Free template
Individual development plan template, with three IDP examples
A blank IDP template you can copy or download, three filled-in examples and a seven-step guide to writing a development plan that is still being used six months later.
By the CLEAR Talent team
An individual development plan, or IDP, is a short written agreement between an employee and their manager about which capabilities the employee will build next, how they will build them and how both of them will know it has worked.
The template below is deliberately small: a few plan details, then no more than three development goals, each with the skill it builds, the actions, the resources and support, a timeline and the measures of success. Most development plans fail because they hold too much, not too little. Copy it, download it as a spreadsheet or text file, and use the examples to judge how much detail is enough.
The individual development plan template
Template
Individual development plan
Fill in the plan details once, then complete the six goal fields for each of up to three goals. The prompts say what belongs in each field.
| Field | What to write |
|---|---|
| Plan details | |
| Employee | Name. |
| Current role | Job title and team. |
| Manager | The person who will hold the check-ins and approve the plan. |
| Role aspiration (optional) | The role the employee is working towards, if there is one. Leave it blank for a plan about the current role. |
| Plan period | Usually six to twelve months, lined up with your review cycle. |
| Check-in dates | When progress will be discussed. Monthly suits most plans. |
| Date agreed | When the employee and manager agreed the plan. |
| For each goal (up to 3) | |
| Development goal | One sentence on what will be different in the work. “Run the quarterly planning meeting without support” beats “improve leadership”. |
| Skill or competency to develop | Name the skill. If you use a competency framework, give the current level and the target level. |
| Actions | Two to four specific actions, each with an owner and a due date. Mix on-the-job experience, learning from other people and formal learning. |
| Resources and support | What the employee needs: time, budget, a mentor, access to a project, a course. Note anything that needs approval. |
| Timeline | Start date, the milestones in between and the date the goal should be met. |
| Success measures | Observable evidence that the gap has closed — an outcome, feedback from others, the level reached at the next assessment. |
Show the plain-text template
INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN Employee: Current role: Manager: Role aspiration (optional): Plan period: Check-in dates: Date agreed: GOAL 1 Development goal: Skill or competency to develop: Actions: Resources and support: Timeline: Success measures: GOAL 2 Development goal: Skill or competency to develop: Actions: Resources and support: Timeline: Success measures: GOAL 3 Development goal: Skill or competency to develop: Actions: Resources and support: Timeline: Success measures:
Nothing here is gated: the spreadsheet and the text file hold exactly the fields shown above, with three blank goals.
How to write an individual development plan
The steps below work whether the employee drafts the plan or the manager does. The order matters: evidence first, goals second, actions third.
Start from evidence, not a wish list
Look at the latest performance review, competency assessment or 360° feedback, and at the role the employee is aiming for, if there is one. The plan should close a gap someone has actually observed, not restate a generic list of strengths to build.
Choose two or three development goals
Rank the gaps by how much each matters to the role and how large it is, then keep the top two or three. A plan with ten aims usually delivers none of them, and a plan the employee cannot recite from memory will not be worked on.
Name the skill and the level
For each goal, name the skill or competency it builds and, where you have a framework, the current and target level. That turns “get better at stakeholder management” into a move between two defined points, which is what makes progress measurable.
Write actions with owners and dates
Give each goal two to four actions, weighted towards on-the-job experience — stretch assignments, projects, shadowing, coaching — and backed by formal learning where it helps. Every action gets an owner and a due date, or it is an intention rather than a plan.
Agree the resources and the success measures
Say what support each goal needs, such as time, budget or a mentor, and get any approval now rather than at the point the action is due. Then define the evidence that will show the goal has been met, so nobody has to argue about it later.
Agree the plan together
The employee should draft or co-draft the plan; the manager’s job is to challenge it, support it and approve it. A plan someone owns is far more likely to be followed than a plan someone was handed.
Review it at every check-in
Put the plan on the one-to-one agenda, record evidence as it happens rather than recalling it at year end, and re-assess the same skills at the next review. Close goals that are met and replace goals the role has outgrown.
IDP examples: three filled-in plans
Three plans for three common situations: a first-time manager, an engineer working towards a senior role and an HR generalist moving towards business partnering. Each has two goals, which is often enough.
These examples were written for this page to show a workable level of detail. They do not describe real employees or any CLEAR Talent customer.
New manager
Example 1: a first-time people manager
Promoted from within the team three months ago and now managing five people, most of them former peers. Still doing much of the delivery work personally.
- Current role
- Team lead, customer operations
- Plan period
- Six months
- Check-in dates
- Monthly, in the one-to-one with their own manager
Goal 1
- Development goal
- Hold regular one-to-ones that each direct report finds useful.
- Skill or competency to develop
- Coaching and feedback — from developing to proficient on the organisation’s leadership framework.
- Actions
- Agree a fortnightly one-to-one slot with each report by the end of month one (owner: employee). Use a shared agenda that opens with the report’s priorities (owner: employee). Shadow two one-to-ones run by an experienced manager in month two (owner: manager to arrange). Complete a course on giving feedback by month three (owner: employee).
- Resources and support
- An experienced peer manager as mentor; course budget, approved by the manager before month two; thirty minutes a fortnight with their own manager to review how it is going.
- Timeline
- Schedule in place by week four; shadowing in month two; course complete by month three; review at the six-month check-in.
- Success measures
- Every report has had regular one-to-ones throughout the period; the team’s feedback at month six says the sessions are useful; the manager observes a session and agrees the proficient-level behaviours are visible.
Goal 2
- Development goal
- Hand work to the team instead of doing it personally.
- Skill or competency to develop
- Delegation and prioritisation — from owning most delivery work personally to team members owning deliverables end to end.
- Actions
- List current personal tasks and mark which belong with someone in the team (week two, owner: employee). Hand over two recurring deliverables, each with a written brief and agreed checkpoints (month two, owner: employee). Block two hours a week for planning and team development (from month one, owner: employee).
- Resources and support
- Manager review of the handover list; a capacity check with the team before each handover.
- Timeline
- Handover list by week two; both deliverables handed over by the end of month two; habits reviewed at month four.
- Success measures
- Both deliverables run by team members without being escalated back; calendar shows the planning time protected; manager and team agree at month six that the lead is leading rather than doing.
Software engineer
Example 2: an engineer working towards senior
A mid-level software engineer who delivers reliably and has said they want to move to senior engineer. The gap is in leading design work and in growing other engineers.
- Current role
- Software engineer, platform team
- Role aspiration
- Senior software engineer
- Plan period
- Twelve months
- Check-in dates
- Monthly, plus a quarterly review with the tech lead
Goal 1
- Development goal
- Lead the technical design of a team feature from proposal to release.
- Skill or competency to develop
- System design — from contributing to designs led by others to leading the design of a feature the team owns, as the senior level expects.
- Actions
- Write the design document for the next roadmap feature, reviewed by the tech lead (quarter one, owner: employee). Present it at the engineering design review and work the feedback in (quarter one, owner: employee). Plan the implementation and split the work for two other engineers (quarter two, owner: employee). Write a short post-release review of what the design got right and wrong (quarter two, owner: employee).
- Resources and support
- The tech lead as reviewer and mentor; a slot at design review; the feature assigned to the engineer in the team roadmap (owner: manager).
- Timeline
- Design approved in quarter one; release in quarter two; post-release review within a month of release.
- Success measures
- The design is approved at review and the feature ships; the tech lead confirms the work meets the senior-level description in the career framework.
Goal 2
- Development goal
- Help other engineers improve through code review and pairing.
- Skill or competency to develop
- Mentoring — from reviewing code for correctness to reviews that teach and regular pairing with a less experienced engineer.
- Actions
- Pair with the team’s newest engineer for an hour a week (from month one, owner: employee). Run one internal session on a topic the team has asked about (by month six, owner: employee). Ask two engineers whose code they review whether the reviews help them (month six, owner: employee).
- Resources and support
- An hour a week protected in sprint planning (owner: manager); a slot in the team’s knowledge-sharing session.
- Timeline
- Pairing from month one; session by month six; feedback gathered at month six and discussed at the next check-in.
- Success measures
- The newer engineer says the pairing helped; the session is delivered; peer feedback at the year-end review mentions mentoring.
HR generalist
Example 3: an HR generalist moving towards business partnering
An HR generalist who handles day-to-day queries and reporting well and wants to become an HR business partner. The gaps are in leading employee relations cases and in using people data to advise a business area.
- Current role
- HR generalist
- Role aspiration
- HR business partner
- Plan period
- Twelve months
- Check-in dates
- Monthly with the HR manager
Goal 1
- Development goal
- Lead straightforward employee relations cases from first meeting to outcome.
- Skill or competency to develop
- Employee relations casework — from supporting cases led by senior colleagues to leading straightforward cases with senior review.
- Actions
- Take notes on and debrief three cases led by the senior ER specialist (months one to three, owner: employee). Complete refresher training on the organisation’s grievance and capability procedures (month two, owner: employee). Lead two straightforward cases with the specialist reviewing each stage (months four to nine, owner: employee).
- Resources and support
- The ER specialist as mentor; access to case files under the usual confidentiality rules; time for training.
- Timeline
- Observation in months one to three; training by month two; led cases between months four and nine.
- Success measures
- Both cases are closed within the policy timescales with no procedural issues found at review; the specialist signs off the casework as ready for the next level.
Goal 2
- Development goal
- Use people data to advise one business area.
- Skill or competency to develop
- Data analysis and reporting — from producing standard reports on request to spotting a trend and recommending an action.
- Actions
- Complete a spreadsheet or data-analysis course (month three, owner: employee). Build a quarterly turnover and absence summary for one business area (month four, owner: employee). Present one finding and a recommendation to that area’s leadership team (month eight, owner: employee, with the HR manager).
- Resources and support
- Course budget, approved by the HR manager; access to the relevant HR data; a slot at the business area’s leadership meeting.
- Timeline
- Course by month three; first summary in month four; presentation in month eight.
- Success measures
- The summary becomes a regular report; the leadership team acts on or formally considers the recommendation; the HR manager rates the capability at the target level at the year-end review.
From template to tracked plan
Keeping development plans alive in CLEAR Talent
A template gets the plan written. Keeping it in use for the next six months is the harder part, and it is what employee development software is for. In CLEAR Talent an IDP is a structured record rather than a free-text box: each action is attached to a named competency with its current and target level, and carries an owner, a due date and the resources it needs. Actions that need training spend carry a cost field and an approval workflow.
Plans start from evidence already in the platform. 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. Employees can draft their own plan and send it for manager approval.
After that, IDP items surface in one-on-ones, monthly check-in prompts keep the plan moving, progress is logged in line against each action, and the next assessment re-tests the same competencies on the same scale.