Employee Development Plan Examples, With a Free Template
Employee development plan examples for four roles, a free template that checks goals, actions and review dates, and how to write and run an IDP.
An employee development plan, also called an individual development plan or IDP, is a written agreement between an employee and their manager about what the employee will develop, how, and by when.
- Base a development plan on evidence, such as a recent review or a skills gap, so its goals are about the job.
- Give every development goal a success measure and a target date, so both people can tell at the next review whether it was met.
- Put most of a development plan's actions on the job, with courses and mentoring supporting that practice.
- Review a development plan with the employee every one to three months, because a plan that's only opened at the annual review rarely gets done.
Train teams faster and more effectively with AI
An employee development plan is a written agreement between an employee and their manager about what the employee will get better at, how and by when. Below are four filled plans for different roles, a free template that checks your plan, and how to write and run one.
I'm the COO of Coursebox, and I run our team in Perth. We make HR training software that teams use to build and track the courses in these plans.
Here's a completed plan for a customer support specialist working towards a senior role. It has three goals, each with a measure and a date, and nine actions. Most of the actions happen on the job, and the plan shows one is overdue and the next review is due on 1 December.
The free template works all of that out, from the overdue action to the next review date.
Download the blank plan to write your own. The example file has the support specialist's full plan and check-ins, plus three sample plans, one per tab.
What an employee development plan is
A development plan turns "you should get better at this" into specific actions, with dates and someone responsible for each. It belongs to the employee, but the manager agrees it and helps make the actions possible.
What goes in a development plan
| Part | The question it answers | From the support specialist's plan |
|---|---|---|
| Where it comes from | Why these goals, now? | The mid-year review: prioritising under pressure; aiming for the senior role |
| Goal | What will be different? | Lead the support queue through a product release |
| Success measure | How will we both know? | Outage tickets answered within 2 hours during the release |
| Actions | What will happen, by whom, by when? | Lead the November release, with the lead on standby, by 30 November |
| Support | What does the manager provide? | Time to shadow, a mentor, the course budget |
| Check-ins | When do we look at it? | Every 2 months; next on 1 December |
Development plan, performance improvement plan or career plan?
These get mixed up, and the difference changes how the conversation feels.
| Plan | Why it exists | Who starts it | What's at stake |
|---|---|---|---|
| Development plan (IDP) | To grow in the role or towards the next one | Employee and manager | Growth; no penalty if a goal slips |
| Performance improvement plan (PIP) | To fix performance that is below the standard | Manager, often with HR | Can lead to formal action |
| Career plan | To map a longer path across roles | Employee | Direction over several years |
| Training plan | To schedule the courses a team needs | L&D or the manager | Compliance and capability |
Never call a performance improvement plan a development plan. Employees can tell the difference, and it makes every future development plan look like a warning.
Three kinds of action
| Kind | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| On the job | Doing the work, with a stretch | Handle Tuesday escalations, with the lead reviewing each one |
| From others | Learning from people | Monthly mentoring session with the senior specialist |
| Formal learning | A course or programme | The incident-handling course |
You'll often see this as the 70-20-10 rule: 70% on the job, 20% from others, 10% formal. Treat it as a reminder, not a target. A 2018 review in Human Resource Development Review found the evidence for the 70% figure is weak and said the rule should be set aside.
The useful part survives without the numbers. A plan made only of courses rarely changes how someone works, so every goal needs at least one on-the-job action. If you want the background, read our guide to the 70-20-10 learning model.
When a development plan is the wrong tool
- Performance is below the standard: that needs a clear conversation about expectations, and possibly a performance improvement plan, not a development plan.
- The whole team needs the same skill: a training plan or a course for everyone is quicker than ten individual plans.
- The problem is the job, not the person: if the tools, process or workload are causing the gap, fix those first. A performance gap analysis helps you tell which it is.
How to write an employee development plan
The steps follow the support specialist's plan. They answer chat and email tickets at a software company. Their mid-year review in May showed two things. They struggled to prioritise during busy releases, and they wanted to move into a senior role within a year.
Step 1: Start from evidence
Write down where the plan comes from. For the support specialist, that was their self-evaluation and their lead's review. Both pointed to prioritising under pressure.
If you don't have a recent review, a skills matrix for the team shows where each person's gaps are.
Step 2: Agree two or three goals, each with a measure and a date
More than three goals, and none of them gets done. Each goal needs a measure you'll both recognise and a target date inside the plan period.
The support specialist's plan and goals
Example: A customer support specialist working towards a senior role, as at 20 October 2026.
- 1. Success measure: "the lead signs off" is a measure too. It just needs to be agreed in advance.
- 2. Next review: worked out from the latest check-in plus the review frequency.
- 3. Status: shows "Not ready" until every goal has a measure and a date and every action has a type, an owner and a due date.
Step 3: Plan the actions, mostly on the job
For each goal, start with what the employee will do differently at work. Then add who they'll learn from and any course that helps. The support specialist's plan has 5 on-the-job actions, 2 from others and 2 formal.
The actions and their status
Example: A customer support specialist working towards a senior role, as at 20 October 2026.
- 1. Overdue: the Tuesday escalations slipped because of leave. It's flagged, not hidden, so the next check-in deals with it.
- 2. Owner: the manager owns two actions. A plan where the employee owns everything leaves out the support only a manager can give.
"Improve prioritisation" can't be checked. "Sort the queue by priority at the start of every shift for a month" can.
Step 4: Agree what the manager will provide
Development needs time, access and sometimes money. Write it down: shift time for the course, a seat in the next release, an introduction to a mentor. If the manager can't provide it, change the action now rather than letting it fail later.
Step 5: Check in every one to three months
Log each check-in, even if it's five minutes. The support specialist's plan is reviewed every two months. The 1 October check-in caught the slipped escalations and reset the date.
A plan that's only opened once a year gets done in the week before the review. Put the check-ins in the calendar when you agree the plan.
Step 6: Close each goal with evidence
When a goal's measure is met, write down the evidence and the date, and agree the next goal. When the support specialist leads the November release and outage tickets are answered within 2 hours, goal 1 is done.
You can build the formal-learning part of a plan in Coursebox: courses for a role, grouped into a learning pathway with a badge, assigned to a person or a group, with progress and results in Reports. Assignments can capture evidence of on-the-job practice for a reviewer to mark. The plan itself, its goals and check-ins, lives with you and your manager.
Development plan examples for other roles
In the 180 days to 19 October 2026, at least 12 people asked our AI course builder for training on development plans or a programme to grow staff into a next role, from line managers' personal development plans to a new sales rep's path to working alone. These samples cover the roles those requests describe.
Each sample is a tab in the example file.
A new line manager
A team leader promoted three months ago, with a 6-month plan.
| Part | What it says | Measure or by when |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Run a 1:1 with each of 6 people every fortnight that ends with an agreed next step | 1:1s held and logged; team survey on 1:1 usefulness at 3 and 6 months |
| On the job | Hold the 1:1s, using one template, from next week | Ongoing |
| From others | Sit in on two 1:1s run by an experienced manager | End of month 1 |
| Formal learning | Giving feedback course (situation, behaviour, impact) | End of month 2 |
| Goal | Give feedback on a performance issue within a week of noticing it | Issues raised within 7 days; manager's manager reviews one conversation |
| On the job | Have the overdue conversation about missed handovers | End of month 1 |
| From others | Debrief each hard conversation with my manager | After each one |
New managers usually need practice more than theory. The 1:1s start next week, not after the course.
A care worker aiming for senior carer
A 12-month plan to lead shifts in a care home.
| Part | What it says | Measure or by when |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Be ready to lead a shift in a care home | Leads 4 shifts with the manager's sign-off |
| On the job | Shadow the senior carer on 6 shifts, then lead parts of the handover | Month 3 |
| Formal learning | Medication competency course and observed sign-off | Month 4 |
| From others | Monthly session with the deputy manager on rotas and escalation | Monthly |
| Goal | Own one compliance task: monthly care plan audits for one wing | Audits done on time for 3 months, with no missed actions |
| On the job | Complete the audits with the deputy checking the first two | Month 6 |
| Formal learning | Supervising others module | Month 8 |
For roles with a compliance side, include one task the person owns, not only skills they practise.
A new sales rep's first quarter
A new rep working towards running calls alone.
| Part | What it says | Measure or by when |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Run discovery calls alone | Team lead signs off after scoring 3 recorded calls |
| From others | Listen to 10 recorded calls by top reps and note their questions | Week 2 |
| Formal learning | Product and discovery course with a quiz | Week 3 |
| On the job | Run calls with the team lead listening, then debrief | Weeks 4 to 8 |
| On the job | Run 3 calls alone, recorded and scored by the team lead | Week 10 |
| Goal | Build a pipeline of 20 qualified opportunities | CRM report at the end of the quarter |
A sign-off by the team lead turns "ready" from an opinion into a measure.
What your development plan should produce
- A short, agreed plan: two or three goals, each with a measure, a date and actions.
- A record of check-ins, so slipped actions get caught early.
- Evidence when each goal is met, written down with the date.
- The next plan, agreed at the review where this one closes.
- Training needs for the wider team. If several plans list the same course, it's a team need, and a training needs analysis will size it.
When the template is not enough
- To find the gaps in the first place, use a skills gap analysis template.
- To decide between developing someone and moving them, read upskilling vs reskilling.
- To describe strengths and weaknesses plainly, see these employee strengths and weaknesses.
The template is version 1.0 (20 Oct 2026), tested in Excel 365 on Windows. It doesn't send reminders.
Writing your next development plan
Start from a review or a skills gap, agree two or three goals with a measure and a date, and make most of the actions happen on the job. Check in every one to three months, and close each goal with evidence. If the plan's formal learning is a set of courses for a role, you can build and assign them as a learning pathway in Coursebox's HR training software.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where the plan comes from, two or three goals with a success measure and a target date, the actions for each goal with an owner and a due date, the support the manager will give, and a record of check-ins.
Another name for an employee development plan. It's a written plan, agreed between an employee and their manager, for what the employee will develop, how and by when.
A rule of thumb that 70% of development happens on the job, 20% through other people and 10% through formal training. The evidence for the exact numbers is weak, so use it as a reminder to include on-the-job practice, not as a target.
Every one to three months, with a short check-in, plus a fuller review when a goal's date arrives. Waiting for the annual review lets actions slip unnoticed.
A development plan is about growth, and missing a goal carries no penalty. A performance improvement plan addresses performance below the standard and can lead to formal action, so it needs its own process with HR.
Alex Hey
Alex Hey is a technical marketer with 10 years of hands-on growth and digital marketing experience. He cofounded Coursebox together with Travis Clapp who he met online when looking for a cofounder to build a globally impactful software product. He works in the Perth, Western Australia office as the COO. He built the world's first automated funnel for patient recruitment before building Coursebox. After launching Coursebox in mid 2023, he drove +400k organic sign ups for Coursebox. Alex leads the marketing and digital growth of Coursebox and works with the product development team bringing a passion for data-driven product decision and exceptional user experience. Alex is determined to build the world's easiest way to build the perfect course.
