Want to build new skills or help your team reach new heights? Personal Development Plans are the ultimate tools for progress. Find out how to avoid unrealistic PDPs and create ones that actually work using our top tips and tricks.
A Personal Development Plan, or PDP, is a living document that’s used to enhance knowledge, set goals, and acquire new skills. While PDPs are available to anyone, they’re more common in workplaces and are often part of an employee’s Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
Personal Development Plans matter for many reasons, and can affect companies on both an organisational and individual level.
For example, when staff are left to work without guidance, structure, or clear goals, they can quickly become complacent, refraining from pushing themselves or losing a sense of purpose. When this happens, productivity can drop and disillusionment may start to spread across the team. In the long run, this disillusionment not only affects employee satisfaction and retention, but it can also lead to poorer outcomes, work-wise.
If, instead, all staff are encouraged to fill in PDPs and are given something positive to work towards, it will help them to maintain a sense of purpose, learn to take responsibility, and benefit from the positive wellbeing effects that come with mastering new skills. All of these things drive better organisational results.
Technically, there’s no set way to structure a PDP. However, to make the most out of yours, you might want to include some of the following tried-and-tested features. These are designed to make goal setting more practical and constructive:
SMART Goals: The ‘SMART’ in SMART goals stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. These parameters are there to make sure that each goal is clear, easy to track, and achievable within a certain timeframe.
SWOT Analysis: ‘SWOT’ stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Making a note of these things can help to increase self-awareness and support goal planning.
Step-By-Step Actions: It’s no good creating a plan for progress without action. Although actions may also be incorporated into SMART goals, it can be helpful to include a more general ‘next steps’ section that outlines bigger actions to be completed by a certain date. This helps with the overall vision and provides a clear direction.
Ready to create a Personal Development Plan for your staff? Here are some simple steps for creating a foolproof PDP template:
1. Basic details: It’s best to start by creating a section that includes the employee’s name, the manager/team leader’s name, and a start and end date (this could span a year, 6 months, or longer). A PDP shouldn’t be treated as a solo document. Goals that are set alongside a senior member of staff and properly reviewed during 1:1s will be much more effective and achievable.
2. Personal analysis: Next, it can be helpful to add a self-assessment section. This could include a SWOT table or a questionnaire that allows staff to identify what they’re good at and what they’re not so good at. If you do decide to go down the ‘SWOT’ route, it’s important to note that ‘threats’ in the context of a workplace are usually things like industry challenges, budget restraints, or barriers to task completion rather than personal weaknesses or areas for improvement, which would instead be captured as ‘weaknesses’.
3. Goal setting: This is the section where staff can record their SMART goals. Each individual goal will have its own deadline for completion. SMART goals work well in a table, with each part of the acronym labelled across the top or left-hand side. A completed SMART goal might look something like this:
Specific: Become quicker at using the new company software.
Measurable: Complete 10 tasks within the space of an hour, recorded using a time tracker.
Achievable: This is achievable because I will have lots of time for training in the coming weeks (an opportunity to practise) and can use the available software guide to find keyboard shortcuts.
Relevant: This is a relevant and important goal because the old software is being phased out. I will need to use the new software to complete daily activities and train staff in future.
Timebound: I hope to achieve this goal by the end of August.
Since there are likely to be multiple SMART goals, you’ll want to duplicate this structure and leave plenty of room for answers.
4. Key actions: Finally, consider finishing off your PDP template with a section to record key actions/aims. This might include wider actions or general goals that the individual SMART goals are helping to work towards. For example, based upon the software example we gave earlier, the wider aim might be to ‘become adept at using the new software in order to train others’. Since this is a more challenging goal, the deadline will naturally be further away, but having it at the end will remind the employee what they’re working towards.
In most workplaces, individual staff members and line managers take the lead when it comes to creating and updating a PDP. However, there are times when others may get involved.
For example, HR professionals might step in to support career development or coordinate training opportunities, while mentors and subject matter experts may provide targeted guidance or feedback on specific skills.
If you’re supporting your staff to complete their PDPs or even completing one yourself, the following tips may come in handy:
We’ve shown you one PDP format, but there are plenty of other templates and tools out there to help you get going. Whether you’re looking for something editable, printable, or just a bit of inspiration, here are a few additional resources to explore:
Each of these tools offers something slightly different, so feel free to browse and pick the one that best suits your team’s needs.
As we mentioned at the start, PDPs can give staff a sense of purpose and fulfilment. But beyond this, they help to create a highly skilled workforce that feels supported and encouraged to succeed. And this extends to neurodivergent employees.
A well thought-out PDP can offer structure and clarity, which can be especially useful for staff with autism or ADHD who tend to benefit from routine, clear expectations, or a bit more predictability in their day-to-day. Just the simple act of breaking goals down into manageable steps can help to reduce overwhelm, while focusing on individual strengths means people aren’t being shoehorned into approaches that don’t work for them.
At the end of the day, we all learn differently. So, if you’re looking to support your team’s development in a way that actually sticks, try our tips and turn those career conversations into real action.
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