What Are Individual Development Plans (IDPs)? A Comprehensive Guide

Professional development is an effective step towards personal and organisational success. An individual development plan (IDP) is a customized roadmap that enables both the employee and the organisation to pursue career goals as they meet the business objectives.

This article explores everything you need to know about IDPs, offering actionable insights for HR professionals, managers, and employees seeking to enhance career development.

Individual Development Plans: Definition & Purpose

An individual development plan is a collaborative document created by both the individual and their manager to outline professional goals, identify strengths and skills gaps, and map development opportunities.

According to Gartner, only 46% of employees feel supported in career growth at their organization, underlining the need for structured development conversations and plans.

Unlike performance reviews, which assess employee performance, or performance improvement plans (PIPs), which address underperformance, IDPs focus on future careers. They provide a structured approach to employee development, helping individuals progress in their careers while contributing to organizational objectives.

The key purposes of IDPs include:

• Career Clarity: Offering a clear path for career advancement, such as earning a promotion or developing technical skills.
• Skill Enhancement: Targeting areas for improvement through tailored training programs.
• Strategic Alignment: Ensuring personal development aligns with strategic planning and company goals.
• Employee Engagement: Demonstrating a commitment to employee retention, which boosts morale and loyalty.

Leading organizations, including many federal agencies, mandate IDPs annually for employees and executives (U.S. Office of Personnel Management). By integrating IDPs into a talent development strategy, companies foster a culture of continuous development.

Types of Employee Development: An Overview

Employee development encompasses various approaches that help individuals enhance their skills, knowledge, and career growth.

Below is a simple breakdown of key employee development types and their typical activities.

What Makes Up an Effective Individual Development Plan?

An effective IDP should be structured, flexible, and designed to guide progress for both the individual and the organization. Research highlights that organizations with robust learning and development frameworks are better positioned to address skills gaps and business needs.

Key components include:

• Career Goals: Specific short-term (e.g., mastering new skills in six months) and long-term (e.g., preparing for future roles like team lead in three years) objectives.
• Employee’s Current Skills: An assessment of current skills and areas needing improvement, often informed by self-reflection or feedback.
• Development Opportunities: Targeted actions like on-the-job training, mentorship, or stretch assignments to address skills gaps.
• Action Plan: Detailed steps, timelines, and resources, such as enrolling in a professional development plan or leading a project.
• Progress Tracking: Regular check-ins (e.g., quarterly) to review progress and measure progress.
• Manager Guidance: HR assist managers in providing resources and feedback to support development efforts.
• Organizational Alignment: Linking development objectives to organizational needs for mutual benefit.

Sample IDP Template

One of the best ways to create an individual development plan is to use a template. In a previous article, we have published a free individual development plan template that  you can download with ease:

This template can be tailored to suit various roles, ensuring individual employee development plans remain practical and relevant. Managers can follow a structured process for creating IDPs to ensure consistency and effectiveness with a great employee development tool.

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Why Are Individual Development Plans Important?

IDPs deliver significant benefits for engaged employees and organizations, making them a cornerstone of employee development programs.

Benefits for Employees

• Motivation: Clear development objectives provide purpose, encouraging employees to take charge of their own career development.
• Transparency: IDPs outline the skills and experiences needed for career management programs, reducing ambiguity.
• Autonomy: Employees gain ownership of their professional development, fostering empowerment.
• Career Clarity: A structured plan helps employees visualize their path to leadership development.

Benefits for Organizations

• Higher Engagement: Employees with access to employee development initiatives are more committed to their roles.
• Improved Retention: Lack of a career development plan drives turnover, with 41% of employees citing it as a top reason for leaving (McKinsey, Reimagining people development to overcome talent challenges, 2023).
• Succession Planning: IDPs prepare employees for leadership skills, strengthening internal talent pipelines.
• Cost Efficiency: Developing existing talent through development programs reduces reliance on external hiring.

Research underscores these benefits:

• Companies prioritizing training and development see 5% higher retention rates than peers (McKinsey, The State of Organizations, 2023).
• Harvard Business Review reports that companies investing in professional development have 34% higher retention.
• 94% of employees say they would stay longer at a company that invests in their growth.

By fostering a culture of continuous feedback, IDPs drive both individual and organizational success.

Employee Growth Plans: Pitfalls and Success Factors

The effectiveness of employee growth plans hinges on thoughtful execution. Below are common challenges and strategies to ensure success.

How to Build IDPs for Employees?

Implementing Individual Development Plans requires more than just filling out a template—it demands a structured, collaborative, and dynamic process supported by leadership, HR, and organizational systems. Below is a detailed breakdown, drawing on authoritative research and HR best practices.

1. Self-Assessment

Effective IDPs begin with honest self-evaluation. Employees are encouraged to:

• Reflect on their current skills, strengths, weaknesses, and interests.
• Use formal or informal feedback tools such as 360-degree feedback, skills assessments, or mentorship conversations for objective insights.
• Benchmark themselves against job requirements or future roles to identify gaps and opportunities.

Tip: HR can provide clear competency models and accessible self-assessment questionnaires to guide this step.

2. Goal Setting

Transform insights from self-assessment into focused goals:

• Establish both short-term and long-term objectives aligning personal ambitions with company priorities.
• Ensure goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
• Collaborate with managers and, if appropriate, HR to refine and prioritize these goals for clarity and impact.

Example: Instead of "improve project management," set "obtain project management certification in the next 6 months and lead one cross-functional team project by year’s end."

3. Identifying Development Opportunities

Pinpoint actionable steps and growth opportunities:

• Consider formal training, mentoring, on-the-job stretch assignments, cross-functional projects, conferences, or tuition reimbursement.
• Define what is both desirable and feasible given the employee’s role, workload, and resources.
• HR can curate and promote a menu of development activities mapped to common skills and competencies needed across the organization.

4. Crafting the Action Plan

Make the plan practical and actionable:

• Outline concrete activities, deadlines, and resources needed for each developmental step (e.g., enroll in a data analytics course by September, schedule shadowing with a senior leader next quarter).
• Assign accountability partners or mentors for encouragement and course correction as needed.
• Build flexibility to adjust actions as roles or organizational priorities evolve.
• Using an Individual Development Plan tool can help streamline documenting and tracking these action plans.

5. Regular Check-Ins & Progress Tracking

IDPs gain impact when revisited, not shelved:

• Schedule monthly or quarterly progress reviews to discuss achievements, address barriers, and adjust goals as necessary.
• Encourage employees to log updates, reflect on progress, and celebrate milestones.
• Using integrated performance platforms enhances transparency and ensures consistency during performance reviews.

6. Managerial and HR Support

Manager’s Role:

• Serve as coach and advocate, providing encouragement, resources, and timely feedback.
• Ensure the employee has time, access, and opportunity to pursue development goals (e.g., approve time off for training, offer project leadership).
• Model commitment to growth by actively participating in development planning themselves.

HR’s Role:

• Provide clear IDP templates and resources to simplify the planning process.
• Integrate IDPs with the organization’s strategic workforce planning and goal-setting frameworks to align employee growth with business needs.
• Software designed for development planning can further streamline the process, especially when integrated with collaboration platforms.

7. Leveraging Technology and Systems

• Use development planning and OKR (Objectives & Key Results) software to centralize, automate, and align employee development plans with organizational goals.
• Enable easy progress tracking, reminders, and reporting for both employees and managers.

How Teamflect Facilitates IDPs inside Microsoft 365

Teamflect has a smooth, intuitive platform with the focus of creating, managing, and tracking Individual Development Plans (IDPs) right inside Microsoft Teams.

Teamflect helps employees and managers to design individualized development roadmaps collaboratively, monitor past progress, and stay aligned in terms of growth, as well as to remain engaged and included in the business.

Specifically regarding AI analysis of performance review results, Teamflect’s AI functionality uses data from completed performance reviews (including self-evaluations, manager feedback, competencies, and 360 feedback software) to generate personalized development goals.

This ensures that the goals suggested are relevant, actionable, and targeted to improve areas identified in past reviews, thereby creating more focused and strategic IDPs.

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Help your talent grow with individual development plans inside Microsoft Teams!

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Key Features That Support Effective IDPs

• Guided IDP Creation: Teamflect guides users step by step, from selecting a career objective (such as improving in a current role or transitioning to a new one), to defining timelines and envisioning future roles. AI assistance is available for refining objectives and generating suggested goals.
• Competency Integration: Access a built-in competency framework tailored to different positions, ensuring development focuses on relevant skills and capabilities.
• Goal Setting and Tracking: Easily set SMART goals, link them to competencies, and use AI suggestions to refine development targets. Goals are transparent and progress can be monitored by both employees and managers.
• Resource and Support Management: Clearly outline learning materials, required courses, mentor involvement, and manager support directly within each IDP.
• Regular Progress Reviews: Schedule check-ins and log updates, share action plans, and sync meetings with your Microsoft Teams calendar for streamlined, performance review integration.
• AI-Powered Development Goal Suggestions: Teamflect uses AI to analyze user inputs, including career objectives and competency selections, as well as data from past performance reviews. The AI then generates personalized, relevant SMART goals that align with the employee’s development needs and aspirations.

These tools and resources empower organizations to create tailored, actionable, and impactful development plans—all within a centralized digital workspace.

Whether you’re an employee eager to grow or a manager/HR professional driving career progression, Teamflect offers the structure, support, and flexibility needed to foster continuous development.

Final Thoughts

IDPs are effective means of facilitating professional growth, employee participation, as well as organizational achievement. Companies can make individual employees successful by developing personalized, actionable plans and making timely and agile decisions and preventing pitfalls.

For further insights into effective performance management, organizations can build a culture of skill-based development that benefits both the individual and the business.