A professional development plan is the second thing an appraisal produces after the rating and the merit outcome, and the one most often written badly, because it is written last, from a wish list, and never reopened. What is a professional development plan, in the cycle's own terms: one or two development objectives for the coming period, each with a target that says what done looks like, drawn from the gaps the review exposed and the strengths it showed, and filed on the record where the next review will find them. This page sets out how the plan is written from the review's outcome, gives individual development plan examples for three roles, and describes how the plan is checked at the next review so that it is a plan and not a paragraph.
Written from the outcome, not the wish list
The review has just produced a rating per objective and comments that name where the evidence fell short and where it exceeded. The plan starts there: the objective that was missed on scheduling becomes a development objective to own the schedule; the strength in carrying a project end to end becomes an objective to own a larger one. The free final comments worksheet on this site works the rating and the objectives met into the outcome and the new salary with example comments beside them; the development plan is the paragraph after the salary. A plan drawn from a list of courses the employee would like to attend has no connection to the review and no measure.
Individual development plan examples for three roles
A support analyst rated meets, strong on resolution, weak on escalation: development objective to own the escalation queue by the second quarter, measured by the queue's resolution figure, with a week of shadowing the current owner as the support. A finance clerk rated meets, invoices late on the large accounts: objective to run the weekly ageing review for those accounts from January, measured by the invoice log, with access to the delivery system as the support. A team lead rated exceeds, ready for more: objective to run the second shift's standards project, measured by the standard adopted by June, with the operations manager as mentor. Each has a target, a measure and a named support.
Checked at the next review
The development objective is on the record with the performance objectives, checked at the mid-year with the same on-track, at-risk, missed reading, self-appraised at year end with evidence, and rated as met or not. It does not drive the merit increase, which follows the performance rating, but it drives the next plan and, over two or three cycles, the promotion conversation. A plan that is never checked is the commonest way a company tells an employee their growth was not really its concern. Reviewvo Pro carries the development objective forward on the employee's record so the next cycle opens with it.
Questions people ask about professional development plan
What is a professional development plan?
One or two development objectives for the coming period, each with a target and a named support, written from the review's outcome and filed on the employee's record to be checked at the next review.
What should an individual development plan include?
The objective as a result with a measure, the support the company will provide, the date, and where it came from in the review. Not a list of courses without a measure.
Does a development plan affect the merit increase?
No. Merit follows the performance rating. The development plan shapes the next period's objectives and, over cycles, the promotion conversation.