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• What is a professional development plan ...

What is a professional development plan (PDP)? 6 steps to create one

A professional development plan is an ever-changing document that assesses your current skill set, helps you set career goals, create strategies, and uncover resources that will help you reach them. Read on for examples of professional development goals and plans, and discover tools to help track your progress.

Times have changed. While our parents and grandparents typically picked one job and stuck with it until retirement, following a very straightforward career path, the modern knowledge worker is presented with a variety of new industries, jobs, and ways to prove ourselves.

This abundance of opportunities is amazing but can also be overwhelming. If you’re looking to streamline your career goals, a professional development plan, or PDP, is the tool you need.

A professional development plan is a document that outlines your current skills and knowledge, your goals, and the steps you need to take to achieve these goals.

We’re going to cover the six steps your PDP should include, examples of professional development goals and plans, and tools that will help you track your career development.

How to create a professional development plan in 6 steps

Your professional development plan is not a one-time project. Rather, it’s an ever-changing document that you update as your goals, surroundings, and priorities change. 

The visual below illustrates the lifecycle of your professional development plan.

So let’s dive into the six steps you need to take to create your own professional development plan (PDP).

Step 1: Assess yourself

You have to first identify where you stand with your current skills and knowledge of relevant topics so you can figure out what you need to improve or change to progress in your career.

Assessing yourself isn’t always easy. To jump-start this process, try using an assessment tool or personality test. Here are a few popular ones to try:

The Big Five

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

DISC personality

These tests can help you get a better understanding of who you are and what you want out of your life and career.

Step 2: Set your goals

Now that you’ve evaluated your current position and skills, it’s time to set your goals. To break up your main goals, you’ll want to set long-term, mid-term, and short-term goals . 

Long-term goals can be months or even years into the future.

Mid-term goals should range from a couple of weeks to a couple of months.

Short-term goals should range from a couple of days to a couple of weeks.

Generally speaking, aim to set one long-term goal and then break the mid- and short-term goals up into manageable chunks. The number of short- and mid-term goals you set depends on how far into the future you’re planning and how many steps you need to complete to reach the finish line.

Setting more than one long-term goal only makes sense if they’re on different tracks. For example, you could set a long-term goal for your career, another one for your fitness, and a last one for your finances. While the progress you’re making in each of these aspects of your life may influence one another, these goals are different enough to require unique mid- and short-term goals. 

If you do set more than one long-term goal, consider the mental, emotional, and physical strain that multiple goals can have on you and adjust your schedule accordingly so you don’t burn out .

Whether you’re setting long-, mid-, or short-term goals, use the SMART goal technique to ensure that your goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timebound. We’ll cover some examples later on.

Step 3: Develop strategies

To reach your goals you need an action plan. To create one, ask yourself how you can advance your competencies, learn new skills, or get that promotion you’ve been eyeing. 

Take a look at your current skill set or position, as well as your goals, and write down what you need to do to reach them. Whether that’s going to a conference to broaden your knowledge, finding a mentor who can help you build meaningful connections within the organization, or signing up for a workshop to hone your skills—write down your action plan so you know which steps you’ll have to take to reach your goals. 

Step 4: Gather your resources

Once you’ve developed an action plan, think through the professional growth you need to succeed. Here are a few examples of resources that can be relevant to your professional development:

Seminars, webinars, or workshops that elevate your skill set

Learning and development resources that can advance your knowledge

Professional networks that connect you with new peers or mentors

Continuing education institutions that provide you with the degree you need for your promotion.

Social media platforms, like LinkedIn, where you can connect with your virtual team outside of work

List all the resources you can think of and then narrow them down to the ones that align best with your strategies and goals.

Step 5: Create a timeline

Creating a timeline and deadlines for your goals can be extremely helpful in sticking to them. It’s also the “T” of any SMART goal (time-bound). 

Depending on the type of goals you set for yourself, you may want to think in weekly, monthly, or quarterly increments. Try to find a happy balance between giving yourself enough time to achieve your goals but also challenging yourself.

If your main goal is tied to a specific date (for example, a new position that you want which needs to be filled by the beginning of the next year), your timeline will hold you accountable to your short- and mid-term goals so you don’t miss this career opportunity.

Step 6: Track your progress

With your timeline at hand and your SMART goals defined, it should be easy for you to track your progress and assess where you are. This brings us back to the beginning because your PDP isn’t a linear plan—it’s a lifecycle. 

Remember to keep your PDP alive by updating and adjusting it as you go. That’s the only way it can help you to continually improve yourself and grow in your career. You should also add your goals to a goal-setting software that allows you to track your progress and connect with others.

Professional development goal examples

We already have an entire article on advancing your career with professional goals but let’s sum up some of the most important information regarding professional development goals.

Professional development goals are concrete objectives that you want to achieve during your career. They’re a combination of short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals. Setting these goals should keep you motivated and ensure that you don’t get stuck on your career path.

Here are a few examples of what these goals can look like:

Objective: Start a new job

Long-term: Get a good offer and quit your current job.

Mid-term: Apply for at least five positions that you’re really interested in.

Short-term: Find five job opportunities by the end of the week.

Objective: Get more involved in company activities

Long-term: Participate in and help organize at least one event by the end of the year.

Mid-term: Join a group or committee that sparks your interest.

Short-term: Find three opportunities that you’re interested in (e.g., a networking group, a charity committee, etc.) and contact them about getting involved by the end of the month.

Breaking your main objective up into manageable chunks will take some of the pressure off and allow you to approach your goal step by step. Plus, it’ll give you reasons to celebrate your smaller achievements along the way.

Professional development plan examples

Everyone’s professional development plan is going to look different. To give you a quick overview of what it can entail, here are a few brief examples of what you can write in your professional development plan:

Self assessment

Joined the company only six weeks ago

I feel welcomed by my team but I’m holding back on social interactions because I am intimidated by their closeness

Create a network of at least three people that I connect with outside of work by the end of the year.

Speak up and get involved in meetings

Attend conferences, workshops, and after-work activities

Find a mentor

Connect with colleagues on LinkedIn

Company networks and after-work activities

Mentor 1:1 meetings

By next week: Add colleagues on LinkedIn and participate in at least one after-work activity

By next month: Secure a mentor and schedule bi-weekly meetings

By next quarter: Attend a conference or workshop with a colleague

By the end of the year: Have three or more colleagues that I feel comfortable hanging out with after or outside of work

When tracking these goals, you may realize that they were easier or harder to reach than you thought. That’s no problem! Simply adjust your goals or timeline and keep going. 

In this case, you may realize that making these connections doesn’t just help you feel more welcome and comfortable in the team but that your team considers you a natural leader. That could lead to a whole new development plan you can create to ensure you keep growing as a person.

Professional development plan vs. leadership development plan

Technically, a professional development plan doesn’t differ too much from a leadership development plan. Both require you to assess your current situation, set realistic goals, and track your progress.

However, if your goals are focused on improving your leadership skills or advancing into a leadership role at your organization, creating a leadership development plan will help you focus on the exact skills you’ll need to turn that plan into action. 

The first two steps remain the same: assess where you stand professionally and set your goals. After that, step three is to engage in leadership training and hone your leadership skills. During this step, you’ll also meet other leaders who can become your mentors and eventually your peers.

Step four of your leadership development plan is to build and interact with your network. To become a respected and successful leader, you’ll have to connect with like-minded people and seek out feedback whenever possible.

The last step is to learn or improve soft skills like effective communication , your emotional intelligence , and conflict resolution . All of these are critical to succeed in a leadership role and will distinguish a mediocre leader from a great one.

Help your team set trackable professional goals

Whether you’re working on your own PDP or helping out a teammate, the most important thing is that whatever goals you set are measurable and precise. This will allow you to track your progress and celebrate milestones.

With Asana’s goal tracking software, you can align your personal goals with those of your team or organization and always stay on top of your latest achievements.

Related resources

How to accomplish big things with long-term goals

Fix these common onboarding challenges to boost productivity

30-60-90 day plan: How to onboard new hires with ease

15 types of employee performance reviews

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• Wharton Online

How to Create a Career Development Plan

Most employees will only stay at company long-term if they’re able to grow their careers. To do so, they’re eager and willing to learn new skills that can benefit them in their roles and contribute to your company. Consider:

• 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in helping them learn, CNBC reports.
• 74% of workers are willing to re-train or learn new skills in order to remain employable, according to PwC’s “Workforce of the future: the competing forces shaping 2030” report.
• 59% of Millennials say opportunities to learn and grow are extremely important to them when they’re applying for jobs, according to Gallup’s “How Millennials Want to Work and Live” report.

One way to attract top candidates and retain the ones you’ve hired is to offer employees a career development plan. Career development plans show your employees you’re invested in their long-term success, which could motivate them to work harder and stay with your company longer.

This guide explains what a career development plan is, how to create them for employees and how to include learning and development in career development plans.

What Is a Career Development Plan?

Think of a career development plan like a roadmap that details your workforce’s career journeys with your company. A career development plan is a written document that identifies:

• Where an employee is now
• Their long-term career goals with your company
• The steps and roles they can take along the way to attain their goals

The career development plan can be as detailed as the supervisor and worker want it to be. Along the way to each milestone or achievement, there might be details like:

• Specific accomplishments
• Job assignments and projects to work on
• Education or training to complete
• Credentials or certifications to obtain
• Developmental activities

A worker may also identify certain supervisors or trainers they want to work with to learn new skills from, or specific programs to take to expand their knowledge. They might also choose tasks to do and skills to learn that address any weaknesses they have. These can all be added to a career development plan.

Career development plans are beneficial to have because you can grow your talent from within, which can save you on hiring and recruiting costs. You’ll also gain a clearer view into the skills your workforce possesses, so you can hire based on gaps you need to fill in.

You can mention career development plans as early as during the recruiting and hiring phase. You might consider enlisting your human resources team to create a template for employee career development plans, so they’re equitable throughout the workforce.

An ideal manager for the career development plan is each worker’s supervisor, since they have direct contact with the worker. Also, managers account for at least 70% of variance in employee engagement , according to Gallup research. Since managers see the day-to-day progression of those they manage, it makes sense to have them involved.

In the creation phase of a career development plan, the worker should understand the company goals and vision so they make sure what they want to achieve aligns with overall business goals.

The manager should ask the employee what they feel their strengths are, so those are the focus of the career development plan. Gallup reports strengths-based development results in a 9% to 15% increase in engaged employees . Throughout the career development plan creation process, the manager should ask the employee how they feel they can apply their strengths to each role.

Managers should ask employees what they want to learn in order to achieve their goals. You might offer corporate training programs and then plug employees into relevant ones that align with their learning objectives. Or, you could offer to cover part or all of tuition costs for online business programs . Ideally, education that’s completed may lead to increased responsibilities or role titles along the career development plan.

Write out a plan that details steps that include ways to measure success and deadlines to aspire to. The plan can span a year, a couple years and up to five years or more so the employee stays engaged and there are expected check-ins to monitor progress. Along the plan, identify potential mentors or trainers at work who can also work with the employee to develop their skills.

Make sure the manager establishes regular check-ins with the employee so together, they can consider career development plan progress, obstacles and achievements. Career development plans should be adaptable, so that the plan can change according to progress. Additionally, an employee may learn that their goals are evolving, so changes in the plan can accommodate those new goals.

Measure Career Development Plan Success

Before you begin a career development plan program, think about your goals as an organization. Do you want to increase employee engagement? Boost retention? Attract higher-quality talent?

Create ways to measure your career development plan program. Ask for input from managers and current and leaving employees about what they think of the program, so you can also evolve your strategy over time.

Career development plans that include access to training and development can strengthen your workforce. Wharton Online offers corporate training programs in subjects like leadership and strategic management for groups of at least 100 individuals. You can customize your learning platform based on your organization’s goals. Contact us for information.

The Wharton School is accredited by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and is authorized to issue the IACET CEU.

How To Create A Career Development Plan: Examples + Templates – 2024!

Career development plans are more than just aiming to get the next promotion or landing a better job. It demands a strategic effort and an intentional approach to laying out the steps one wishes to take in their professional life.

Career developments bring about serious self-reflection, goal-setting, and continuous learning in the process. Individuals who actively engage in their career development will be better equipped to seize opportunities, deal with challenges, and chart a course toward their success.

Especially in modern-day times where everything is changing at such a fast rate, career development plans are more important than ever and require more attention to detail.

Similar to talent mapping , career development plans are a valuable tool for creating a roadmap for professional growth that helps highlight strengths, weaknesses, and aligned aspirations.

Follow along to see which steps you need to take to implement career growth plans into your professional life to ensure growth and long-term success in your career, and take a look at examples and templates of career growth plans that you can customize!

Table of Contents

Why Should You Have A Career Development Plan?

A career growth plan is a very powerful tool when used right. It helps empower individuals to take control of their career direction and beyond the obvious benefits of goal-setting and skill enhancements, career development plans provide a sense of purpose.

By grasping your short and long-term goals through career planning, you will create yourself with a strategic compass, a career path , that will guide you through a competitive and slippery world. Career growth plans are also important to invest your time and other resources in the right places that will help you succeed the most.

As career growth plans encourage continuous learning, it enhances individuals’ resilience and overall abilities. They create a sense of proactivity in approaching careers as a whole which in return helps individuals become more in tune with talent development opportunities and align better with their career goals.

How Do You Create A Career Development Plan?

Now that we have gone over what career growth plans are and why they are important, let’s take a closer look at how you can design one for yourself and what steps you’ll have to take in the process before we move along to employee development template and examples.

1. Identify Career Goals

The first step is to have a clear understanding of yourself as a professional and your development goals . Once you know more you can start articulating short-term and long-term goals.

One thing to take note of here is to make sure your goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). SMART Goals will help you advance in your career in a structured and strategic way that keeps you thriving for more but still rewards you in the process.

Break down your larger goals into smaller and manageable steps to ensure an easier process to track and help you stay focused on your overall objectives as you take your journey day by day.

2. Assess Skills and Competencies

In addition to identifying your goals and objectives, an integral part of individual development plans is knowing your skills and competencies. By assessing and seeing your current status, you’ll have a better idea of what else needs to happen for you to achieve the goals you set.

Reflect on your strengths and weaknesses, values, and interests. At the same time reflect on how they have assisted you in your achievement thus far. This will make it easier to highlight what areas need more growth.

As you see more clearly in this aspect, and as you identify more of what satisfies you professionally, this introspective perspective will provide you with a realistic and strong basis for you to design your career development plan.

3. Action Plan

The next step is to put into words your realizations from the retrospective approach previously, into a step-by-step action plan to follow day-to-day.

This plan can include acquiring new skills or developing existing ones through training or education, seeking mentorship, networking with other professionals in your industry, and actively going after any relevant opportunities for growth.

When thinking about your action plan, don’t forget to include what you believe are potential obstacles on your way and devise strategies to tackle them in case you need to. A well-rounded action plan will help make your goals a reality and keep you organized in your career development journey.

4. Review & Adjust

A career growth plan is not simply one document set in stone and never to be reviewed again. It’s an ever-evolving process as you take steps to grow via your career growth plan. As you evolve, your plan should do the same.

To ensure that you are on track, make sure to review your career growth plan consistently by using tools such as the 9-box review , to keep your steps in check and ensure they still serve a purpose for your growth.

Be open to adjustments when necessary, especially based on new opportunities or discoveries about yourself. Don’t forget to utilize appraisals during the process of employee development plans , to keep motivation high.

If you can implement an adaptable nature into your career growth, then you can truly succeed in the long term. Without fine-tuning your experience in growth as you improve, you can miss out on even better developments.

Regular self-reflection and tweaks here and there are vital if you wish to maintain a dynamic and sustainably effective career growth plan.

Career Development Plan Template

If you’re looking for a way to start yourself out on your own career development plan, we have a template for you that you can download!

You can also create your own career development plan inside Teamflect! Teamflect is an all-in-one solution to performance software.

An app that was designed for M icrosoft Teams , that has all of your needs under one place just a click away. You can use Teamflect to keep yourself or your team accountable for their career growth, create tasks and goals, and evaluate progress through performance reviews.

Career Development Plan Examples

In addition to a set template for a career development action plan, we’ve also taken the liberty to give you examples inside this article so that you can also see an example plan that’s already been filled out. Take a look at the following examples;

Sample Career Development Plan 1: Software Engineer

Set Clear Goals:

• Define short-term and long-term career objectives.
• Short-term goals might include mastering a new programming language or framework.
• Long-term goals could involve becoming a technical lead or software architect.

Assess Current Skills and Interests:

• Reflect on current programming skills and interests.
• Identify areas of strength and weakness, such as programming languages, frameworks, and technologies.

Continuous Learning:

• Enroll in online courses, workshops, or boot camps to enhance technical skills.
• Attend industry conferences and seminars to stay updated on emerging technologies and best practices.
• Consider pursuing certifications relevant to the field, such as AWS Certified Solutions Architect or Google Cloud Professional Developer.

Gain Experience:

• Seek internships or entry-level positions to gain practical experience.
• Contribute to open-source projects or build personal projects to showcase skills.
• Collaborate with experienced professionals to learn from their expertise.

Networking:

• Join professional organizations and online communities related to software development.
• Attend networking events and meetups to connect with peers and potential mentors.
• Utilize social media platforms like LinkedIn to build a professional network and showcase achievements.

Seek Feedback and Mentorship:

• Solicit feedback from peers, managers, and mentors to identify areas for improvement.
• Establish relationships with experienced professionals who can provide guidance and support in career advancement.

Career Advancement:

• Explore opportunities for advancement within the current organization or consider switching to roles with higher responsibilities.
• Stay proactive in seeking new challenges and responsibilities to further career growth.
• Continuously reassess goals and adjust career development plans accordingly.

Sample Career Development Plan 2: Marketing Manager

Define Career Objectives:

• Set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) career goals.
• Short-term goals might include mastering marketing analytics tools or obtaining certifications in digital marketing.
• Long-term goals could involve becoming a marketing director or launching a successful marketing consultancy.

Self-Assessment:

• Evaluate current skills, strengths, and weaknesses in marketing.
• Identify areas of interest within marketing, such as digital marketing, brand management, or market research.

Continuous Education:

• Take courses or pursue a degree in marketing, business administration, or related field to enhance knowledge and skills.
• Stay updated on industry trends and best practices through reading industry publications, attending webinars, and participating in workshops.
• Seek internships, entry-level positions, or freelance projects to gain hands-on experience in various aspects of marketing.
• Volunteer for cross-functional projects within current organization to broaden skills and expertise.
• Build a strong professional network by attending industry events, conferences, and seminars.
• Connect with peers, mentors, and industry leaders through networking platforms like LinkedIn.
• Join professional organizations such as the American Marketing Association (AMA) or Digital Marketing Association (DMA) to expand your network and access resources.

Seek Mentorship and Feedback:

• Identify experienced professionals in the field who can provide guidance and mentorship.
• Seek feedback from supervisors, colleagues, and mentors to identify areas for improvement and development.
• Pursue opportunities for advancement within the current organization or explore roles in other companies that align with career goals.
• Develop leadership and strategic thinking skills necessary for higher-level positions.
• Continuously evaluate and adjust career development plans to align with evolving goals and market trends.

Related Posts:

Written by Deniz Imer

Deniz is a content writer at Teamflect. She is obsessed with organizational behavior studies and loves writing/thinking about how a carefully designed people strategy can transform a company.

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Career Advancement: Definition + Examples + Career Timelines

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How to Develop a 5-Year Career Plan

• Mary McNevin, Ed. D.

Stop setting annual goals, and start thinking longer term.

Having a long-term plan for your career can help you reduce career-related stress, increase your perceived employability, and allow you to connect more deeply with your purpose. But how do you move beyond yearly career goals and create a five-year plan?

• Brainstorm. Start by thinking about how you want your career to develop and what you need to do to get there. This requires self-reflection. You’ll need to identify your primary goal, your passions, how your existing skills contribute to both those things, and your areas for improvement.
• Gather feedback. We’re not aways the best judges of our own capabilities and strengths. That’s why it can be important early in your planning process to gather feedback from your superiors, mentors, and peers. They may help you discover career opportunities you never considered for yourself, clue you into strengths you may be overlooking, and share insights regarding your areas for growth and development.
• Map it out. After doing some self-reflection and gathering feedback, it’s time to organize the information you’ve collected. Consider keeping track of your plan in PowerPoint. For example, slide 1 should outline the career goals you identified in your self-reflection. Slide 2 should list out the skills you already have and the ones you would need to achieve your ultimate career goals. Slide 3 should highlight the development activities you plan to pursue over the next five years to help you achieve your goals. And slide 4 should present all of the possible obstacles that might prevent you from achieving your goal and how to address those challenges.
• Iterate. Unlike year-long goal setting, the process of creating a five-year plan is never complete. One way to ensure you’re keeping your plan updated is to set a quarterly calendar reminder. This will help you address any new developments in your life or career and make changes where necessary.

“Where do you see yourself in five years?”

• MM Mary McNevin, Ed. D. is an executive coach, talent advisor, and former CLO and talent executive. She is a growth-oriented talent management executive with 20+ years of experience in learning, talent management, succession planning, and strategy development. Dr. McNevin earned her doctorate (EdD) from the University of Pennsylvania through an interdisciplinary program between the Graduate School of Education and the Wharton School of Business. Her dissertation focused on Executive Coaching in the C-suite. Dr. McNevin also holds an MBA from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and an MS in Education from the University of Pennsylvania.

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Career development plan  

Julia Kuzmina

Content Marketing Specialist, Valamis

February 1, 2023 · updated April 3, 2024

14 minute read

The idea of an employee remaining in the same role for the entirety of their career seems less relevant with each passing year.

Employees are now looking for more from their professional lives, and employers see benefits in helping them. Organizations can prevent burnout by introducing career development plans and keeping staff motivated with new and exciting challenges. As a company grows, so should its employees.

What is a career development plan?

• The purpose of a career development plannning

Why career development is important

How organizations can support employee career development, how to create a personalized career development plan for an employee.

• When to start thinking about career development plan
• Career development plan example (template)

A career development plan is a personalized roadmap designed to help employees achieve professional goals. It typically consists of short- and long-term goals related to each employee’s specific strengths and weaknesses, their current role, future ambitions, and the organization’s requirements.

While a career development plan can take several formats, they often incorporate a series of formal and informal steps an employee should undertake to improve their professional skills, increase their workplace value, and progress in their career . This could be by expanding their current role and taking on more responsibility or transitioning to a new position.

The personalized nature of career development plans is crucial to their success. Every employee is unique, with different skills, strengths, and potential within a business and other wants and needs from their professional life. Organizations must work with employees to design a career development plan that benefits both parties.

The following is a generalized approach to creating and maintaining a career development plan:

• Starting point – where the employee is in their career and an assessment of their current skillset, values, and aspirations
• Ideal career – what they want to achieve in their career, defining specific goals and objectives
• The difference – skill gaps they need to overcome to transition from their current role to their ideal role
• The path – a plan to bridge the gap; this defines a written career plan with specific steps the employee needs to accomplish
• Review – as progression occurs, employees and organizations must review and reshape career development plans based on new factors.

The purpose of a career development plan

A career development plan creates a written record of what an employee wants to achieve. This record can have a different purpose for employees and employers.

The purpose for employees

• help them define career goals and organize/plan the steps they need to take to progress. It also helps employees understand the potential for internal mobility and how their goals align with the organization.

The purpose for companies

• career development plans play a critical role in workforce planning and talent management , acting as a tool for HR departments to design future training programs. With a clear understanding of each employee’s career goals, organizations can work with them to achieve their potential and increase the value they generate for the company.

Career development plan template

This template helps employees and bosses plan together for career growth: set goals, assess skills, and make a plan.

The importance for employees

• Career development planning helps employees map out their future, organizing and identifying the steps they should take to achieve their professional goals . This includes connecting longer-term objectives with day-to-day activities, growing professionally, and setting achievable milestones.
• These all help enhance motivation and improve job performance , aiding the likelihood of achieving the long-term aims of the career development plan. Sometimes just having a future goal in mind improves present behaviors to the extent that the goal itself is more attainable. For example, with a clear career development plan in place, employees can focus on their professional development and target the specific skills they need to improve.
• Career development plans show employees what to do to achieve their dream job .
• They also improve transparency between employees and employers . Therefore, when mutually beneficial, organizations can invest in resources (e.g., educational material, external learning opportunities, etc.) to help employees improve themselves and progress in their careers.

The importance of learning opportunities and career planning and development has only increased in recent years.

Glint’s 2021 Employee Well-Being Report ranked “ opportunities to learn and grow ” as the number one driver of excellent workplace culture, up eight spots from the previous year.

In the past, in-person interactions were the primary driver of workplace culture. Team meals, drinks after work, and impromptu chats in the hallway are all examples of interaction significantly reduced with new remote and hybrid work models

The pandemic removed the importance of in-person interactions combined with new technologies and accelerated digital transformation. It created a less certain future, with employees more concerned about job security.

With more significant uncertainty, it is unsurprising that drivers of culture related to employee growth have risen in importance. Employees now want more than a paycheck and a pat from their employer. They want to perform their work while also getting the opportunity to work on themselves, developing into better employees to help reduce job insecurity worries.

Career development plans and associated training programs help staff see their role as more than just a job. It is a path to a more secure or financially rewarding position.

The importance for companies

Unfortunately, many companies neglect career development plans and employee training programs to the detriment of their workforce. Investing in employee development is critical to maintaining a vibrant and effective team. Achievers’ 2020 Engagement & Retention Report found:

• 46% of employees feel only moderately valued by their bosses
• 30% feel “not very” or “not at all” valued
• 26% feel that being undervalued is the most significant barrier to becoming engaged in their work.

One way to dispel these feelings is to invest in employee development , demonstrating that the company values workers. With active L&D programs, organizations can boost employee retention and hold on to their most valuable team members.

LinkedIn found that 94% of employees would continue to work at a company for longer if they invested in their learning and development. For ten years, the Work Institute has ranked career development concerns as the number one reason employees leave organizations .

Employers need to treat and guide their L&D programs with career development plans because it helps attract and retain top talent.

This is before they even consider the potential performance benefits of career development programs and how they can inform upskilling and reskilling initiatives.

Perhaps just as bad as talented employees leaving is unskilled, unmotivated employees remaining at your company. Gallup’s 2022 report on the “State of the Global Workplace” estimates that actively disengaged employees cost the global economy $7.8 trillion, 11% of the world’s GDP . In contrast, the benefits of high employee engagement are startling. By analyzing over one hundred thousand business units and comparing the top quartile to the bottom quartile, Gallup found:

• 23% higher profitability
• 14-18% higher productivity
• 10% higher customer loyalty

Thankfully employee development is a crucial driver of engagement, with previous studies showing that 80% of employees are more engaged when learning new skills .

Employee upskilling programs make people better at their job, boosting engagement and arming staff with the skills needed to enhance company performance.

Career development plans ensure that upskilling targets people with the right skills. With individualized training based on an employee’s long-term goals, companies can build a talented, engaged, and happy workforce capable of delivering success.

Connecting skills and learning

Valamis provides you with skills management and learning tools in the same platform, allowing you to tailor your content to existing needs.

Career development plans benefit both the employer and the employee when implemented correctly. Therefore, you should work with your staff to help them accomplish their goals and become well-rounded, successful employees.

While employees must take responsibility and drive their own career development, organizations can also create an environment conducive to learning new skills. This includes:

• Developing an additive learning ecosystem that can enhance employees’ experience regardless of how they like to learn.
• Providing details about the employee’s strengths and weaknesses, where they need to focus their efforts, and the outcomes they should aim for.
• Considering the full range and potential of career development for a specific employee. This can mean not tunneling on hard skills that produce dramatic transformations in their capabilities but also taking into account soft, interpersonal skills such as communication and organizational abilities.
• Acknowledging progress by linking career development objectives and incorporating new skills to tangible workplace benefits. This could be a higher salary based on their unique contributions or transitioning to a new, more-rewarding role aligned with their career aims.

The digital learning ecosystem workbook

You’ll get a list of useful questions and tasks to help you know your learning space better and ways to improve it.

1. Identify employees ready for a career development plan

Producing a personalized plan for every employee is a significant undertaking, and for many employees, it may yield little value to the organization. It is always beneficial to focus time and resources where they will be most effective; this could be people who:

• Show leadership potential
• Have talent but seem disillusioned in their current role
• Demonstrate the enthusiasm and drive to learn new skills
• Want to take on new challenges
• Are the highest performers in the organization

Discuss with managers and supervisors from each department to identify candidates who would benefit the most from a dedicated career development plan. Reach out to the candidates and gauge their willingness to work closely with the organization and build a new career development plan.

2. Ask them to prepare information about themselves

While it is a team effort between the organization and the employee, ultimately, the individual will drive the success of their career development plan. Therefore, you should ask them to start preparing information about their current role and what they want to achieve in their career.

Essential questions for employees to ask themselves before working on a career development plan include:

• What are your career goals?
• Where do you see yourself in five or ten years?
• What skills or experiences do you need to achieve your goal?
• What is currently holding you back in your professional life?
• What could your employer do to help your career?

Download a Career Development Plan Template [PDF/ DOCX]

To simplify the process, employers should provide a self-assessment form containing all the information they need to start designing their career development plan. This includes questions identifying the specific skills they currently have and what they will need moving forward.

3. Arrange a meeting

The next step is to arrange a meeting between key stakeholders, the employee themselves, their line manager or direct superior, and often a member of the HR department .

During the meeting, the parties should go over the information compiled in step 2 and begin to define critical components of the career development plan.

This includes a clear vision of the employee’s professional interests and long-term career goals .

While it is generally easier to define start and end points, the aim of the meeting should be to begin to understand the various steps along the way. This means breaking down long-term objectives into a series of shorter-term goals and how they can be achieved.

Gather information on how the employee likes to learn and consider what their future L&D program may look like with input from HR personnel.

4. Assess what is achievable

After meeting with the employee, the organization (in particular, the manager involved) needs to determine what they can achieve while working for them.

That means assessing their current skills, the employee potential, and critically what the organization needs from its workforce. For example, only some employees can have a career progressing to the c-suite.

Consult with relevant stakeholders and evaluate career development objectives that are achievable at the organization.

Identify the resources required to help the employee progress towards their career goals and determine whether they are currently present within the organization. In many instances, you will also need to look externally (i.e., external education and learning experiences).

5. Work together to design the career development plan

Discuss with the employee and learn how the organization could best support their career development, including the potential resources available. Then start working together to produce a realistic career development plan that helps them achieve their goals.

While there are many potential forms a career development plan can take, critical factors you should include are:

• The employee’s starting point (a summary statement followed by their current education, training, and job assignment)
• Long-term career goals (over five years)
• Short-term career goals (less than five years)
• The development activities to put them in a position to achieve these goals

Important tips to remember when designing a career development plan include:

• Personalize – Ensure the final plan is tailored to each employee, considering their unique skillset and what they want to achieve.
• Be Flexible – Remember that an employee’s aspirations will likely change during their career, especially early on. While you can design a great initial career development plan, don’t make the mistake of sticking too closely to it. If the employee finds a new passion or stumbles into an area they excel, don’t be afraid to revise the plan to consider new factors.
• Tracking progress – Every plan needs to consider how the employee’s progress will be monitored. This could include incentives, such as a promotion, upon achieving a certain level of performance or demonstrating the value of the L&D investment made in them.

6. Implement and review

Finally comes the exciting part of implementing the career development plan. Ensure all stakeholders are happy with the program’s current form, then let the development begin.

While you can take steps to support each employee along their career development journey, success has to be driven by the individual.

Make sure to check back with each employee, scheduling regular sessions to determine their progress and review any potential updates to the plan.

Using learning metrics or KPIs, you must also assess employee improvements and training effectiveness. With metrics in place to track behavior, you can determine the return on investment for your L&D efforts.

Read more about metrics in our recent blogs: 10 Valuable Training Metrics to Know How to Measure and Evaluate Training Effectiveness

When to start thinking about a career development plan?

While employees should continuously evaluate their skills, workplace experience, and career progression, there are better times for employers to engage with them to produce a more formal career development program.

Often a good time to start thinking about a career development plan is once an employee begins to impress management . When they have demonstrated their capabilities and become a valuable team member, management and HR should consider working on a personalized career development plan that maximizes an employee’s potential within the organization.

Another good time to start working on a career development plan is after a significant milestone at the company . Perhaps they land a major client or design a new workflow to improve operations. Whatever the specific reason, by setting future development goals, you can keep essential staff motivated and engaged and prevent them from drifting or looking for a new challenge at another company.

Career Development Plan Example (TEMPLATE)

Download our template, which will be a good tool for working on a plan. It helps key stakeholders keep all the data in one place.

You can use the template in different formats.

You might be interested in

How to create an effective Learning and Development (L&D) strategy 

How to minimize time to value in L&D initiatives

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• Career Planning

How to Write a Career Development Plan

Last Updated: July 10, 2019 Approved

This article was co-authored by Adrian Klaphaak, CPCC . Adrian Klaphaak is a career coach and founder of A Path That Fits, a mindfulness-based boutique career and life coaching company in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is also an accredited Co-Active Professional Coach (CPCC). Klaphaak has used his training with the Coaches Training Institute, Hakomi Somatic Psychology, and Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) to help thousands of people build successful careers and live more purposeful lives. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, 95% of readers who voted found the article helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 194,274 times.

A career development plan is a useful tool for anyone attempting to progress deliberately through a specific career path. Learning how to write a career development plan forces you to critically consider where you are in your current career, where you'd like to be, how you think you can get there, and how you'll measure your actions.

Establishing Your Overall Goals

• For example, say you want to work in an academic field. You could write something like, "My primary career interest is teaching at a college-level."

• Try to write down some of your personal skills. Even if you're just starting out, you may have general qualities that can be an asset to an employer. For example, maybe you're hardworking. Maybe you're easy to get along with and tend to be helpful to others.
• Discuss your hobbies and education. These can help establish the skills you have already learned that you can bring to the work force.
• What drives you as a worker? Are you driven by passion, the aspiration for success, or something else? Write down your main motivational factor before continuing with your plan.

Adrian Klaphaak, CPCC

Your personal strengths and interests can help you choose your ideal career. Career coach Adrian Klaphaak says: "Your strengths have built you to do certain things well and with ease. Your passions have programmed you to love some things and not others, and your personality has wired you to thrive in a specific type of work environment. You have a unique purpose that will bring meaning to your life and create a positive impact in the world."

• What is your current position in your field? Have you just finished your education? Are you beginning your educational path towards your goal career? Are you working an entry level position?
• Write down exactly where you fall on the career ladder right now. For example, "Graduate student and teaching assistant in literature."

• Leave aside any barriers here when you considered your dream career. If there was nothing holding you back, where would you ideally be in 5 years? 10 years? Do not worry about dreaming too big.
• Write down your ultimate career goal. For example, you could write something like, "I would like to be a tenured literature professor at a four year university."

Breaking Your Goals Down into Smaller Steps

• Write down a series of short and long term goals that will help you achieve your dreams. These goals should be relevant to your career at hand and obtainable. They should also be tangible goals so you can measure your progress along the way. Have a sense of when you want to achieve certain goals. For example, "Be a better teacher" is somewhat vague. To make it a SMART goal, think about what areas you want to improve in and write goals that cater to those areas.
• You could narrow down the following goal more. For example, you could say something like, "I would like to improve the sense of support in my classroom by fostering more one-on-one time with the students." This is a measurable, specific goal that's relevant to your career. You can also set a time table for this goal. You can plan to foster more one-on-one time by spring semester.

• Returning to fostering more one-on-one time in the classroom, think about how this could be done. It's okay to consult other teachers and mentors here for advice. Maybe you could require three conference days where you talk to students one-on-one about their progress each year. You could also try to be more available electronically. Be more vigilant about returning student emails so students feel they can come to you with concerns.
• From here, figure when you want to get this done by. These could be your goals for the coming semester. You could strive to improve the level of one-on-one support by the end of spring semester. The results, which should be measurable, could be your student evaluations. Write down something like, "I hope to see improved ratings in my student evaluations due to the increased classroom support."

• These can be personal issues. For example, you may be a disorganized person by nature. Therefore, it may be hard to keep up with things like student email and grading. You could write down something like, "Being disorganized reduces the time I have available for my tasks". Or maybe you purposefully avoid doing certain tasks that you don't enjoy, which you could list as "My tendency towards procrastination may hold me back."
• There may also be larger factors at play holding you back from your dreams. For example, academia is a competitive field with a limited number of jobs. You could write something like, "The job market for academic careers in the humanities is very competitive."

• If you're a procrastinator by nature, what steps can you take to combat this? You can say something like, "I will limit my time on Facebook and Twitter." If you're disorganized, you could say "I will start using a calendar to track deadlines".
• As for larger barriers, like a competitive job market, what can you do to set yourself apart? In academia, connections and active participation in the community can help set you apart. You could write something like, "I will maintain positive references with my contacts from graduate school" and "I will join a variety of academic organizations relevant to my field."

Evaluating Your Progress and Setting Deadlines

• Know means of evaluating your success. For example, you could strive for improved ratings in student evaluations each semester.
• You should also focus on participation in the community, maintaining contacts, and achieving certain awards, honors, and publications. How many publications you have, and any academic honors you receive, can be concrete measures of success. The time you've committed to an organization can also speak to success. For example, you could pledge at least a year to working on the student affairs committee in your graduate program.

• You can start at the beginning. Look at the goals you want to achieve by the end of this month or year. Write them down in order at the beginning of your timeline, including how you'll achieve these goals, any possible setback, and how you'll evaluate your success.
• Then, move forward. What do you want to achieve in the next two years? The next five years? The next ten years? Keep adding on your goals in order, including setbacks, means to measure them, and means to achieve them.
• For the example, your career path may start with activities in graduate school. These could include solid student teaching experience, obtaining awards and honors, and participating in graduate school organizations. As you move forward, you may want to gain an adjunct position, then move on to more permanent work. Eventually, your path should lead you to obtaining the role of a tenured professor of literature.

• For an academic path, a milestone may be something like obtaining your master's degree, and then your doctorate. You also want to include things like accruing a particular honor or award, like gaining membership into an honors society.

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About This Article

If you want to write a career development plan, start by writing down the field you want to work in and where you're currently at on the career ladder. Next, add the qualities you bring to your work, like being hard-working. Finally, show how you'll reach your dream job by writing down the goals you need to achieve to get there and concrete steps to achieve each goal. For example, you could say you want to improve the amount of 1-on-1 support you give by offering your students more office hours. For tips on how to evaluate your progress and how to create a timeline, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Career development plans: How to create one and more

Here’s how having a goal-oriented road map helps build a path to success.

You wouldn’t set off on a road trip without checking a map, so why would you approach your job each day without a clear sense of purpose and direction? Career development plans are all about the big picture. They provide the answer to the most common interview question of all time: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

But having a career development plan is about more than just taking a long-term view. Knowing where you want to end up in the future helps to focus your efforts in the present. Whether it’s your ambition to be promoted within your organization or to start your own enterprise, a solid career development plan helps you make informed decisions about your professional path and to understand where it might lead.

When you’re ready to take your next steps in business, it pays to think about the benefits of having flexible office space designed around your needs. WeWork provides beautifully designed workplace solutions built with flexibility in mind, offering inspirational workspace environments in locations around the world that encourage creativity and foster innovation.

For even more flexibility, WeWork All Access and WeWork On Demand let you and your teams access workspaces and meeting rooms in hundreds of sites across multiple cities, allowing teams to do their best work wherever they are.

What is a career development plan?

A career development plan is a document outlining the goals an employee hopes to achieve in their current role and beyond. It can be created solely by the employee, or with guidance and direction from a manager, and it sets out a road map to help guide them through the next stages of their professional journey.

Why create a career development plan?

You don’t have to be an employee of an organization to benefit from one. As with so many other aspects of life—whether you’re building a new business from scratch, managing your personal finances, or trying to live more healthily—simply having a vision for the future and an idea of how to get there is often the first step toward realizing those goals.

In business, a career development plan can motivate employees toward their next professional milestone. A career development plan sets out a series of achievable short-term objectives, leading to one or more long-term goals, and describes the experience, training, and actions needed to hit those targets and ultimately progress within the organization.

Benefits of having a career development plan

Career development plans have been shown to have a positive impact on employee motivation and professional outcomes. Those who use them tend to report greater success in their field, and a better relationship with their respective mentors.

There are benefits to having a well-mapped out career path, even if you don’t end up following it to the letter. Some of the stated benefits of having a career development plan include:

• A sense of purpose and direction
• Improved focus and motivation
• Increased job satisfaction and commitment to tasks
• Better visibility within the wider organization
• More opportunities for career progression

How to write a career development plan step-by-step

The process of creating a career development plan will vary depending on the kind of work you do, as well as your individual circumstances, your goals, and your personal experiences. However, there are some basic steps you can take to help ensure your career plan is as effective as possible.

1. Define your goals

The first step in creating a career development plan is to define your goals . Use the SMART rules to make these clear and unambiguous. Your objectives should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. 

“Take on more managerial responsibilities” is too vague an aspiration to be useful in a career development plan. “Earn a promotion to senior department manager within two years” is a solid target to aim for.

2. Identify your skills

Once you’ve defined your goals, the next step is to outline the exact steps and skills needed to achieve them. This part of the process is all about preparation and planning, and requires an understanding of the hurdles you might face as you make progress toward your objectives.

For example, if your goal is to be promoted to senior department manager, you might need to complete a leadership and management training course first. If you’re aiming to launch your own business, you might need to raise a specific amount of cash.

3. Build a timeline

Once you’ve fleshed out the interim steps needed to reach your long-term goals, it’s time to fit your career development plan into a timeline. Without one, it’s too easy to become sidetracked by smaller challenges and lose sight of the finish line .

Start with any fixed deadlines and work around those. For instance, if your company offers promotions only every three years, your career development plan will naturally progress toward that point in time. Work backward from that point, and be realistic about what you can achieve in the timeframe you have.

4. Track your progress

Review your career development plan often and use it as a benchmark to track the progress you’ve made over months and years. 

Remember that your plan isn’t set in stone : Circumstances can change, priorities can shift, and goals can evolve, so it’s important to keep your plan up to date. A career development plan should be rigid enough to be useful, but flexible enough to adapt to new situations.

Career development plans for employees

Lots of companies already have basic career development plans in place for new hires, so if you’re an employee, your manager may be able to share one with you. If not, nothing is stopping you from creating your own career development plan and working toward specific objectives within the organization.

If you decide to create your own career development plan, start by seeking feedback and guidance from your employer. Find out what opportunities are available to you and what kind of training, mentorship, and development would be most beneficial for your career.

Related articles

Career development plans for employers: The role of HR

If you’re an employer, you have a responsibility to help your employees develop their talents and advance in their careers. After all, it’s in your interest to have a workforce that’s motivated, loyal , skilled, and engaged.

Your HR department can create a template career development plan for new employees, who can then personalize and add to the plan once they’ve found their feet within the company. By working together, you can make certain that your workforce is equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to move forward in their careers while ensuring that your business meets its long-term goals.

Steve Hogarty is a writer and journalist based in London. He is the travel editor of City AM newspaper and the deputy editor of City AM Magazine , where his work focuses on technology, travel, and entertainment.

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career development plan 1920

How to write a Career Development Plan

by Umesh Khandke

Career development is essential within any company.

As well as providing motivation for employees, nurturing talent and recruiting from within is an extremely cost-effective way of filling highly skilled positions. Without a detailed career development plan, however, it’s almost impossible to successfully advance employees.

Why you need to a career development plan

The highly skilled positions in any company are the costliest in all respects. As well as demanding a higher salary, there are fewer candidates with the right skills to fill these positions making sourcing and recruiting them much harder. Because of their demand, they also have higher expectations of the work experience, such as rewards and compensation. Not only does this make their ongoing employment more expensive, it also makes them even more at risk of leaving within the first year for another competitor.

Nurturing existing talent early on the career track to fill these positions is much more cost-effective all round, saving money on sourcing, recruiting and potential bad hires. This is also a good way of nurturing extremely loyal employees which act as better ambassadors for the company and are generally more productive. Additionally, we all tend to work better with clearly defined goals and aims. Directionless employees are not only less productive but are probably not as satisfied with their career either.

Of course, to successfully nurture top talent and create succession paths there needs to be a clearly defined career development plan. It provides a clear view to both employees and managers of their current roles and skills along with the future roles and skills needed. It also provides a timeline by defining when each of these short-term and long-term goals should be achieved so that progress can be tracked and adjustments can be made accordingly.

Writing a career development plan

Managers and employees should work closely to plan and write the career development plan.

Managers should use experience from their own career development to make sure that goals and activities are realistic and achievable, and to help the employee identify the best way to achieve them. They should also be ready to offer mentorship and allocate resources to help employees progress.

Identify and define a primary career interest

This is usually a general vocation such as within a particular department or sector in a certain industry. For example, the employee may want to work in marketing within the retail fashion industry.

Identify long-term professional goals

This is usually the position and things the employee wants to achieve within the company as well as how they might get there including any lateral moves or promotions.

For example, they may want to become a regional marketing manager. The best career path to achieve this might then be to move from digital marketing assistant to marketing executive and then finally regional marketing manager.

Identify the short-term goals

These should be the more immediate goals that contribute to long-term interests. Typically, this will include the skills and experience you might need to get , and the challenges that must be overcome to meet these goals.

With the employee, identify both personal and external barriers that might stop them meeting short-term goals and then come up with ways to overcome them. For example, the time constraints that their current responsibilities may have on the time needed to train and get the new skills for their long-term goals. The solution to this could be to find more efficient ways to work or delegate current responsibilities to make more time for training.

Identify the activities for each goal

List 2 – 3 activities that will help them achieve each goal including how they will accomplish the activity, any resources they might need to accomplish it and the time frame each goal will be accomplished in.

Common development activities might include identifying and cultivating a relationship with a mentor or role model, completing qualifications or training materials, reading other relevant material, receiving coaching from co-worker and so on.

As a manager, there are resources you could also provide or help employees to access to help them reach their goals. This could be an online portal with learning materials , funding and access to other colleagues in the company who could provide them additional support, expertise or experience.

Identify positive tasks in the current role

Define the tasks the employee’s current role that are contributing to long term goals and should be emphasised or performed more frequently. For example, they may already be spending a lot of time with a co-worker who could provide valuable mentorship.

Identify the negative tasks in the current role

Similarly, define the tasks in the current role that are not contributing to or are inhibiting the employee from achieving their long-term goals and suggest ways to minimise, remove or delegate them. For example, they may currently have a lot of customer focused tasks that is taking time from their training for what is to be a mostly non-customer role. These tasks could be re-distributed to another employee who is looking a customer-focused role as their long-term professional goal.

Identify additional skills and experience

Write down any other additional skills, knowledge or experience that the employee might like to acquire that may directly or indirectly help in their current job or future positions.

Identify progress checkpoints

Finally, set out a time line and define when and how the progress on all activities and goals will be evaluated. Decide when each activity and goal will be accomplished to help define when each checkpoint should occur and decide on how each of these checkpoints will be carried out. For example, by phone, meetings or memos as well which developmental activities will be discussed at these times.

Don’t forget to make sure you’re providing the right king of progress evaluation. For example, if you plan to have smaller checkpoints of individual activities then memos or brief phone calls will be adequate, but if you set a checkpoint for the deadline of a short-term goal then this might be better in a more in-depth meeting format.

My Career Development Plan PDF

Find out more on how career development plan can help your business.