6 employee development examples to inspire growth

Examples of staff development initiatives

Examples of staff development efforts vary, and which approach you choose will depend on the specific needs of your employees, as well as their and your overarching organizational goals. Take a look at a few examples of employee development initiatives: 

• Continuing professional development (CPD) — This approach centers on ongoing maintenance and development of the skills and knowledge employees need to progress and excel in their careers. There’s an emphasis on ongoing development rather than seeing training as a box to tick. “CPD programs help our employees stay updated with the latest industry trends and technologies,” says Tim at TeamUp. 

• Mentor programs — Mentor programs allow experienced employees to share their skills with less seasoned staff. This helps new team members upskill while giving more senior employees greater team management and communication skills. The mentorship program at TeamUp “pairs less experienced employees with seasoned professionals, fostering a culture of learning and knowledge sharing.”

• In-house training — Maria Nikolaeva, Director of Internal Communications and HR Brand at Usetech, has had positive experiences with internal training where “employees can give a master class or webinar, talk about a case study, or share tools for work.” They also have a community of professional interests within the company, where each employee can ask a question and get help from a more experienced colleague.

• External education — Maria says that at Usetech, “employees can choose to attend training in their field outside the company, and the company will reimburse the tuition fees,” similar to the development budget we offer at Leapsome. They also promote team members participating in conferences and other events as participants or speakers, providing opportunities to network while gaining new knowledge and skills. 

• Gamified training — You want to make your approach to employee development and training accessible to all members of your staff, and gamified learning can be a great way to do that. With research showing that gamified training done right can significantly improve employee performance, it’s worth considering as an option in your growth plan initiatives for team members.

All of these examples of development initiatives can form part of a tailored employee growth plan, which leads us to our next section: types of employee development plans.
‍

1. Performance-based growth plan 

This plan enables employees to focus on competencies that directly influence their job performance. It’s less about teaching new skills and more about developing your people’s abilities, so they can perform day-to-day responsibilities more effectively.

For example, following a performance review or a company-wide skills gap analysis, a hiring manager might receive constructive feedback on their communication skills. Since great communication is vital to the role, an effective development strategy for them is one that focuses on closing that skills gap. To help you visualize this type of roadmap, we’ve included some in-depth examples of performance-based plans in the upcoming section. 
‍

2. Goal-based growth plan

A goal-based development plan aims to proactively help employees set and meet specific milestones and objectives and key results (or OKRs). In this case, all steps within the roadmap should get the employee closer to their long-term goals. 

For these employee development programs to succeed, it’s vital to encourage collaboration between managers and their reports. That’s because collaborative goal-setting gives employees a sense of ownership and increases transparency across the board. To get started, explore our comprehensive OKR-based development plan template in the next section.
‍

🔎 Want to learn more about OKRs and how to set them?

‍Check out our free, downloadable OKR template for more ideas.

3. Succession growth plan

Succession planning, or establishing a succession employee development plan, helps employees advance to more senior positions within your organization. This includes, for example, a career development plan highlighting the steps a customer service agent needs to take to become a customer service manager. 

You can use performance reviews and 1:1 meetings to discuss your people’s strengths, growth potential, and career goals, and engagement surveys to gauge their sentiments. After that, it’s all about creating a growth plan that aligns with your company’s promotion policy and empowers your people. We not only offer a software solution but also a free downloadable template for this type of plan.
‍

4. Ad hoc growth plan

Ad hoc career development programs work best for employees who wish to pursue unique interests, higher degrees, or certifications to increase their competitive advantage as employees. For example, an employee in your HR department might express interest in completing accounting courses to upskill and collaborate more effectively with the finance department. 

Meeting their training needs, especially if they align with overall company goals, showcases your commitment to personal growth and retaining your people. Keep reading to get access to a free downloadable template for this type of employee development plan.
‍

“I identified a need to undertake a formal leadership qualification by doing my own employee development plan. The result? I completed a Master's degree in leadership and management and was able to apply my new skills and learning in the workplace.

Although I understand there are a number of factors that may have prevented me from achieving my goal… I would have probably looked for other employment opportunities if my development plan wasn’t taken seriously.”

— Tracy Rawlinson, Freelance HR writer and former Children’s Centre Leader

5. Leadership growth plan

One of the key goals of an effective employee development plan is to increase management and leadership effectiveness. That’s why it’s crucial to offer coaching and mentorship programs to senior employees who are already familiar with the skills needed to succeed in their roles. This means empowering them to deal with difficult and more complex situations.
‍

📕 Future-proof your organization by investing in effective development initiatives 

With Leapsome’s Competency Framework, you can create a customized career roadmap for every role to improve employee retention. 

👉 Learn more 

1. Ad hoc employee development plan

Our free downloadable employee growth plan template offers HR professionals and leaders a simple way to get started with creating an employee development path. Help your people define their development profile and establish a growth timeline with follow-up steps and detailed action items.

Start by inviting your team members to discuss and document their strengths, areas for improvement, needs, and professional outlook. This way, you can create a plan that aligns with their needs. Next, to ensure clarity and transparency, describe a list of actionable steps they need to take to reach their desired results. 

Ideal for: companies and teams without an existing learning and development program looking for a straightforward template to get them started. 
‍

2. Soft skill development plan: giving feedback

Learning how to exchange feedback that motivates and engages employees is a vital soft skill for any team member. That’s because employee feedback guides your people in the right direction and encourages good performance. Leapsome’s Learning Pathways help you create and assign actionable plans that are tailored to each employee and still fit into your business goals.

To get started with this performance-based growth plan: 

1. Define each employee’s short- and long-term goals for giving feedback. You can do this through formal or informal check-ins.
   
   
2. Ensure they align with each other and with your company goals.
   
   
3. Develop an action plan combining on-the-job experiences, mentorship activities, coursework, and quizzes. 

Remember, like with any hard skill, soft skills require practice and time for reflection. Encourage your people to put their learnings into action by giving their peers or managers input using our Instant Feedback module or a tool of your choice.
‍

⭐ Need additional resources to help your team members exchange meaningful feedback?

‍Check out our guide: 27 employee feedback examples and the right way to use them.

‍Ideal for: HR professionals and leaders looking to implement a learning culture by taking advantage of other areas supporting employee development such as assessments, 1:1s, goals and OKRs, compensation, and promotion management.
‍

3. Soft skill development plan: holding effective meetings

Unnecessary meetings can cost large companies up to US$100 million a year. So training your leaders to hold effective meetings is a time-saving initiative with a high return on investment (ROI). 

In Leapsome’s Effective Meetings Learning Path, leaders (and employees) are encouraged to go through videos, quizzes, and reflection tasks to understand why many meetings are ineffective and how to change that. This performance-based plan’s completion deadline, key milestones, and progression tracking functions make the roadmap more specific and measurable.

Ideal for: leaders who are looking to facilitate more productive meetings, need a collection of learning materials to practice this soft skill, and want to tie employee development to other employee enablement initiatives.
‍

4. Succession development plan

With our Competency Framework, Leapsome users can establish a tailored succession development plan to help employees align their professional goals and planning timeline with your organization’s values and internal promotion plan. The roadmap also boosts visibility across your organization and can help get stakeholders on the same page.

Ideal for: leaders looking for a straightforward way to prepare their employees for professional advancement and up-skilling based on various competencies.
‍

5. Employee performance enhancement plan

This career development plan by SlideTeam is a great example of a measurable, actionable, and time-bound employee training plan. While the table is quite simplistic, it highlights some of the fundamental aspects of an effective performance enhancement plan, including:

• Training tasks 
• Duration
• Completion status 
• The person responsible for overseeing the training

To improve this example, you can also add the cost of training and tie actionable steps to overall employee goals.

Ideal for: managers looking for a straightforward way to track employee training across different departments and roles. 
‍

6. OKR-based development plan

‍Our free downloadable goal-based development plan template enables leaders to help their people develop in alignment with their personal OKRs. Every step in this roadmap should train employees in a way that directly supports them in meeting their targets, which can be guided by company OKRs. 

After planning your report’s OKRs together, break down the key results into specific, measurable, and time-bound action items. Then, organize regular check-ins to assess the employee’s progress and discover how you can help them succeed.
‍

💡 Management by objective (MBO) bonuses are a great way to keep employees motivated regarding OKR-bound development plans. Check out our guide to incentive compensation to learn more.

‍Ideal for: leaders looking to support employees in achieving their long-term goals more effectively. 
‍