Goal professional development: What Are Professional Development Goals? 10 Examples and How to Set Them

What Are Professional Development Goals? 10 Examples and How to Set Them

Professional development goals are objectives you can set for yourself to help further your career. These might include taking steps to learn relevant skills, expand your professional network, or find more satisfaction at work.

Why set professional development goals?

Setting professional development goals can have many benefits. They can help you stay up-to-date on industry trends, increase engagement and job satisfaction, and align you with what you want out of your career and life.

Setting goals that are SMART—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound—can clarify what you need to achieve in the short-term to arrive at your long-term goals. Read more about setting SMART goals below.

10 examples of professional development goals

Here are ten examples of professional development goals to inspire your own:

1. Develop a new skill set.

Growing professionally often means expanding the arsenal of things you’re able to do. What skill you choose to develop can depend on your industry, job, and personal preferences. In-demand skills across the job sector in 2021 included cloud computing, data analysis skills like artificial intelligence and SQL, management, and UX design [1].

Don’t know where to start? Approach your manager and see if they have suggestions. You can also browse job descriptions of positions you’d be interested in pursuing; the common skills listed will help you get a sense of what’s in-demand in your field. Do some research to get a sense of what you want to learn and what will be useful to your work.

Develop skills by taking online or in-person courses, shadowing a coworker, going back to school, among other ways. Think about what fits your schedule and the level of expertise you’re aiming for to see what works best for you.

2. Develop your workplace skills.

Workplace skills are the tools and practices that help people in a workplace connect and interact smoothly with one another. Sometimes referred to as human or soft skills, workplace skills can be crucial for advancing to higher-level positions. Workplace skills include verbal and nonverbal communication, empathy, self-awareness, and leadership.

Specific goals might include:

• Complete an online course on communication, negotiation, or psychology

• Join a social public speaking club, such as a local Toastmasters chapter

Read more: Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills: What’s the Difference?

3. Take up leadership responsibilities.

Actively seeking out leadership opportunities will allow you to develop leadership skills, and show others that you are striving to grow. Approach your manager to see how you might be able to put your leadership skills into practice. Have a few suggestions at the ready. Here are some examples to get your started:

• Lead two team meetings this quarter

• Plan and lead a team initiative to collectively learn a new tool or skill

• Plan the next team offsite or activity

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4. Expand your professional network.

Expanding your professional network can expose you to new ideas, build your profile, keep you informed of new job opportunities, and help you learn continuously. 

Sign up for events to attend in your field, join professional groups in person or through social media platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn, or find opportunities to volunteer your skills through volunteer databases like VolunteerMatch. 

Some concrete goals you can set include:

5.

Level-up your credentials.

Beefing up your credentials can open up new career opportunities or clear a path to a promotion. Credentials can include certifications, professional certificates, and degrees. See what makes the most sense for both your short- and long-term career goals. Once you get your credential, don’t forget to inform your manager and list it in relevant places like your resume and LinkedIn profile.

Relevant goals might look like the following:

• Earn a certification in your field in the next quarter or year

• Complete a professional certificate

• Find five degree programs to begin applying to

Read more: Upskilling: What It Means and How It Can Help Your Career

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6.

Consume media in your field.

Learning more about your field through various media—like books, podcasts, and news publications, to name a few—can enrich your understanding of the context around your work and inform you of ways to improve. Plus, as passive ways of absorbing information, you’ll be able to learn as you, say, go on a walk or wait for the bus.

Ask coworkers or professionals in your network about recommendations. Otherwise, a quick online search should yield plenty of ideas, whether you’re looking for marketing podcasts, books on project management, or something else.

Here are some concrete goals you might aspire to:

• Read two books in your field in a quarter

• Listen to one podcast on a relevant topic a week

• Find 10 experts in your field on Twitter to follow

7. Find other ways to deepen job satisfaction.

Being satisfied as a professional doesn’t necessarily mean striving for constant achievement and earning promotions. Job satisfaction is tied to many factors besides enjoying the work itself—including forming fulfilling relationships with coworkers, achieving work-life balance, and keeping your mental and physical health in check. Plus, there’s evidence that links job satisfaction to higher productivity and less turnover in workplaces—being a happy worker is likely going to benefit your company too [2].

Here are some goals you might set to improve your workday:

• Schedule lunch or coffee chats with coworkers 

• Join or start a workplace interest group

• Create a plan to prepare healthy meals for lunch

• Set reminders to take intermittent breaks throughout the day

• Clarify boundaries on work expectations outside of working hours

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8. Take a relevant course.

Courses can help you develop skills, learn about issues relevant to your work, and flex new parts of your brain. Courses can be directly related to your work responsibilities, but this might be an opportunity to challenge yourself to stretch yourself in new ways. Data analysis, project management, or UX design courses may give you the skills you need—but consider other fields like creative writing, public speaking, or foreign languages that can deepen your work in more unexpected ways.

Specific goals for coursework might look like the following:

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9. Shadow another department.

Shadowing another department can have myriad positives: it can encourage communication and cooperation across siloed teams, inspire ways to improve your own team, and leave you with a better understanding of how your organization works. 

You can set goals such as:

10. Find a mentor.

A mentor can help you navigate challenges in the workplace and help you progress in your career. 

Finding a mentor might sound like a daunting task, but be assured that many have done it before. Some workplaces have mentoring programs in place that make it easy for people to connect with a more experienced professional. You might also find that your professional network will come in handy here. You can start by finding people who have had careers you find close to your aspirations in professional groups or alumni communities. Or if it makes sense, reach out to somebody in your workplace that you think you’ll be able to learn from.

Goals that will help you land a mentor include:

• Create a pitch that you can use to contact potential mentors

• Arrange a meeting with potential mentors to see if they’re a fit

• Map out your short- or long-term goals (or both) of having a mentor

How to set professional development goals

1.

Know what you’re working towards.

Start by taking some time to consider what you want out of your career, now or in the future. Goal-setting is a useful exercise because it can clarify what you really want out of your career, and identify tangible steps to achieve it.

Don’t know what you want to do in five or 10 years yet? Start smaller, and identify your interests. If you’ve always admired your manager who can speak eloquently in front of others, consider a public speaking course. If you find yourself fascinated by your coworker’s ability to analyze data sets, try learning Python or another programming language.

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2.

Set SMART goals.

SMART goals are goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Here’s what each of those components mean:

Specific: Goals should be well-defined and unambiguous so that you know exactly what you’re aspiring to.

Measurable: Goals should have a clear way of identifying whether you’ve achieved them, or if not, how close you came to them. For example, saying Finish three modules of my online course is more measurable than a goal like Work on my online course.

Achievable: Setting a goal that you can realistically achieve is key to actually achieving them. Plus, thinking in the back of your mind that a goal is impossible may be demotivating. Keep yourself motivated by setting reasonable goals.

Relevant: Your goals should be relevant to you—that is, they should align with your long-term aspirations and values. Think of this as the “why” of your goal.

Time-bound: Set a deadline for your goals so you can stay on track and motivated.  

Getting started on professional development goals

Professional development goals can help identify what you want your career to look like in the short- and long-term, and what steps you need to take to get where you want to be. Ready to get started? Learn from world-class institutions with over 5,000 courses, certificates, and degrees on Coursera.

Give your team access to a catalog of 8,000+ engaging courses and hands-on Guided Projects to help them develop impactful skills. Learn more about Coursera for Business.

1. Coursera. “Global Skills Report, https://pages.coursera-for-business.org/rs/748-MIV-116/images/coursera-global-skills-report-2021.pdf.” Accessed March 25, 2022.

2. Harvard Business Review. “Proof That Positive Work Cultures Are More Productive, https://hbr.org/2015/12/proof-that-positive-work-cultures-are-more-productive.” Accessed March 25, 2022.

Written by Coursera • Updated on Nov 4, 2022

This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.

13 Examples of Professional Development Goals

Having goals is important. Setting professional development goals can help increase productivity, improve work quality and help advance careers at the workplace. 

So what are professional development goals? 

Are they important? 

How to set them? 

What are some examples of these goals? 

In this article, we answer it all. Let’s begin by defining professional development goals. 

1 What are Professional Development Goals?

2 How to Set Professional Development Goals?

2.1 Prepare Your Mind

2.2 Look Back on Your Performances

2.3 Make Your Goals SMART

2.3.1 Specific

2.3.2 Measurable

2.3.3 Attainable

2.3.4 Relevant

2. 3.5 Time-Bound

2.4 Create a Strategy

2.5 Make Time for Your Goal

2.6 Follow Up with Yourself

3 Importance of Setting Professional Goals

3.1 The Vision of the Future

3.2 Helps You Become Better

3.3 Helps You Better Your Existing Skills

3.4 Increase Productivity

4 Examples of Professional Development Goals

4.1 #1: Learning New Skills

4.2 #2: Familiarizing Beforehand

4.3 #3: Gain Feedback

4.4 #4: Work on Your Presentation Skills

4.5 #5: Learn How Things Work in the Workplace

4.6 #6: Build a Good Remote Work System

4.7 #7: Learn How to Give Great Feedback

4.8 #8: Get a Certificate or Degree

4.9 #9: Improve Your Communication Skills

4.10 #10: Develop Networking Skills

4.11 #11: Learn to Manage Your Energy

4.12 #12: Apply for a Promotion

4.13 #13: Read Professional Books

5 All Set to Have Professional Development Goals?

What are Professional Development Goals?

Professional developmental goals are goals that are aimed at improving your career, enhancing your skills and competencies in the workplace. Goals at work can be from something minor like becoming more productive at work or big like aiming to become the  CEO of the company in 10 years. 

All goals require a few steps to be completed that are; a well-planned strategy, hard work every day, and a lot of motivation. In fact, one study claims that setting goals helps increase motivation by doubling effort and inducing focus. 

Goals can be different for everyone. Some people may consider improving their skills a goal, for some getting experience in something can be a goal. Let’s see why setting goals is important.

How to Set Professional Development Goals?

That brings us to how to set professional development goals. Take the following steps to set goals at work for yourself.

Prepare Your Mind

Envisioning your goal is important. If you don’t have a target to hit, hitting the bullseye is impossible. Ask yourself questions regarding the goal. What is it you’re trying to achieve? What company do you want to work for? What do you wish to achieve? What skills do you wish you had? 

Next, figure out what it will take to help you reach that target or what certifications and training will it require?

Look Back on Your Performances

We learn a great deal from the mistakes we made in the past. For that, keep an eye on how well you performed on the previous tasks and projects. Learn from the mistakes you made, improve them, and set goals for how you can avoid making the same mistakes in your future performances. A great idea is to ask your supervisor/subordinates about your shortcomings and then try to avoid them in the future. 

Make Your Goals SMART

Heard of SMART goals? Yes, they can help ease you down the path of reaching your goal. Sometimes if your goal is too vague, you’ll almost never get to meet it. Avoid that and make sure your goal is:

Specific 

The more the goal is specific, the more are chances that you’ll meet it. When designing your goal, ask yourself 5 questions. Who will be the ones involved? What do you want to accomplish? What will this goal achieve? When will the goal be achieved? Why do you want to achieve this goal?

Measurable 

Quantifying your goals will help you track the progress of their accomplishment. Some questions to ask yourself during this step are: How much is this goal going to achieve? Is there a way to track the progress or failure on the path of meeting this goal? How will I find out if the goal is met?

Attainable 

Sure it’s great to have goals, but having unrealistic goals is just not the best idea. Make sure the goals you’re trying to meet are achievable. If someone has done it before, it’s a great goal to do the same. Even if no one has set foot in it before, trying won’t hurt anybody. Plus, check if you have the resources for it. 

Relevant 

Set those goals that concern you and align with your long-term goals fully. Having goals that don’t matter to you will only waste your time. 

Time-Bound

Like all the things in the world, your goals should be time-bound. Start with a date and decide on a deadline. Stay loyal to the date, allocate resources, and set a realistic timeline for it. 

Create a Strategy  

All great plans run on some strategy. Make sure you develop a well-planned strategy that helps you meet your goal. Even if your goal is a huge one, break it into all the small steps needed to reach that goal. For instance, if you want to work at your dream job, looking for and enrolling yourself into training courses and certification is a step before that. Next, you would prepare for that and finally, you’ll apply (and get in!) for that job. 

Make Time for Your Goal

Although it’s pretty obvious that you’ll need time to reach your goals, make sure you carve out sufficient time to work on your goal. If you fail to do so or occasionally do that, you may not be able to hit that target. 

Follow Up with Yourself

Keep an eye on your progress. Make a list of all the things you were able to do and those you weren’t able to. As one step forward, you can pair up with someone who can track your progress for you and keep in check.

Importance of Setting Professional Goals

The Vision of the Future

It’s straightforward that establishing goals helps you get an idea of what you’ll be doing in the future. Having a particular goal helps you streamline all that you’ll need to meet it and help you identify your long-term aspirations. Goals help you define a vision of what you want to achieve. Secondly, it helps you take considerable action to meet those goals. 

Helps You Become Better 

Whether you’re an employer or an employee, setting professional development goals will help you become better over time. Employees that are goal-oriented are highly valued at any organization because of the value they add to the company instead of just doing regular work.

Helps You Better Your Existing Skills

We can’t be born perfect at any skill, there’s always room for improvement. Regularly practicing helps us get better and to do that we need to set goals. At any workplace honing the current skills helps employees grow and get better. 

Increase Productivity 

Setting professional goals surely helps increase productivity. When we set goals for ourselves, we constantly struggle to meet them and that provides the sense of achieving something. Besides, goals provide motivation and clarity for people in their jobs. 

Examples of Professional Development Goals

Now let’s see what can professional development goals look like:

#1: Learning New Skills

Professional development means you’re constantly learning new things and adding to your skills. Enrolling yourself in new courses and training is a great way to enhance your skills and gain knowledge. Learning new skills doesn’t particularly have to be something huge and formal. Even gaining experience at a small task is a great goal to have. 

#2: Familiarizing Beforehand 

Imagine you were to introduce something new and cool to the company, for instance, a new tech tool. Familiarizing yourself with it beforehand will give you the ultimate experience and the confidence to introduce it to your employees. 

#3: Gain Feedback

One important professional goal to have at work is gaining feedback from those around you. It is the perfect way to know what are your shortcomings, your areas of improvement, and where you excelled. Constructive feedback allows you to become the better version of yourself and therefore in the next quarter you can nail everything even more so.

#4: Work on Your Presentation Skills

Your presentation skills say a lot about you. A well-prepared, enthusiastic, and verbose presentation makes everyone happy and fulls them with energy. On the other hand, a dull one doesn’t turn around many heads. So, it’s important to work on these skills. You can practice a few old presentations in front of the mirror and enhance your communication skills. Remember practice is the key. 

#5: Learn How Things Work in the Workplace

As a manager, you must make it your goal to know how things run around in your organization. Learning about all the departments, their workers, your employees, and how things operate in them, will help you become a great manager. You’ll also break down any obstacles and issues you face, more effectively.

#6: Build a Good Remote Work System

With the uncertainty that prevails now, work-life is unpredictable. Take a couple of days and develop an effective remote work strategy that will help keep things running smoothly even when people aren’t working from the office. Additionally, you can also take online courses that’ll help you manage remote teams effectively. 

#7: Learn How to Give Great Feedback

A part of great management involves giving constructive feedback to employees on their performance. One of the best professional development goals to have is improving that ability. Not only will it help your employees get better at their work, but it’ll also improve your position in the organization. Plus, your employees will respect you for being honest and helping them improve. 

#8: Get a Certificate or Degree

Being a manager you hardly get time. But consider getting a certificate or even a degree in something you’ve always wanted to learn. It can even be a skill or can be a training course. Continuing your education improves your current skills and can help you apply for future promotions or even change careers.

#9: Improve Your Communication Skills

From talking to your employees to having large meetings, everything requires communication skills. These skills can either make or break your entire personality. Having poor writing skills for instance can give a very bad impression to someone reading your email. 

Consider setting a professional development goal to improve your oral, written, and interpersonal communication skills. If the need is, you can also take a class to improve these skills. 

#10: Develop Networking Skills

Having good networking skills can open doors to many opportunities. Set a goal to enhance your ability to meet new people, network, and focus on building a stronger professional network. You can start by attending professional events and gaining more knowledge. 

#11: Learn to Manage Your Energy

It can be a great goal to have at work where you simply work on managing where your energy goes. Consider learning to focus on only high-priority work and giving your best effort in that. A minor issue that doesn’t require your attention can be left on its own. Most issues at the workplace are often trivial and don’t require you to spend a lot of energy on them.

#12: Apply for a Promotion

Applying for a promotion is a goal and a challenge in itself. Start by assessing what your next career role should be and then assess your qualifications. If you already meet the requirements, it can be a short-term goal. 

However, if you don’t, you’ll need to start working on it by gaining experience and the required qualification which is a long-term goal. Seeking a position with more responsibility could help you gain new skills and continue to enhance your career. 

#13: Read Professional Books

Reading professional books is a great idea if you want to focus on building professional development goals. Not only will reading help you learn a lot of new things it will also enhance your vocabulary. 

All Set to Have Professional Development Goals?

Professional development goals are objectives to improve your skills and motivation. Now it’s time for you to set some professional development goals and work on them. Once you do, you’ll become a better version of yourself professionally. It’ll also help you build productivity and help you in your career path. 

Professional Development Goals: Steps and Examples

Setting professional development goals is an important part of career advancement. Whether your goal is to be more productive at work or to become the CEO of a corporation, the only way to get there is to set practical goals that you can work towards every day. Here we’ll look at what professional development goals are, why they’re important, the steps you can take to set these types of goals, and a few examples to give you ideas when creating your own professional goals.

What are the goals of professional development?

Professional goals are goals that you set for yourself that are aimed at improving your career and increasing your competencies and opportunities in the workplace. There are several developmental goals you can set for continued success at work, and the exact goals you set should depend on your unique career aspirations. Goals can be related to learning new skills, earning new degrees or certifications, gaining more experience in a particular field, promotions, and pursuing any other career-related aspirations.

Why are professional development goals important?

Setting professional development goals is important for several reasons, including because they are:

• Give you an idea of ​​your vision for your future: many people know what they want to do next year, but did you know what are your long term career goals? Where do you want to be in five or even 10 years? Goal setting allows you to define your long-term aspirations and take action to achieve them.
• Help you hone your existing skills in the workplace. Even if you are great at what you do, there is always room for improvement or advancement. The greatest athletes don’t just rest on their laurels and use their current level of fitness to wait out their success. Rather, they train regularly to become stronger and faster. The same is true in the workplace – working on honing your current skills allows you to get better and grow in new and different ways, which can ultimately make you a better employee and even more successful in your career.
• Encourage you to become a better employee: Employers highly value employees who are dedicated to their work and career advancement. Instead of just showing up to work and doing your day job, taking the time to get better at what you do will make a positive impression on your employer and may even open the door to promotions within your organization.
• Performance increase: Having a goal to work towards can provide a steady stream of motivation and increase your productivity in the workplace. This is especially true when you divide your goals into separate tasks and work towards completing the task each day or week. Making progress, even if it’s small, can keep you motivated to move forward and get the job done.

How to set professional development goals

Here are the steps you can take when setting your professional development goals:

1. Decide what your ultimate goal is. A good way to set goals for your professional development is to start with an end goal. Where do you want to be in 5 or 10 years? What position do you want to have? What company or industry do you want to work for? What achievements do you want to achieve? Knowing your ultimate goal will allow you to work backwards to create smaller goals that will ultimately allow you to reach your larger professional goals.
2. When in doubt, refer to your latest performance review. If you don’t know where to start or what areas you should be working professionally, take a look at your most recent performance review and see what your manager or employer recommended you improve. For example, perhaps one of the improvements your manager noted was getting more tasks done on time. This gives you a solid foundation to achieve your professional goals, as well as ensuring that you make the desired improvements as requested by management.
3. Use the SMART goal method. The SMART Goal Method, which stands for “Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound,” is an excellent tool to use when setting goals. This method ensures that your goals are actionable, realistic, and measurable, all of which will keep you on track and motivate you to reach your goal.
4. Break big goals into smaller tasks. The more you can break down your goals into small tasks, the more likely you are to continue pursuing that goal. Take every big goal you’ve set and break it down into tasks you can complete each day or week to work towards that goal. Check off each task as you complete it to show you the progress you are making.
5. Check your progress regularly. It’s easy to lose sight of a goal, especially if the goal you’re working on is longer term. That’s why it’s important to check yourself regularly and review your progress. Knowing that you are progressing towards each goal will keep you motivated and will also ensure that you are still on the right path towards achieving each aspiration.

Examples of professional development goals

Here are some examples of goals you can set for further professional development:

• Improve your professional and networking relationships.
• Improve your time management skills and productivity in the workplace.
• Get a new certificate or degree.
• Expand your professional network by attending more networking events.
• Read two professional development books per month.
• Complete a leadership course.
• Improve your communication skills in the workplace.
• Join one professional organization related to your current or dream career.
• Increase your responsibility and responsibilities in the workplace.
• Apply for a promotion in your organization.
• Find out how other departments in your organization function and consider devoting an hour of your work week to volunteer work in a new department.
• Attend a seminar related to your current or dream job.
• Choose one skill to improve and focus on it for a month.
• Learn how to effectively give and receive feedback in the workplace.
• Learn how to better manage your energy.
• Develop a growth mindset.

win-win strategy for the company and employees

The article describes:

1. Tasks and goals of the individual professional development plan
2. Benefits of working under a professional development plan
3. Components of a professional development plan
4. Professional development plan step by step
5. Methods for evaluating employees for the preparation of a professional development plan
6. Certification of personnel in the development of a professional development plan
7. Evaluation of the implementation of the plan for the development of professional competencies

The Professional Development Plan is a useful option for both the employer and employees. It allows you to prepare specialists to perform more complex, responsible tasks, predict the company’s personnel growth, and plan promotions.

However, in order to draw up a competent plan, careful preliminary preparation is necessary: ​​setting goals for the employee and the company, evaluating the employee. It is these activities that should be given the most attention. To learn how to do it right, how to work with a professional development plan, read our material.

Tasks and goals of an individual professional development plan

No matter how skilled a person is, he cannot do without a professional skills development plan. Years of work in any position is a huge experience and, more dangerously, a habit. There comes a moment when duties are performed without interest in them, in a sense automatically. Both motivation and efficiency are noticeably reduced. With such an attitude to the cause of individual people, the business as a whole will also suffer.

In addition, one cannot stand still in the profession, skills and functions sometimes require an upgrade. Experienced and prudent managers seek to avoid problems by developing an individual professional development plan for each employee in advance. And for the boss, and for subordinates, and for the business as a whole, this approach is beneficial.

The issue of staff development is relevant for companies experiencing staff shortages (and most of them are) and understanding the value of employees. In order to find and retain professionals in their field, employers are thinking about educating a personnel reserve, improving qualifications – that is, they are trying to plan the career growth of their subordinates.

A good employee is obliged to build a strategy for individual professional growth – IPR. So he will achieve not only personal goals in his career and material well-being, but also take his company to a new level.

IPR may include:

• regular advanced training;
• higher position;
• striving for the development of corporate competencies;
• greater autonomy of work with the rejection of the constant control of a superior person.

IPR was conceived to meet the needs of all participants in joint activities: both the employee and the employer. To designate such a strategy, the concept of “win-win” is introduced. Its essence is this: the employer forms a team of real pros who are ready to do their best and make a profit, and the subordinates, in turn, are engaged in interesting work, devoid of monotony, and make a career, knowing their value to the company .

IPR requires the business owner to invest money and time. He should also have a good understanding of the abilities, interests of the employee, his capabilities. Competences for development should be determined during joint communication, laying out all the points step by step.

Professional development plan

Regular analytics will be useful: what is not working, is there enough help, whether the goals have remained the same, is everything going well with the application of knowledge in a working environment after training. IPR is not a dusty folder that everyone forgot about, but a document edited according to needs for practical growth and benefit.

Here it is appropriate to recall one Russian company associated with rail transport. It is, unfortunately, a negative and not the only example of how superficially, “blindly” approach the compilation of IPR. Theoretically, everything was conceived wonderfully. We formed our own model of corporate competencies, according to which employees made personal plans for professional development.

It is bad that the people responsible for this work did not have a clear understanding of which staff competencies really need to be improved, and vice versa – which ones have a sufficiently high level. And this is an important point, otherwise the process of attracting people to self-development and career growth takes a lot of time and does not bring the expected results. This often happens in organizations.

It is a serious mistake to allow employees to independently develop IPR, who do not always see the order and ways of development themselves.

Advantages of working according to a professional development plan

If a company systematically, without formalism, takes care of the growth of its employees, then obvious advantages for everyone will soon be noticeable:

• professional development, which many strive for on their own, will cease to be spontaneous, aimless;
• the employee will disappear as a phenomenon of demotivation, since goals will appear in front of him, there will come an awareness of why he acts and what benefits he brings;
• career growth and training of each will be determined by what is promising and important to the unit, the company;
• everyone will have a valuable feeling that their interests are taken into account and everything is properly organized, the team achieves success as a united front;
• receiving an assessment of the implementation of the plan – feedback – subordinates better understand the responsibilities assigned to them and their role in the common cause, they can see development prospects.

It is important to understand, however, that drawing up a long-term plan for professional development in a situation of influence of a large number of external factors is not an easy job.

Only with a serious investment of the manager’s time and personal resources can one expect a qualitative return. Formal, ill-conceived IPR will become only a demotivation tool in the company. In a situation of constant instability (a sign of our time), it is better to draw up, evaluate, control development plans in the form of personal communication.

Components of a professional development plan

First of all, it is a document of the employee’s professional movement, a plan of his progress for the next 1-3 years or 3-5 years. It sets out qualification requirements and career advancement steps. Consider what each individual folder should ideally include:

• it is necessary to name the competencies of the employee that satisfy both sides;
• determine the positions that need to be strengthened and the time frame in which everything must be completed;
• list what activities will develop the necessary skills;
• plan introductory internships for reserve positions of a certain employee, prescribe the expected result from them;
• include in the personal folder a plan for delegating some of the duties from the reserve position;
• in a personal conversation, consider and fix on paper a schedule for monitoring and analyzing the development of an employee, provide for a note of the fact that the planned actions have been completed within a specific time frame and the opportunity to leave comments.

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You can work with such a document in an organization:

• informally: for example, this is the responsibility of the head of the financial and economic service only;
• centrally: executors at all levels are appointed, their actions are regulated. We are talking about employees, heads of structural divisions, the personnel management service and the company’s management.

Undoubtedly, the second approach is deeper and more serious, and will give results sooner. The employee should start forming a plan for his own professional development in tandem with the manager. The personnel management service organizes a centralized assessment and certification of the competencies of employees, after which problem areas will be identified: knowledge, experience, behavior, communication style, or something else.

From the point of view of professional growth, both strong and not yet developed sides are important, since all of them will form the basis of future development. Good diagnostics allows you to successfully plan and achieve results in each particular case of compiling an IPR.

The company’s key personnel, while participating in the development of this rather flexible retention tool, should take into account the personal needs of employees. Only in this case will the strategic tasks of the business be solved. The professional development plan for the year, at the request of both parties, is regularly adjusted in a certain direction, the details of tasks, project deadlines and remuneration are specified. In such work, it is important to reach compromise solutions.

Step by step development of a professional development plan

A competent development plan is obtained with the simultaneous participation of the employee himself, the manager and the HR manager. Here are the steps to take when planning progress:

Step 1: Set goals

Not every manager has enough staff and resources to develop professional development plans, for example, very small companies. The ideal – individual documents for all subordinates – is often unattainable. Therefore, we recommend dividing employees into categories, according to the most urgent goals.

Variants of possible groups:

• Increasing the efficiency of management personnel – profitability of the company is directly related to their professionalism. They should develop competence, know how to strengthen their team, achieve success in optimal ways.
• Identifying the most talented employees and developing their potential – they are the ones who help to reach a high level of work, know how to expand the client base, are able to master and set up omnichannel, open and develop new branches.
• Personnel development in general — each employee in the right position can be productive. Potential and talents must be able to reveal – then success will not have to wait long.

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Step 2: Evaluate who is capable of what so as not to make mistakes with tasks

Working with people, with personnel is an important tool for improving business efficiency. The head of any link must understand the strengths and weaknesses of his staff. The choice of a plan for the development of professional abilities also depends on the potential capabilities of a person. In any field of activity, one desire or effort is not enough. If there is no talent, then neither training, nor a long internship, nor fines help. An individual approach is required in the distribution of responsibilities, which always gives an effect.

Of course, personal communication with employees is not enough. The potential competencies of personnel should be assessed by specialists: provider companies offering comprehensive professional testing.

The research is carried out in three directions:

• what the assessed person tends to do;
• what she is able to achieve in the profession;
• how intellectually developed.

The test results are used so that everyone in the company receives the most appropriate task and works fruitfully for the personal and common good. It is no secret that efficiency and benefits are recorded more often where employees enjoy the process and understand their value.

Managers and top managers also benefit from an assessment. It is more expedient to include in it, in addition to testing, a conversation – an interview with an expert. Such a hybrid technology will show the potential level of development of skills at the current moment. The assessed person will see for himself what he is strong in as a leader, and what needs development.

Step 3: Find out the personal goals of the employee in the profession

Everyone has priorities. Their coincidence with the goals of the company allows you to take things to a new level. What motivates employees to perform better? What personal qualities can be used to carry out a professional development plan? By answering these questions, the manager will be able to avoid many problems:

• drop in motivation for performance;
• negative attitude towards each other and towards the assigned tasks;
• general dissatisfaction, burnout;
• avoiding liability, even the desire to terminate the employment relationship.

There is nothing stronger than personal motivation. If, without taking into account the wishes of the employee, assign him to a position that is not interesting and difficult for him, then the person will not be successful, and the company will lose a lot. People cannot work efficiently in survival mode, so they burn out, leave. It is necessary to listen to the opinion of the subordinates, if possible, try to avoid dissatisfaction with the majority of specialists.

It is recommended to plan two goals for a year, no more. So the subordinate in a comfortable mode will be able to develop skills. Energy and time should be enough for everyday work and personal tasks, for analyzing progress in learning new things.

Let’s add about the specifics of goal-setting in professional activities:

• A working goal should be formulated as precisely as possible . The specificity is clear, understandable and excludes procrastination. Examples: “to develop the skill of negotiating with suppliers”, “to structure all information to solve the client’s problems”, “to formulate and pump skills to get a higher rank”, “learn to resist stress”.
• The tools that will measure whether the goal is achieved should be thought out jointly : personnel service, manager and employee. The completed trainings will not give anything if you do not use the knowledge immediately in your work. After all, a zero result is of no interest to anyone! How to understand that the money, time and effort invested in training paid off? If concrete achievements are visible: ideas are put forward, projects are developed, sales plans are drawn up – and the like, which is considered valuable to the company.
• The interests of each party involved are equal – this is the law . Top management does not always remember him, but this would have a qualitative effect on the success of the entire team and each employee individually. The company will be out of competition when all participants in the process are interested in the result and know about the maximum benefit for themselves.

Step 4: Design the most effective development program that satisfies everyone

For a business and employee development program, training and information resources should only be selected after goals have been set. When the goals are defined, you can begin to draw up a development program. This is a serious choice, and it does not involve overloading with unnecessary information, like lectures on time management, burnout, or mindfulness. These topics should still be studied at the request of employees. After all, the task of the IPR is to unlock the potential and strengthen professional skills.

Examples of points of a useful and effective program for promotion:

• internship under the supervision of senior colleagues;
• training materials from the company’s knowledge base, already available with links;
• trainings with invited experts or curators of the company;
• business books on the topic under study.

Step 5: Decide on the deadlines for the implementation of the planned

An individual plan for the development of professional abilities is drawn up for a year or six months. It must be realistically achievable at a more or less calm, conscious pace.

When the development program is drawn up, a personal meeting is organized with the employee, and all the points of the individual plan are discussed again. This is necessary to discuss the methodology for achieving goals, ways to evaluate the implementation of the plan. This synchronizes the understanding of the goals of all stakeholders.

You can also schedule an intermediate meeting to review how the execution is going. It is only better to immediately warn the subordinate about this, so that it does not turn out that he is moving towards the goal at his own pace and is not ready to provide results. And the authorities will have the opinion that the plan is not being implemented.

You can connect to internal motivation to grow professionally and external, material:

• receiving a bonus or salary increase;
• a promise to give a higher position.

Employee assessment methods for drawing up a professional development plan

Possible types of employee performance assessment: comprehensive, qualitative and quantitative. The choice, of course, depends on the purpose of the test, but one type is always not enough. You may get incorrect results.

Methods for assessing employees

Quantitative assessment is applicable in material production, but for intellectual work it is not enough. The methods are as follows: scoring of achievements, counting mistakes as well; expert assessment with coefficients; testing with a psychological and professional bias.

Intellectual work is generally difficult to measure. We get only a conditional idea of ​​how effectively a person has invested in the work.

Qualitative assessment methods other: examines personality traits such as character, outlook, degree of sociability, ability to immerse yourself in work, speed of execution, business negotiation skills. To do this, they conduct evaluation interviews, involve the employee in a discussion with a group of experts, ask them to randomly share their vision of work and the duties assigned to them. The activities of a specialist can be systematically monitored. Then comes the evaluation.

The best type of study of all performance indicators is considered, and by right, a comprehensive assessment . It is needed to avoid unwanted and obviously incorrect results, at least the risk of getting them is reduced.

Let’s name the types of comprehensive assessment.

• 360 Degree Method . This is about the inner circle of the employee, people who closely interact with him: colleagues, subordinates, immediate supervisor. Self-assessment of the person being assessed is also requested, in order to then give him feedback in the sense that he will be able to compare his vision with a look at his work.
• Management by Objectives (MBO) . With this approach, the manager and employee together formulate goals for the calendar year. Evaluation is carried out on the basis of performance.
• Level grading . Its goal is to build a system of motivations. The abilities and qualities of employees are evaluated for compliance with the position. Not only the value of an employee in the labor market is taken into account, but also the level of significance for the company. The position grade is determined according to the criteria after the analysis of key factors and depends on the company’s policy. Evaluation of personnel according to such a system is considered the best for payroll.

A manager who wants to conduct the most complete assessment of the personnel can contact the assessment center (assessment-center). But still more common and convenient, admittedly, certification.

Staff appraisal when developing a professional development plan

By regularly appraising staff, the manager finds out whether employees are effective, whether they correspond to their position in the company, how correctly they apply knowledge in practice.

The procedure serves several purposes:

• informs employees about the requirements;
• identifies their problems and needs for professional development;
• is able to align the pay levels and values ​​for the company of individual employees;
• allows you to see which professional development plan is currently cost-effective for each specialist.

Certification is carried out for a certain period according to specially developed criteria, it is convenient to do this annually or twice a year. A committee (up to five people) is being created, which can be entrusted with developing a procedure, determining the key principles of verification and a list of competencies by position. All this should be reflected in the regulation on attestation, which, in fact, will be the result of the work of these 3-5 specialists. Then the documents are approved, managers and employees get acquainted with them, and the staff is trained.

It is impossible to refuse attestation, everyone passes it on time: both top managers and ordinary personnel. Experts are appointed by those who are, as it were, an internal client of an employee and are aware firsthand of the production behavior of the person being certified. For this purpose, the immediate supervisor is suitable, his opinion is the most important stage of the assessment.

However, it is also important to get an outside view of at least some part of the activity. Employees from other departments, project managers, functional managers will do. They just need to work in concert. Example: to certify a branch accountant, two experts are needed: the director of this branch plus the chief accountant from the headquarters. Everyone knows the employee being checked at work and communicates with him directly.

How do scores match ideally? Each expert has his own opinion. Each competency for which there is a difference in scores is then discussed. The result of this event is the final score accepted by all participants.

With the results of certification, an employee with a single assessment is presented by his manager. He also gives recommendations on the development and compilation of IPR.

The certified person must also evaluate his own performance. This is the best analysis when you look at the reporting period again, sum up, see mistakes and successes. After that, it is very convenient to think over the steps for self-development. This is a great way for the manager to save time and focus on score discrepancies before announcing their own decision and rationale.

Sometimes there are questions about the real assessment of the professionalism of accounting services. It makes no sense to consider some quantitative indicators that are difficult to determine correctly. It is better to stick to the order established for everyone in the company.

Here are the competencies that should be tested with financial service representatives:

• Starting with managers, management skills are important work.
• Application of professional knowledge . Qualification and quality should be assessed here: whether tasks need to be finalized, whether there are errors, whether tasks are completed on time, independently, whether the employee is mobile in the opinion of management.
• Evaluation of the business qualities of a person : responsibility, employee performance, ability to prioritize, analytical skills, independence and initiative, ability to learn. It also analyzes the ability to establish good working relationships, understanding and respecting the interests of “internal” and “external” customers.
• Compliance by the employee with the rules established in the company , loyalty to the company, that is, the social characteristic of the employee.