Career development plan: How to help employees grow with examples

As an HR professional, you know how important it is to support your employees’ career growth and development to boost satisfaction and retention. However, creating personalized career development plans from scratch can be time-consuming and challenging. On top of that come the challenges of ensuring team members’ development goals align with your organizational needs. 

Fortunately, a well-designed career development plan template streamlines this process. This allows you to quickly assess their current situation, goals, and development needs. 

In this post, we’ll outline what a career development plan template is, how it benefits you and your employees, and how to implement it. We’ll also provide you with a free, downloadable template you can customize to suit your preferences.

What’s a career development plan template?

A career development plan template is a structured document that outlines an employee’s professional goals and the steps they need to take to reach them. 

Career development plan templates provide a framework to reflect on a team member’s current situation, set realistic targets, and create a structured employee development program to achieve them. It also helps employers understand employees’ career aspirations and build strategies to support them.

Template development plans for employees can be tailored to fit individual needs and organizational requirements. They serve as a valuable tool for team members and leaders to work together to create a personalized career development plan that benefits both parties.

Let’s explore how.

Why career development planning is important

Career development planning benefits both employees and organizations. As Career and Business Coach Cynthia Orduña says, “For employees, it fosters a sense of empowerment, motivation, and job satisfaction… From an organizational perspective, prioritizing career development leads to a more skilled and versatile workforce.” 

Let’s look at this in more detail.

Benefits of career development planning for employees

Professional development plan templates for employees provide structured direction as team members work toward achieving their goals. 

Here’s how:

• Provides a structured roadmap: A career development plan template for employees helps them clarify their goals and the path they should take toward achieving them. This puts them in a better position to work toward success in a structured way. It enables them to make informed decisions about their professional development rather than just “going with the flow” or taking a direction that’s unsuitable for them. For instance, moving up to management is a natural career step for many people, but it’s not for everyone. A career development plan can help identify this.
  
  
• Drives skills development: A progression plan template enables employees to identify their strengths and weaknesses. This lets them work on developing the skills they need to progress, which makes them more well-rounded and puts them in a better position to take advantage of opportunities that arise along the way. For example, if a UX designer takes a course on website development, they could gain valuable on-the-job experience if the company website needs a redesign.
  
  
• Motivates and engages: Without a clear plan, milestones, or accountability, it’s easy for employees to stray from their career development path. By contrast, clear goals can motivate them to push themselves personally and professionally as they progress toward their targets.

Now, let’s take a look at how career development planning benefits employers.‍

Benefits of career development planning for organizations

• Balance individual and organizational needs: Career planning helps align employees’ career aspirations with your strategic organizational objectives. It also ensures you have the necessary skills and talent to adapt to changing market conditions and stay competitive.
  
  
• Talent management: Talent development plan templates help you manage your internal resources by identifying and developing the employees and skills that are critical to your organization’s success. This helps you put the right people in the right roles.
   
• Succession planning and leadership development: Effective career development planning allows you to identify and prepare your future leaders for internal promotion. This helps ensure continuity in key roles, makes succession planning easier, and reduces the risk of leadership gaps.
  
  
• Create a culture of continuous learning: Working with employees on their learning and development plan template helps create a culture of continuous learning and growth within your organization.
  
  
• Improve your employer brand: Investing in career development planning demonstrates your commitment to employee growth. This helps attract and retain top talent and sets you apart from competitors.
  
  
• Data-driven decision making: Career development planning involves tracking progress and performance. This provides valuable insights that you can use to make decisions, optimize your talent strategies, and make informed choices about how to support employee development.
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• Happier, more engaged, and more committed team members: Career growth positively impacts employee engagement and commitment, and providing team members with intentional support only adds to that. According to Gartner, proactively working with employees on their career growth can have up to a 45% positive impact on how supported they feel, compared to just 8% when you only try to meet their expectations. Team members with access to development opportunities also have 34% higher retention rates.
  
  

Types of professional development plans for employees

Professional development doesn’t look the same for everyone. You should pick and customize a framework based on the employee’s current career stage and potential trajectory. Here are a few types of career growth plans to consider:

• Onboarding professional development plan: It should be immediately clear how your new hire’s role will evolve beyond the first 90 days. Research indicates that 86% of new employees decide how long they will stay with a company within their first six months. This is your chance to show your care for their professional growth with an onboarding development plan, while also integrating them into your organization’s culture of long-term growth.
  
  
• Leadership development plan: High-potential employees need different development goals that shift focus from technical execution to strategic thinking and people management. A 2024 Gartner survey found that HR leaders believe 74% of managers aren’t equipped to lead change, so dedicated leadership development plans that include mentorship and soft skill workshops should be a priority in the years to come.
  
  
• Succession-based growth plan: This plan turns an employee handover into a developmental journey. It maps out specific technical expertise, stakeholder relationships, and previously undocumented processes a successor needs to step into a senior role without operational hiccups.
  
  
• Cross-functional "stretch" plan: Internal mobility should be a top priority to retain talent. Employees who move into new roles within their company are 3.5 times more likely to be engaged than those who stay in the same position, and stay for twice as long. When “stretch assignments,” or tasks designed to push a team member’s skills, are part of a development plan, they’ll have a structured path for diverse experiences and new growth opportunities while staying within the organization.
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• Specialized technical track plan: Not every high performer on your team wants to reach for a leadership role. Implementing a specialized technical development plan helps individual contributors reach “expert” or “principal” status. This way, you’re rewarding deep technical knowledge and innovation without boxing growth potential into administrative roles.

Key elements of a career development plan

Each individual career development template is different, but here are the key elements we included in ours.

1. Assess current career status

The first step in creating a career development plan is to take stock of your employee’s current situation. This might involve conducting a SWOT analysis, asking them to complete a self-assessment form, or gathering feedback from coworkers, managers, and mentors. 

The aim is to evaluate factors like their skills and knowledge, interests, challenges, and areas for improvement. This will give you a clear picture of where they are now and what they need to work on. 

Think about these factors:

• Where are they in their career now? What are their responsibilities in their current position?
• What previous experience do they have, and what did they bring from those roles? 
• What are their strengths and skills? What valuable knowledge do they possess?
• What are their weaknesses, and where could they improve? What would they need to do that?

Once you know the answers to these questions, you can work on defining their career vision and goals.

2. Define career vision and long-term goals

The next step is to determine where the employee wants to go in the future. Having a clear vision and set of goals will guide the career development plan and help you both stay focused on what’s important.

To do this, you’ll need to identify their purpose, passion, and priorities. Get them to think about what their dream career or job looks like. What do they enjoy doing in their current role, and what do they want to do more of? By contrast, what don’t they enjoy and would like to move away from?

Remember that an employee’s career vision should also reflect their personal aspirations, values, and priorities. Encourage them to think about what’s important to them and what kind of work environment and culture they thrive in. For example, maybe they’re a marketer but are strongly driven by a concern for the environment. If so, they might want to move into a position that involves reporting on your environmental social governance (ESG) plan or your commitment to reducing the carbon footprint caused by your data storage needs.

3. Identify development gaps‍

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Next, pinpoint the employee’s development needs by evaluating the gap between where they are now and where they want to be, as well as considering what’s stopping them from moving forward. For example, in the case of the marketer we talked about before, perhaps they have passion and commitment but need to benefit from employee training and resources on communicating about sustainability issues. 

To identify someone’s development needs, look at sources like industry trends and job descriptions for their desired role. Compare these to their current job description, recent performance reviews, or manager feedback to see where they need to gain skills or experience. 

Consider the following questions:

• What are the key competencies required for their desired role?
• What skills or knowledge must they acquire to achieve their career goals?
• What are the gaps in their current skills or knowledge that they need to address?
• What training, education, or experience will they need to fill those gaps? Will they need to take a course, or could they learn on the job?

Pro tip 💡

‍Leapsome’s Competency Frameworks allow you to define the specific skills your employee needs to develop so you can measure their performance and track development over time. Work with your report to set clear expectations and define what they need to work on for each skill at each level.

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💥 Set tangible targets for skills development

Leapsome’s Competency Frameworks provide a structured roadmap for career development. 

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4. Determine short-term goals

Once you know what they want to achieve in the long term — and what they need to do — you can work on breaking the overall vision down into short-term goals that’ll move them closer to achieving their objective. As well as providing a roadmap for how to move forward, this prevents long-term objectives from seeming too distant or abstract, which can lead to them losing motivation. 

Goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). For example, if the employee wants to move from graphic to UX design and needs to take a course, they should be specific about their plan to do so. For example, they can identify a course that teaches the skills they need, ensure they’ll be able to complete it within a certain time frame, and know how to measure the skills they gain.

Remember that a person’s goals may change as they gain more experience and perspective. Therefore, you should revisit the development action plan template regularly to account for this and adjust.

5. Create and execute the action plan

Now that you’ve defined the vision, gaps, and goals you’re working with, you can create your action plan. To do this, outline the specific steps and resources they’ll need to close their developmental gaps and achieve their career goals. 

Your action plan may include: 

• Learning objectives, activities, and the specific actions they need to take to achieve their short and long-term goals.

• The resources and support that are available to them. Perhaps you offer a mentoring or development program or have a situation in mind where they can shadow another team member.

• Any opportunities that are available to them and details about how they can take advantage of them. Perhaps another team member is going on maternity leave, so your employee could take on some of their responsibilities in the meantime to get a feel for the role.

• Any potential barriers and risks that may affect their ability to reach their goals. For example, combining study with full-time work can be challenging. This can lead to delays and loss of motivation, so you need to think about how to overcome these potential obstacles. One possibility is to integrate development into someone’s daily responsibilities and workload. For example, if they want to move into a project management role, you could give them the opportunity to lead a small team project.

• The timelines and milestones associated with their development trajectory.

• Their success criteria and details about how they’ll track and measure progress.

• Any adjustments they’ll make if they’re not achieving their goals in the specified timeframes.

6. Track and evaluate progress

As the employee puts their action plan into effect, they should track and measure progress along the way. This might involve measuring skills, knowledge acquisition, or professional growth. At the start of the process, they may want to use tools like self-assessment, peer-to-peer or manager feedback, or quizzes.

Regularly monitoring and evaluating progress fosters accountability and helps team members stay on track. It also allows you to adjust the employee’s career development plan template so it remains relevant to their goals and needs. 

Be sure to build in regular check-ins and include accountability tools in their plan, such as meetings with line managers or progress reports. Along with performance reviews, these offer valuable data-driven insights into employee growth and show where they have made meaningful forward movement.

Professional development can take a lot of time and effort, so encourage your report to reward themselves whenever they hit a milestone. You can also provide encouragement and recognition. For example, by shouting them out in a dedicated “wins” channel on Slack or by recognizing them on a Praise Wall.

Pro tip 💡

‍Use a Competency Framework as the basis for performance reviews, 360° evaluations, and feedback. With Leapsome, you can even connect your feedback with specific skills and company values, making it more tangible and actionable.

Sample career development plan

Career development planning has many benefits, but to realize them, you need to take a structured approach. To that end, we’ve created a sample career development plan you can download and use.

​🚀 Help team members fulfill their potential

Download our free career development plan template to help employees understand the steps they need to take for meaningful growth.

👉 Download the template

Employee development plan template

Download this free employee development template and work with your employee to fill it in, answering the career development questions posed in the next section.

Once you’ve completed their professional development template and know what they’re planning to work toward, you can schedule regular reviews and connect them with the people and resources they need to get started.

Career development plan template for employee

Current career status

• Current position: Software engineer
• Responsibilities: Developing and maintaining software applications and troubleshooting technical issues.
• Previous experience: 3 years in software development, proficient in programming languages such as Java and Python.
• Strengths: Strong problem-solving skills, ability to work as part of a team, experience with agile methodologies.
• Areas for improvement: Enhancing knowledge in cloud computing, improving skills in cybersecurity.

Career vision and long-term goals

• Career vision: Becoming a senior software engineer who leads innovative projects.
• Purpose and passion: Passion for creating efficient and secure software solutions.
• Long-term goals: Lead a team in developing cutting-edge software applications.

Development gaps

• Key competencies for desired role: Leadership, advanced programming skills, knowledge of cloud technologies.
• Skills/knowledge to acquire: Cloud computing, cybersecurity best practices.
• Current gaps: Limited experience in leading projects, lack of expertise in cloud security.
• Training/experience needed: Courses in cloud computing, cybersecurity workshops, mentorship from senior engineers.

Short-term goals

• Short-term goal 1: Complete a cloud computing certification within six months.
• Action steps: Enroll in an online course, allocate study time weekly.
• Short-term goal 2: Lead a small software project within the team in three months.
• Action steps: Propose project idea, coordinate with team members, oversee project execution.

Action plan

• Learning objectives: Enhance cloud computing knowledge, develop leadership skills.
• Resources needed: Access to online courses, mentorship from senior software Engineers.
• Opportunities: Lead a project during a team sprint, shadow a senior engineer in a cloud project.
• Barriers: Balancing project responsibilities with upskilling efforts.
• Timelines: Milestones for certification progress, project completion.
• Success criteria: Feedback from team members, project success metrics.

Progress evaluation 

• Progress tracking methods: Self-assessment, feedback from team members and managers.
• Review frequency: Monthly check-ins with manager, quarterly progress reviews.
• Adjustment criteria: Reassess goals based on project outcomes and certification progress.
• Celebrations: Recognize milestones achieved, provide positive feedback and encouragement.

Current career status

• Current position: [Position Title]
• Responsibilities: [List key responsibilities]
• Previous experience: [Relevant experience and skills]
• Strengths: [List top 3-5 strengths]
• Areas for improvement: [List 2-3 areas]

Career vision and long-term goals 

• Career vision: [Describe ideal future role and work environment]
• Purpose and passion: [Explain purpose and what you enjoy most]
• Long-term goals: [List 2-3 long-term goals]

Development gaps

• Key competencies for desired role: [List 3-5 competencies]
• Skills/Knowledge to acquire: [List 2-3 skills/knowledge areas]
• Current gaps: [List 2-3 gaps to address]
• Training/Experience needed: [Specify training, courses, experience]

Short-term goals

• Short-term goal 1: [Specific, measurable goal] 
• Action steps to achieve goal: [List 2-3 action steps]
• Short-term goal 2: [Specific, measurable goal] 
• Action steps to achieve goal: [List 2-3 action steps]

Action plan

• Learning objectives: [List 2-3 objectives]
• Resources needed: [List resources, support, opportunities]
• Potential barriers: [List 1-2 barriers and mitigation plans]
• Milestones: [List 2-3 milestones with target dates]

Progress tracking and evaluation 

• Progress tracking methods: [List tools, feedback, self-assessment]
• Review frequency: [Monthly, quarterly, annually]
• Adjustment criteria: [Specify when to adjust goals/plan]
• Celebration of milestones: [How to celebrate achievements]

How to introduce professional development plans company-wide

Successfully scaling employee career development plans requires shifting your focus from isolated manual efforts to a synchronized organizational strategy. To make this transition effectively, development needs to be a core business function.

Here’s how to get everyone on board:

• Gain leadership buy-in: Executives often see development as a “nice-to-have” cost, but you might be able to change that by showing how personal growth drives the bottom line. For example, you can compare the high costs of recruitment against the small investment necessary to retain a high performer through internal development.
  
  
• Develop a competency framework: Consistency is essential for maintaining equity across your organization. To create it, build a centralized framework that moves away from department-specific tasks to focus on universal competencies. For example, instead of trying to fit coding and copywriting competencies into the same leadership development plan, consider the level of impact and complexity of problem-solving required for the role. This ensures a senior title represents the same strategic value in every department.
  
  
• Communicate the initiative: A company-wide plan only works if everyone knows how to access it. Launch the development plan by explaining how employees can take ownership of their professional journeys. Clearly outline the resources the company provides, like learning budgets and internal mentorship opportunities, and how to take advantage of them.
  
  
• Train managers: You might be tempted to promote managers because they’re great at technical tasks, but they need to know how to lead people, too. Give them training on how to implement developmental 1:1s, like how to move beyond their direct report’s task performance to have conversations that organically discover development opportunities.
  
  
• Recognize and reward growth milestones: Publicly acknowledge employees who reach their development targets to reinforce a culture of continuous learning. Formally celebrating these achievements with everyone strengthens professional advancement’s place as an organizational value rather than an elective task.

Best practices for creating a career development plan

A company-wide development strategy provides a foundation for career growth, but the initiative’s success depends on how well you translate those concepts into a personal career development plan. These best practices bridge the gap:

• Align development plans with business goals: Instead of building plans exclusively on the employee’s current skill set, imagine the skill gaps that could exist in two years based on the company’s current trajectory. For example, if you’re moving toward AI-driven customer success, a development plan should cover AI skill gaps and prioritize prompt engineering and reading data with a human lens over traditional support metrics.
  
  
• Set clear, measurable career goals: Vague aspirations like “improving leadership” are hard to measure and even more difficult to coach. Instead, frame goals as precise actions that demonstrate a new skill. For example, an employee looking for more leadership skills might run the next three team brainstorms, then get feedback from the group on how well they kept the discussion on track.
  
  
• Personalize plans for each employee: Personalization includes acknowledging how horizontal moves can broaden an employee’s perspective. A senior designer might spend some of their time shadowing the product management team to learn about market-fit validation, ultimately becoming a more versatile and engaged professional.
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• Iterate and develop the plan with check-ins: Career paths are rarely a straight line, so a development plan should be flexible enough to follow detours while still guiding the employees to their goals. Regular check-ins, like five-minute monthly pulse checks, help your ideas about their goals stay relevant.

Build a better career development plan with Leapsome

Career development is a vital aspect of professional growth, both for employees and organizations. It benefits team members by providing a clear path for growth and benefits you by aligning their goals with your strategic objectives. 

Embracing career development planning can lead to a more skilled, engaged, and motivated workforce, fostering a culture of continuous learning and growth within your organization.

To create a career development strategy, you need to understand your employee’s current status, define their vision and goals, identify development gaps, set short and long-term goals, and build an action plan. 

Leapsome’s Competency Framework and career development plan template come together to provide a structured growth roadmap that’ll guide you both toward a successful professional future.

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🤌 Align employee development with your organizational needs

Leapsome lets you create and track tailored learning paths so employees can develop within your organization. 

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FAQ

How can I create a plan for career development?

HR leaders can plan for career development using “future-back” mapping. This method considers where your industry will be in the next few years, which is especially important now that AI is in the mix. Consider today’s trends that will influence what customers need from your company years down the line, and how your company’s new needs will change your team’s job duties.

Once you have a better understanding of what the future might look like for your organization, you should find your team member’s “skill gap delta,” or the distance between their current abilities and the requirements for their future role. Then, make an actionable plan by choosing one skill to work on at a time.

What should a career development plan for employees include?

An effective career progression plan should include:

• A long-term career vision: What the employee’s dream job looks like, not just their next promotion.
  
  
• Behavior-based milestones: Specific, observable actions that prove the employee has perfected a skill.
  
  
• Learning-by-doing opportunities: Assignments, shadowing, and projects that provide the employee with an empirical learning experience.
• ‍A resource map: A well-rounded document or spreadsheet with mentors and resources the company can provide to help employees achieve their goals.