Individual Development Plan

[Modified from: Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB)'s Science Policy Committee]

Individual Development Plans provide a planning process that identifies both professional development needs and career objectives. Furthermore, IDP's serve as a communication tool between individuals and their supervisors.

Click here to download a PDF version of the IDP document.

Goals

Help individuals identify:

• Long-term career options they wish to pursue and the necessary tools to meet these; and
• Short-term needs for improving current performance.

Benefits

You will have a process that assists in developing long-term goals. Identifying short-term goals will give you a clearer sense of expectations and help identify milestones along the way to achieving specific objectives. The IDP also provides a tool for communication between you and your supervisor.

Outline of IDP Process

The development, implementation, and revision of the IDP requires a series of steps to be conducted by you and your supervisor. These steps are an interactive effort, and so both you and your supervisor must participate fully in the process.

IDP Process

Employee

Step 1 - Conduct a Self Assessment

• Assess your skills, strengths and areas which need development. Formal assessment tools can be helpful.
• Take a realistic look at your current abilities. This is a critical part of career planning. Ask your peers, mentors, family and friends what they see as your strengths and your development needs.
• Outline your long-term career objectives. Ask yourself:
  • What type of work would I like to be doing?
  • Where would I like to be in an organization?
  • What is important to me in a career?

Step 2 - Survey Opportunities with Supervisor

• Identify career opportunities and select from those that interest you.
• Identify developmental needs by comparing current skills and strengths with those needed for your career choice.
• Prioritize your developmental areas and discuss with your supervisor how these should be addressed.

Step 3 - Write an IDP

The IDP maps out the general path you want to take and helps match skills and strengths to your career choices. It is a changing document, since needs and goals will almost certainly evolve over time. The aim is to build upon current strengths and skills by identifying areas for development and providing a way to address these. The specific objectives of a typical IDP are to:

• Identify specific skills and strengths that you need to develop (based on discussions with your supervisor).
• Define the approaches to obtain the specific skills and strengths (e.g., courses, technical skills, teaching, and supervision) together with anticipated time frames.
• Discuss your draft IDP with your supervisor.
• Revise the IDP as appropriate.

Step 4 - Implement Your Plan

The plan is just the beginning of the career development process and serves as the road map. Now it's time to take action!

• Put your plan into action.
• Revise and modify the plan as necessary. The plan is not cast in concrete; it will need to be modified as circumstances and goals change. The challenge of implementation is to remain flexible and open to change.
• Review the plan with your supervisor regularly. Revise the plan on the basis of these discussions.

Supervisor

Step 1 - Become familiar with available opportunities

By virtue of your experience you should already have knowledge of some career opportunities, but you may want to familiarize yourself with other career opportunities and trends in job opportunities.

Step 2 - Discuss opportunities with employees

This needs to be a private, scheduled meeting distinct from regular meetings. There should be adequate time set aside for an open and honest discussion.

Step 3 - Review IDP and help revise

Provide honest feedback—both positive and negative—to help employees' achieve realistic goals.

Step 4 - Establish regular review of progress

The supervisor should meet at regular intervals with employees to assess progress, expectations and changing goals. On at least an annual basis, the supervisor should conduct a performance review designed to analyze what has been accomplished and what needs to be done. A written review is most helpful in objectively documenting accomplishments.