Methods for Carrying out Development Actions

In previous articles we already discussed the importance of personalized development plans. As a reminder, we will first briefly summarize the three kep points required for implementing these plans:

• Set business goals and identify the right employees for achieving these.
• Identify the people to take part in designing and implementing the development plan. The HR department, managers, and employees must collaborate in different ways to determine the existing and missing collective skills of the organization.
• After identifying who will participate in the design, then move on to creating the plan itself, splitting the design of the development plan into two phases:

1. Development plan based on evaluating performance and development.
2. Development plan based on evaluating potential and development.

After defining these points, next is what tools or methods can we use to carry out development actions linked to each personalized plan? Here’s a list of the more common ones below:

1. Training Plan

The purpose is to provide employees with the desirable training actions that come from needs detected in various employee appraisals and interviews. These actions are directly targeted to enhancing knowledge or skills that the employee does not possess at the right level to bring him up for his job.

To do this, we define a specific training plan that indicates courses, activities, leaders and dates. This plan also considers the employee’s personal circumstances.

enables online training platforms(LMS) to be made available so that the employee can carry out training actions online whenever and wherever. The employee can also participate in scheduled and recorded webinars (live distance learning). Through these platforms, the employee can access everything he or she needs to successfully complete the training action: documentation, forums, remote and offline tutorials with teachers, etc.

It is important that this training platform (LMS) is integrated with the company’s HR management system. This way, online courses can be directly associated directly to the development plan through end-to-end software management.

2. Coaching

Coaching is a method that consists of guiding side by side, instructing and training a person or a group of people, with the purpose of helping them to meet goals or develop certain specific skills.

Coaching is also known as the interactive and transparent process through which the coach or trainer, together with the person or group involved in this process, seek the most effective way to achieve the targets set, using their own resources and skills. There are many methods and types of coaching. Some of their techniques are workshops and supervised practice. Using this method, in the business field:

• Employees learn to detect obstacles, resolve problems independently, and improve internal relations. They are also encouraged to overcome personal challenges and increase the organization’s productivity.
• The manager obtains key information on abilities, skills, knowledge and competencies that he was not aware of and which may worth applying to the current job, or to other jobs or functions within the company. The manager also has a means to transmit or communicate to the employee whatever he has not been able to convey during the day to day.

In coaching, the manager’s role is important since his or her main function is to stimulate development and learning within the team. The manager will be responsible for implementing the plan defined for each person, while providing support and also acting as an effective coach. Likewise, it’s the manager who serves as an intermediary between the employee in question and the HR department in two-way reporting on how the development plan is executing.

3. Mentoring

In the business environment, we can say that mentoring is a career development relationship in which a more knowledgeable or more experienced person helps another who is less experienced or has less knowledge. The main function of the mentor is to share know-how and experience for different issues and problems.

For all of this actions to take place, it is necessary that HR uses the right kinds of intuitive talent tools and methodologies.

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Extra considerations for personalized plans

Lastly, it is worth keeping the following aspects in mind for a personalized development plan:

• Set the milestones for the complete development plan, detailing the timeframes in which each action included in the plan should be done.
• Assign the person or people who should tutor and control, making sure that each action is done within the stipulated timeframe.

Once we have a clear notion of the development plan to present to the employee, it will be essential to maintain an interview with him to:

• Explain the targets sought in this developnent plan (promotion, succession, collaboration with another department, etc.). If we are not transparent in the process, then we are risking the credibility of the development plan, and consequently, the company’s image.
• Find out if the employee agrees with the plan or if he would make any changes so that he can take responsibility for ensuring agreed deadlines are met.

If we successfully involve the employee so he signs off the plan’s design and takes ownership of it, there will be greater motivation and engagement to accomplish the plan.