How to build the ultimate employee development plan (with examples)
If you could just snap your fingers and it would magically appear, what would your ultimate employee development plan example include?
I bet you’d want it to meet these five must-have requirements:
An individual development plan template that was fast to set up and easy to administer
You’d want jobs skills development with a well laid out employee self-evaluation.
- It would include soft skills to develop emotional intelligence and leadership skills.
You’d want it to include a fast and simple employee performance review template.
Clear step-by-step instructions on how to write an employee review
And for the cherry on top 🍒 you’d want it to include an employee rewards and recognition plan.
Guess what? Your wish has been granted, and then some.
I present several employee development plan templates and employee performance review templates here.
They cover all the key areas of employee development – with examples.
It’s long been known that employee development increases employee retention by up to 50%. The collaborative design of these templates are designed to maximize both employee retention and employee engagement.
Download the employee development plan examples here:
In my employee development course research, I’ve developed templates that meet the 5 must-haves on your wish list and goes even further.
They’re included in these employee development plan examples and individual development plan examples.
Additional Employee Development Plan Examples and Resources
Unlock the full potential of your workforce with these employee development plan examples and other employee development strategies.
They are carefully designed to promote high quality employee training and development.
These individual development templates are proven to quickly boost job performance, and build emotional intelligence through soft skills.
Tailored for businesses or departments with up to 50 employees, who need to elevate their team’s productivity and job satisfaction.
The 10 standards that effective individual development plan examples should adhere to
Working with clients I have found over time what best practices work in employee development templates.
Individual development plans for example, should especially be sure to adhere to these 10 standards:
Measurably boost your employee’s job performance from day one
Develops job skills, not abstract long term goals which are difficult to focus on
Raises the quality, productivity and morale of the entire workforce
Insures that business owners & managers don’t need to invest a lot of time or money into it to make it work
Include an employee self evaluation template, so they can complete part of the performance review themselves, with minimal manager supervision
Forms a cooperative partnership between employee and employer toward shared goals
Builds emotional intelligence and leadership through soft skills
Provides an ongoing, quarterly cycle of improvement
Helps difficult employees to work through their behavioral and attitude issues on their own
Includes a low-cost employee rewards and recognition program for a job well done
I provide an individual development plan example that accomplishes these 10 standards. They are especially effective for small to medium businesses and organizations with up to about 30 developable employees.
About the Author
My name is Larry LaFata, I am a talent development coach and the founder of The Modern Leadership Center.
After 30 years’ experience working with Fortune 500 companies, I turned to my passion the last 10 years: leadership training and employee development courses.
I have a unique ability to synthesize research and innovation into organized, usable training concepts. This practical approach ensures that my programs and courses are concise and effective. The result is self-assessment and skills development templates designed to truly customize your results.
Courses I have developed include Leadership Development Programs, Career Change Planning Program, Employee Rewards Program and Employee Development Plans.
No psychology tests or theories are used here. The focus is only on skills development.
My goal is to provide you with streamlined solutions for leadership training, employee development and emotional intelligence. Designed in such a way that you can implement them quickly.
The shortcoming of most employee training and development
Most employee training and development plan examples miss the mark on these 10 standards:
Typical employee training software packages provide generic training modules that the employee quickly forgets: retention is typically less than 10% after one week.
Then there are those expensive monthly per-employee fee HR training apps. They are overkill for a small to medium size business. With big learning curve, a dedicated employee to manage it, a ton of data input and pricey month per-employee fee. After all that, they don’t even focus on skills!
Many of the employee development templates you’ve searched for online are usually random and unfocused. Most focus on abstract long term goals instead of the discrete skills your employee needs right now.
Building emotional intelligence and leadership skills through soft skills training usually requires a separate, expensive training course
Up till today, you were boxed in to these limited choices.
Now you have these step-by-step employee development plan examples to save you time and increase your effectiveness.
They incorporate all 10 standards of effective employee development plans.
Focus on job skills for immediate performance improvement
The focus of an ultimate development plan template is to center on job skill proficiencies, not abstract long term goals or psychology testing.
Centering on job skills allows you to meet the 10 standards of the ultimate employee development plan quite easily.
Zero in on what skills need development: A focus on developing job skills ensures that you can zero in on exactly where the employee needs skills development, from where they are now. The result is immediate performance improvement from day one.
Quality control of job skills standards: Job skills and soft skills raise the productivity, leadership and emotional intelligence standards of the entire workforce.
Address behavioral issues: Soft skills allow employees with behavioral issues to work them out in their own way over a quarter.
Save employer time: Job skills are perfect for an employee self evaluation template, saving employer time because employee can complete part of the performance review themselves.
Ongoing cycle of performance improvement: A quarterly employee development plan allows you to refresh employee job skills each quarter. This provides an ongoing cycle of improvement, so no employee falls through the cracks (or ever requires a performance improvement plan.)
Employee quality control through skills development
Consistent skills development gives you what I call employee quality control of job skills standards.
Using job skills and soft skills you can raise every employee up to the same job skill quality standards. You can also build leadership skills and emotional intelligence.
It’s the perfect way to reach and train today’s wide spectrum of talent, experience and skill sets in a consistent way.
The importance of employee skills development to manage todays workforce
Today’s workforce has the most wide-ranging variety of talent, skill set, experience and education in history.
By focusing on developing the same set of job skills or soft skills across the workforce, you can consistently develop employees, no matter where the employee’s skillset is now.
Employee development plan examples that meet the 10 standards of effective employee development
This ultimate employee development plan template meets and exceeds the 10 standards of employee development:
Fast set up of the performance review for employer – simply pull the job skills from the job description and enter by category
Easy self-evaluation template for employees, which they can do in advance, boosts employees job performance from day one
Provides an ongoing quarterly cycle of performance improvement and employee quality control, building collaboration and cooperation between employees and employer
(Not shown) includes soft skills section to develop leadership skills and emotional intelligence, and allow employees with behavioral issues to work them out in their own way
Fast performance review with the quarterly employee review template
Employer can administer the performance review quickly with this employee quarterly employee form.
The job skills and soft skills the employee and employer agreed to at the beginning of the quarter can now be resulted.
Employee rewards plan for employee recognition and worker motivation
Properly formulated, an employee rewards and recognition can be an inexpensive way to motivate both individual and team competitiveness.
Author’s note on AI:
All content on this site is written by a human, not by Artificial Intelligence. I write for people, not machines.
This ensures I retain empathy, understanding and emotional intelligence in how I approach each topic. It also ensures you are not reading generic, mediocre, “most popular” conformist content, but rather a unique point of view, that is well researched and truly geared to your employee development needs.
Summary:The 5 must-have requirements of the ultimate employee development plan (examples ncluded)
As you can see, the employee development plan example that has all 5 of your must haves is achievable when you build in:
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A quarterly employee self evaluation that is focused on an employee job skills and soft skills. It makes employee skillset quality control a reality.
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An employee performance review template that is fast and easy for employer to set up and complete saves time and money.
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Use soft skills to develop emotional intelligence, leadership and communication skills quickly
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Simple, low cost employee rewards programs can reward employees for skills development achievement each quarter
Why wait? If you are a business or organization with up to 30 developable employees, now you can get a well designed, complete employee development plan at a reasonable price.
Without the overkill of expensive employee training software or need to buy separate soft skills training or emotional intelligence course, because they are included.
Find out more below.
Boost employee job performance from day one
Build job skills and soft skills quickly with concise templates
Innovative Employee Development Plan Template Kit includes everything an employer needs to improve employee job performance from day one.
- Saves employers time: easy one time set up, fast quarterly reviews and employee completes their own self evaluation templates
- Build job skills, soft skills, leadership and emotional intelligence customized to the level of each employee’s skillset
- Rewards program templates insure employee motivation and retention
- Step-by-step instructions guide and clean employee skills development templates in excel.
Best for up to 30 developable employees.
