’ efficiency in achieving the plan’s goals. Such data is also great for adjusting your plan to better meet your current and future goals.
Free Professional Development Plan Template Example
| EMPLOYEE NAME | START DATE | ||
| DEPARTMENT | END DATE | ||
| JOB TITLE | SUPERVISOR |
| OVERVIEW | |
| CURRENT JOB TITLE | |
| CURRENT SKILLS | |
| OVERALL VALUES | |
| FUTURE GOALS | |
| AREAS OF GROWTH |
SELF-EVALUATION – QUESTIONS
| What are your top accomplishments in the past 6 months? | |
| What have you learned/gained from it? | |
| What remained ‘work in progress’ in the past 6 months? | |
| Where did you grow the most in the past 6 months? | |
| Where do you still need to grow? |
WHERE YOU WANT TO GO – NEXT STEPS
In your own words, write out a visual representation of your long-term career goals and aspirations. Include the ultimate career goal you want to accomplish and the ideal job description according to your requirements.
| THE VISUAL EXERCISE |
GAINING MORE CLARITY ON YOUR CAREER PATH
| What fulfills you most at work? | |
| What parts of your current role are the most enjoyable? | |
| What parts of your current role are not the most ideal? | |
Which top 3 job listings appeal to you? | |
What is most exciting about each listing? | |
What is least exciting about each listing? |
GETTING CLOSER TO YOUR GOALS
List 3-5 precise short-term goals you want to accomplish in the next 1-3 years.
| GOAL 1 | |
| GOAL 2 | |
| GOAL 3 | |
| GOAL 4 | |
| GOAL 5 |
EVALUATE CURRENT OPPORTUNITIES
List any existing opportunities in your current job role that can help you achieve your goals.
| Which of these skills is best to prioritize? | |
| Which networking opportunities can the employee leverage in their current role? [e.g. mentoring, events, etc.) | |
| What are their current skills and levels? | |
| What are their desired skills and levels? | |
| Which of these skills are best to prioritize? | |
| How will the employee focus on achieving each skill? | Skill 1 Skill 2 Skill 3 |
| How will your organization measure the efficiency of PDP achievements? (e.g. KPI tracking, performance reviews/feedback, etc.) | |
| DEADLINES: |
Professional Development Plans – What the Future Holds
When it comes to career development, 77% of employees feel they’re left on their own. Unfortunately, this neglect by organizations has led countless people to leave their workplaces in search of proper career support.
You know what they say, something’s gotta give. If you are a serious business that wants to fulfill its goals and enforce its professional squad, supporting professional development plans for your employees is the way to do it. As always, you can refer to our PDP template example to get a fuller grasp of how to leverage employees’ long-term goals to meet your business vision.
At the end of the day, investing in growth is investing in people – it ensures long-term fulfillment, a thriving company culture, and outstanding staff performance.
FAQ – Professional development plans
What does a professional development plan do?
A professional development plan (PDP) outlines an employee’s overall goals and strategies for growing their career. It helps organizations support their employees in boosting their skills, using a broader plan and narrowed-down action steps. This helps organizations retrain, grow, and expand their talent through various career development opportunities, like certifications.
How often should you review a professional development plan?
Reviewing professional development plans is a must to do, ideally every three to six months. Reviews help estimate employee progress, areas for improvement, and adjustments. Timely assessments also ensure that professionals are on the right career track and not missing steps.
What are the key elements of a professional development plan?
The main elements of professional development plans can vary. But as a rule of thumb, you should focus on setting clear career objectives, monitoring success and progress, making adjustments, taking action, and identifying resources that can help you support employee growth. Learn more in our professional development plan guide.
What’s the difference? Professional development plan vs. performance evaluation
Typically, a professional development plan will lay out the entire career path of an employee. This includes their current skills, career stage, career growth opportunities, and ways to achieve that. On the other hand, a performance appraisal only highlights the current achievements of an employee, without long-term focus on their future career development.
