Your employees are the glue which holds your business together. As such, they deserve your investment and dedication to their training. One of the best ways to build a path to success for any employee is to create a professional development plan. Pushing them in the right direction comes with a structured and organized plan that is aligned to their own strengths and weaknesses. It should make the most of their potential while keeping a reality check on what they are currently capable of.
1. Understand their goals
Asking the individual in question what they want from their own career is an excellent first step to take. This form of self-assessment will give you a sense of where they want to end up in their career path and how you can help as a business. Making sure that colleagues are listened to first will give them the sense that they are valued and that yearning to progress within the company is the right move to make.
2. Understand their concerns
Before you create any form of a professional development plan, it’s useful first to pre-empt any problems. If you are their line manager, then you might wish to highlight some issues, but first and foremost it’s excellent practice to ask them about any problems or hindrances to their progress.
3. Acknowledge their potential
Once you’ve gained an understanding of where they want to be in the future and what is blocking their path to success, it’s good to evaluate where their potential lies realistically. What would they be great at? What do they lean naturally towards? Any professional development plan should be tailored to an individual’s own strengths and weaknesses. Mentoring them and sending them on business trips that provide them with a glimpse into the next professional level will also give them some insight into what’s required of them.
4. Invest in training
If you’ve both come to the decision that your employee would benefit from learning how to manage a team, then it’s time to start researching suitable educational programs. If they need to undergo some fundamental training first, such as health and safety online training, then booking an online course will set in stone their primary training needs. It’s also recommended that you keep in mind the business’ goals and what your employee’s key responsibilities are. That way, once you’ve decided what is needed for the company to thrive, you can determine what skills and responsibilities your employees will require.
5. Make the plan flexible
As you track your colleague’s progress through the plan, it will inevitably change. What you thought were their strengths will change, and their professional struggles will need documenting and amending. As your colleagues and the business changes, so will the development plan.
Having regular meetings and analyzing the effectiveness of the professional development plan you’ve put in place is fundamental to making it work. Being able to listen to employees and keep them motivated will ensure that they stay on track to their goals of progressing through the company.
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