I thought we were all done with performance reviews? Well technically you are, but I'm going to give you a recommended best practice. It's called an individual development plan or IDP's for short. You might have heard these before, but I'm going to walk you through this process. At this video, you'll be able to define what an IDP is and apply the steps in the IDP process. So, Individual Development Plan, what is this? It's long been used as a tool to help employees develop their skills and career goals. So, it's beyond the review a little bit, so a little add-on. IDP's are an excellent tool that managers can use to develop and motivate their staff by focusing on employee's training and developmental needs to increase productivity and career growth. So this is more than just the average review. This is where you send the signal to the employee that you want to have them develop their career. It's about careers rather than the performance review, which is about their performance this year. It also can send a great message that the employee's professional development is a priority. Again, this goes beyond their day to day work. You want to develop them and help them grow in the organization. Usually consists of two basic things, on the left side of the screen you'll see new skills and knowledge to help employees improve performance, so you want to again get them some skill sets they don't have beyond their current job. The other piece of it is to leverage their current strengths and talents, so you really look into what is this person really good at, and what will help them move up in the organization. So it's really identifying future strengths and talents that will make them move up. It's also good for you as the manager in the organization because you're helping grown people into new positions and move them up throughout the organization. Just another best practice here tip. Remedial help for addressing weaknesses should only be done in the event that the employee has a fatal flaw that will preclude them from being successful. This is typically should be addressed in the feedback throughout the year. So IDP is not about fixing something, it should be focused on that strength. So as you're looking at the IDP's as to really about, how do I help the person develop and become better and move up through the organization. Not to fix something. Let's just look at a simple process. Different organizations do this differently, this is what I typically use. I look at the employee and ask them to look at goals for the next one to three years. It's very motivational because we're looking long-term, sends the message that I want them with the company for awhile. But the goals are important. Then I'll look at two to three of their greatest strengths. And how can we leverage that for development? So someone is particularly good at communication skills maybe one of the things they get involved with is training. Maybe they have good project management skills and I get them involved in some special projects where they can leverage that skill for future growth and development. Something that they're not doing in their day to day job. You want to look at and offer guidance toward opportunities that will help them build on their strengths in a way that can help the organization. We've talked about this in the past as well. While it's about the employee and having them grow, you still want to be in alignment with the needs of the organization. So I might be developing someone's skills because it'll make them happy, and they'd like that, I want to make sure to also help the organization. As a manager, I'll jointly agree on the contents of the IDP with the employee, and then we'll sign it. And this is important because it shows that you have to be a follow through commitment. So it's not a contract we're setting here. But it shows that this is important. And I expect it to be executed because I'm putting out the effort to help you. And I expect you to put out that effort back. And lastly, review and revise the IDP to determine progress. Like any good review progress, you want to make sure that you're helping them throughout the year. And to make sure that they are successful in this. Note of caution. It's not a binding contract and managers should make every effort though to ensure that they're given time for the activities on the IDP to ensure success. So again my main point here is that it is important that, if we're going to do this, that we follow through. Otherwise, it really dilutes the effort of what we're trying to do. And it's a great tool to motivate people, grow them and help the organization overall. So I hope you find this to be a useful tool for you as you begin your managing careers or if you are currently in the management career.
