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Is a Personal Development Plan a paper tiger lying dormant in a desk drawer for most of the year, or are your employees really actively working on their future?
As an employee, in a POP, you record what you would like to develop and how you want to do it. So quite important, when it comes to the remain sustainably employable until you retire.
However, a POP is often seen as HR's hip invention, or the mandatory action point that an executive must check off every year. Too bad, because it's not for nothing that a POP is called a personal development plan. It is a plan that must be a perfect fit. A good POP ensures that you grows in your position, moves into the organisation and keep playing happily and happily in the labor market. We have tips to make sure that POPs fit like a coat and therefore live more.
As an employer, what can you do about the POP? on top of mind available from employees?
How well does the employee know themselves? Is he or she aware of their own talents and pitfalls? Even before you actively start working with a POP, encourage a serious journey of self-discovery.
This way, someone not only finds out what the requirements, wishes and ambitions look like, but also to what extent such career perspective suits him or her, and whether it can also be achieved.
These are sometimes quite complicated things to explore on your own. It can therefore be a good idea to offer a personality or motive test, or to investigate personal ambitions under the guidance of a career coach. The results can provide valuable tools for writing a POP that actually suits someone. personal wishes and opportunities.
Of course, as a manager, you can be the driver of a development cycle, but don't stay in control for too long. Give the employee the wheel as soon as possible: after all, it's about his or her own future. However, open your door to discuss together what is meaningful and appropriate. Think along, facilitate. And let the owner fill out the POP: the employee himself.
That may take some getting used to for some colleagues. Not everyone is naturally a self-starter, or used to thinking about themselves or the future. Therefore, monitor whether someone has already started working with a POP, and wear a jacket where necessary.
Feel free to offer to contribute ideas, but don't take that wheel. Keep the employee in control.
You are never too old to learn. It may sound like one of those Delft blue tiles on the wall, but it's really true. Therefore, ask every employee, of whatever age, to think about development needs. Stimulate curiosity about the unknown, see together where the growth opportunities lie.
Don't set the bar too high, you'll also move forward with baby steps. So set achievable goals that quickly lead to a success experience. That naturally tastes like more.
It may well be that you notice that a recently graduated colleague has very different dreams and ambitions than someone aged sixty whose retirement is already beginning to beckon a bit. That is no problem at all. That is precisely why it is so great that there is a personal development plan: that means that there is room for individual differences. Respect the wishes as much as possible and see how you can facilitate them.
Of course, you don't have to blindly grant every request; the desired training or career move must contribute to the organisation or personal well-being.
A POP is not a one-off exercise. Think of it as a starting point for a long journey with various stations. Sometimes the road gets blocked for a while due to illness, parenting, informal care or another life event. Or someone can suddenly accelerate development or has come to see a different function. The organisation, the market or technology may also have unexpectedly gone in a different direction, so that the training plans are no longer relevant and need to be adjusted.
Therefore, do not cast the development plan into concrete. Evaluate regularly with your employee whether the POP still fits the current situation. Do you find it difficult to think about taking such an evaluation moment in your daily worries? Here, too, place the control in the hands of your employee.
By turning the POP into an online document, for example, that the employee can change himself and use it to possibly schedule an appointment with you. Then you will automatically get a pop-up in your agenda. It couldn't be easier, right?
Give development space literally and figuratively in your organisation. For example, create a personal online learning environment for each employee (of whatever position or age), where you can easily choose from as wide as possible, attractive training offerings.
An interesting educational mix of theory and practice, job-related and wellness makes it fun for everyone to 'shop' and maybe opt for the unknown. By also linking the POP to this, your employee can keep track of whether the ever devised development plan is still on track, or perhaps what needs to be adjusted or supplemented. Facilitate the development of your employees in a practical way, too.
Set up a quiet room that can be reserved for study, budget for hours that (during working hours!) be used for development and training, and ensure a clear personal training budget that can be spent as you see fit.
Yes, that costs money. But it also definitely pays off: motivated employees, who enjoy being keep developing. In addition, it gives extra power to your employer branding, and that is of course also a bonus!
Our tips aren't OpperDepop yet
Do you need extra inspiration for the sustainable employability of your employees? That works out well, we have more tips to add color to the POPs in your organisation. Through smart online solutions, or creative multimedia ideas, for example. So feel free to contact us!
