HR & performance glossary
What is an individual development plan?
Individual development plan (IDP): A plan agreed between an employee and their manager setting out which capabilities to develop, the actions that will build them and how progress will be judged.
An individual development plan, or IDP, is a written plan agreed between an employee and their manager that sets out which capabilities the employee will develop, why they matter, the actions that will build them and how progress will be judged. It can serve the current role, a role the employee is aiming for, or both.
The best IDPs are short and specific. Each objective is tied to a named skill or competency with a current and target level, each action has an owner and a date, and the plan mixes formal learning with on-the-job experience such as stretch assignments, projects and coaching. A plan with a dozen vague aims usually delivers none of them.
Most plans stall because they are written in one document and never looked at again. Employee development software keeps the plan beside the evidence that created it. In CLEAR Talent, an assessment against the competency framework drafts an IDP from the competencies that matter most for the role, ranked by the size of the gap; a 360° review suggests a plan from its lowest-scoring, highest-importance competencies; and where someone has named the role they want next, the gap is calculated against that role. Progress is then re-tested in the next competency assessment.