How to Create a Career Development Plan for Employees: A Manager’s Guide

L&D leaders are making it a priority to help employees develop in their careers. The LinkedIn Workplace Learning report reveals that this strategic imperative has moved from number nine to number four on their priority list within a year.

One of the best ways managers can ensure each individual meets their professional goals is to create a career development plan for employees. This step-by-step guide explains how to build a plan for your team members that aligns with your company goals while fostering a culture of continuous learning and growth.

Step 1: Assess current skills and competencies

The starting point for your employee’s career development plan is to take a baseline of their existing knowledge, skills, and competencies. From here, you’ll learn which:

• Skills are missing entirely
• Skills are well-developed but may require further expertise
• Skills can be broadened or repurposed into other business areas

No role requires a full complement of skills, so focus on those that are must-haves rather than nice-to-haves. To achieve this, you might zoom in on a mix of technical skills and human skills. According to LinkedIn, 91% of L&D specialists believe that soft skills are increasingly important, with the following highest growth rates:

• Interpersonal skills: 73%
• Presentation skills: 64%
• Problem solving skills: 57%
• People management skills: 57%

Skill assessment methods

Use the following methods to understand your employee’s current skill levels:

• Skills assessments: Use online or in-person assessments to measure skills and knowledge in specific areas
• Performance reviews: Gather 360-degree feedback from the employee’s peers, managers, and direct reports to gain a holistic view of their strengths and development areas
• Development discussions: Host regular one-on-one meetings with individual employees to gain insights into their interests, long-term goals, and skill sets
• Work simulations: Set up real-life scenarios or simulations to assess an employee’s skills and competencies in action

Step 2: Identify career goals and aspirations

Involving employees in their career development delivers real progress for individuals and the overall organization. Rather than prescribing a development plan that you expect them to follow, a collaborative approach ensures everyone gains something meaningful from the process.

LinkedIn finds that learners who set career goals engage with their learning and development four times more than those who don’t take a structured goal-setting approach. To do so, we recommend concentrating on two to four competencies or skills an employee wants to improve during the development cycle.

For example, if a direct report aspires to become a project manager within five years but lacks strong communication skills, this could be a focus area over the next three to six months.

Support your colleagues to find the right development areas by asking questions like:

• What is your dream role within the organization?
• What is holding you back from reaching that position?
• What skills or competencies do you want to develop in the next six months, year, or five years?

Step 3: Match employee interests with company needs

Always keep the company’s strategic objectives and business goals in mind when earmarking skills and competencies to develop in the coming months and years.
For example, if your employees want to progress their skills in Python programming but your organization is moving towards a Java-based system, you can redirect their focus.

To ensure alignment between your career development programs, the future of your people initiatives, and your business, consider:

• The key roles you need to fill
• The skills and competencies needed in those roles
• Any upcoming projects or initiatives that require specific skills urgently

Matching employee interests with company needs also requires understanding where employees stand in terms of their current performance and potential for professional growth.

The 9-box grid is a valuable tool for assessing employees on these two dimensions. It enables you to identify who is best suited for certain roles and who might need additional development to align their career trajectory with the company’s goals.

Step 4: Map out career pathways

Arrange all the information you’ve collected so far on skills, competencies, career goals, and required roles, and use it to map out potential career pathways within the organization.

A comprehensive career pathing framework should show your employees how to progress from their current position to any other role in your org chart. You can present this information in several ways, including:

• Vertical trajectories: Shows promotional opportunities as an employee moves up the ranks
• Horizontal and diagonal trajectories: Uses lateral career moves to pick up new skills and experience in adjacent positions
• Individual contributor trajectories: Highlights how an employee can advance in their current role through increased responsibility or project-based work; for example, a technology employee may want to become a specialist rather than a leader
• Leadership trajectories: Outlines potential routes or fast-tracks to leadership roles within the company

Step 5: Develop actionable plans

Design a detailed roadmap to get them from A to B based on your employees’ current and desired destinations on your career map. The SMART goal-setting framework is one way to structure this, allowing you to choose Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals.

For example, your employee and manager might choose the goal: “Improve communication skills to a level that enables successful team leadership within six months.” They can break this down into smaller employee development goals or action steps by asking follow-up questions:

• Specific: What specific communication skills need improvement? How will they be applied in a leadership context?
• Measurable: How will you measure progress towards improved communication skills, for example, through surveys, self-evaluations, or other methods?
• Achievable: Are sufficient resources available to support the development of these skills within six months? Is the timeline feasible for the employee’s current workload and responsibilities?
• Relevant: How does improving communication skills align with the employee’s career goals and company needs?
• Time-bound: When should the employee complete each step of the plan, and what does each milestone relate to?

Step 6: Provide necessary resources and support

The best development plans factor in access to available learning resources. LinkedIn suggests some of the most popular programs:

• 70% of companies offer leadership development programs to equip current or potential leaders with the skills they need to manage others
• 58% offer shared internal jobs, enabling employees to gain experience and exposure in different areas of the company
• 57% promote mentorship programs pairing seasoned professionals with junior employees
• 49% create individual career plans with specific goals and objectives
• 44% invest in internal mobility programs, encouraging employees to apply for open positions within the company

Determine which of the above resources you have available and which best fit an individual’s career development plan.

For example, an employee aiming to fast-track to a leadership role could benefit from a mentoring arrangement and exposure to job shadowing opportunities across several areas of the company.

Step 7: Regularly review and adjust plans

Employee development plans have a shelf life. They’ll only remain relevant if you’re willing to review and modify them periodically. Some things to check and fine-tune include:

• Recent qualifications or skills updates: If the employee has achieved a new certification or acquired new experience, you can start moving toward a new development goal
• Changing company needs: If your organization is undergoing changes, you may need to update the career map and action plan to reflect new roles, skills, or competencies required
• Feedback from managers and colleagues: Regularly soliciting feedback from those working closest with the employee can provide valuable insights on their progress and areas for improvement
• Change of heart: Employees may change their minds about their desired career path, and it’s essential to be open and flexible about their needs—giving them the freedom to explore different options within the organization can retain talented employees who may otherwise pursue opportunities elsewhere

Schedule periodic check-ins with your employees to understand the relevance of your career development plan. The most effective method is open communication during one-on-one meetings.

Step 8: Evaluate the effectiveness of your workers’ career development plans

Throughout the design and launch of your career development plan, remember its purpose: You want to professionally progress your employees so they can be an incredible asset to your business.

To do so, use relevant metrics to assess the success and impact of your employee career development initiatives. These might include:

• Improvements in skill and performance scores
• Achieved promotions (or shortlisted for them)
• Increased employee satisfaction and retention rates
• Career development program feedback or survey responses

Best practices for effective career development

The following tips and best practices are an important accompaniment to your career development plan:

Encourage open communication between managers and workers

Employee growth is only possible if direct reports feel comfortable sharing their thoughts, opinions, and career aspirations with their manager. A psychologically safe environment means managers will respond empathetically when employees speak openly about their challenges and describe their needs.

Recognize and reward progress

Managers can boost employee engagement and morale by noticing their direct reports’ development activities and praising them accordingly. Research suggests that 83.6% of employees feel more motivated to succeed when recognized at work.

Use a range of training and development methods

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to learning and development. Your employees will typically fall into one of the following learning profiles:

• Read-write learners who prefer to absorb textual information and then summarize the key points to support their learning
• Visual learners who benefit from seeing information as illustrations, charts, graphs, or videos
• Auditory learners who respond well to lectures, discussions, podcasts
• Kinesthetic learners who need practical, hands-on activities to understand the material

Accommodate each of these learning styles in your career development plans by using a variety of training programs such as online courses, workshops, job shadowing opportunities, and mentorship partnerships so everyone has the best format.

Communicate career development opportunities within the organization

Internal communication is vital in creating a culture of continuous growth and development. Use your employee newsletter, town hall meetings, and recognition tools to spotlight employees who have progressed within the organization by:

• Completing their onboarding
• Starting new training initiatives
• Joining succession planning programs
• Enjoying lateral career opportunities
• Participating in mentoring or coaching

Use employee performance reviews to shape career development plans

Make your performance conversations count by linking their content and employee results to concrete developmental targets.

Suppose an employee’s latest performance appraisal highlights their need for more practical experience. You could respond by weaving job shadowing opportunities into their professional development plan so they can see what theory looks like in practice.

Leverage software tools

An effective career development plan has many moving parts. It depends on feedback, metrics, performance data, skills assessments, career frameworks, and more.

For most companies, it would be unreasonable to expect managers to manually gather and store all this information. That’s why people-focused platforms like Deel Engage exist—to save HR teams and managers hundreds of hours in their people processes.

Foster career development with Deel Engage

Deel Engage combines performance, learning opportunities, and career development into a central platform.

Here are the features you can use to power talent development in your organization:

• Performance management software facilitates regular feedback in your custom performance review cycles
• Training software provides the resources your people need to grow from a library of external or internal content drafted by AI as required
• Career development software enables you to create tailored development programs for each role and individual
• Deel HR, our truly global HRIS solution, manages the entire talent lifecycle compliantly and is always included for free

Book a demo to see how our solutions will help you foster continuous improvement in your workforce.