I am working on Employee Development Program for my organization. I've come to realize that the leaders that work for my business struggle with Employee Development Plans. What have you done in your organization to train leaders on employee development plans, how have you ensured that the program was a success?

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VP Talent, Learning & Organisational Development in Manufacturing6 months ago
We stimulate the discussion between managers and employees but employees need to own their career. It is not only the company or the manager who are to work on an employee’s development, the employee has to be clear what he/she wants to learn, where to go, what to get better in and for the manager to give constructive feedback and advice and work on a plan together.  What you can do is ask what managers need and ask what employees need, get some voice of the customer input and not develop a program from an HR point of view 
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VP of HR6 months ago
We have provided training workshops  to both managers and employees focused on what employee development is, why it is important, how to identify strengths and opportunities.  We designed simulations to support what those conversations feel/sound like when co-collaborating and building IDPs. The practice in virtual sessions and collect feedback.  They also have the  option to attend working labs which are small groups facilitated to support challenges they are having whether is in identifying the needs, drafting the IDP or having the actual conversations.  It seems to effective based on the feedback scores.
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Director of Talent Management6 months ago
We started by rolling out a Career Coaching Conversations Training for all People Leaders. This training is highly interactive and incorporates role playing career conversations through different types of personas, clear steps on how to set up and have this initial conversation and then continue the check in loop. 

While I believe that employees should own their own develop, its our responsibility as leaders to start the conversation and ensure employees know we care about their development and that its a priority. 

We require all salaried employees to have a development plan. We support our leaders in understanding what a "good" plan looks like through the 70-20-10 model of learning (70& learning from experience, 20% learning from others, 10% structured learning/classes). We've built out examples of learning experiences to help employees and leaders understand what those might look like. 

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Director of HR in Manufacturing4 months ago

Hi Sandy, We have done something similar but would love to learn a little bit more about your training, if you are willing to share.  I am now working on 'part 2' of this training, and focusing more on creating meaningful and actionable development plans.

Director of Talent Management4 months ago

Hi Elizabeth, I'm happy to connect and share. I'll send you a message to coordinate. 

Director of HR in Energy and Utilities4 months ago
Sandy,

We offer a one-page abbreviated development plan template people leaders can use to identify goals and action steps to reach goals, complete with dates due, to follow the SMART goal structure. We then encourage people leaders to meet twice a year with their direct managers to share updates on accomplishments, obstacles and opportunities. If you'd like a copy, please reach out to me at lavertyw@ugicorp.com   
CHRO3 months ago
If you took your car to be repaired and the mechanic asked you what was wrong and how you would fix it, you might struggle as well :)

We've tried to help manager's write, co-create or encourage their team members do write development plans for decades, and as with anything, some (a small percentage) are good at it, but for most, it really is a struggle because to create a good development plan:

1. You need to know the strengths and development areas of the person.
2. You need to know the requirements of the job/future job so you can compare it to the person to find the gap.
3. You need to be able to prioritize what to do first.
4. You need to be familiar with all possible options for development (not just courses)
5. You need to know how to structure, measure and support whatever development initiatives you put in place.

We've recently provided managers and employees with the ability to turn their "data into dialogues" by giving them access to an AI component that we preload with all their information (strengths, development areas, career history, functional interests, current skills, qualifications, current position and level) and the rest of the information needed to construct a really good development plan (see above points 2-5).

It references all the companies learning resources, a 400 page book about development advice, and uses the 70/20/10 model to construct the development plan. Make it useable, make it useful and they will use it :)

We have never been in a better position to abandon the "blank box" development plan format, and give managers and employees the ability to have great development conversations without having to become people development experts.

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VP of Global IT and Cybersecurity in Manufacturing6 years ago
Have clear business requirements up front, make sure the proposal includes items such as scope, timeline, cost, resources.
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Director of HR5 days ago
Sounds brilliant.  Cross fertilisation of ideas, people understanding other jobs in the business.  I guess you'd want to make sure it didn't get out of control, but someone from one function helping someone in another has ...read more
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