Define personal and professional development Plan

Career development is the number one topic on many employees’ minds. Now more than ever an organization’s success can depend on whether or not employees are engaged in their own learning and development. In fact, according to a recent nation-wide survey, the largest contributor of employee turnover is not salary or supervision but rather “inadequate opportunities for professional development.” Effective leaders are holding themselves accountable for providing such opportunities. However, while there are numerous actions that leaders can take, there are also defined methods that they should follow if they want their employees to become engaged in their own learning and development. The purpose of this article is to make clear the sometimes vague concept of employee development. In it, I will describe why leaders should invest in the development of their employees, what specific actions they should take, and how they can best support their employees throughout the developmental process.

Benefits of Employee Development

When leaders invest their time and energy to develop their employees, their effort is acutely acknowledged (and even reciprocated) by their employees. In fact, the more attention that a manager gives to the development of his/her employees, the more motivated those employees will be to return the favor. This motivation leads to increased effort from employees as they work hard to express their gratitude.

The process described above is called perceived investment in employee development (PIED). It is defined as the degree to which employees perceive that their supervisor and/or the organization is investing in their own growth and development. Organizational researchers have learned that PIED is not just a source of increased motivation – PIED is strongly related to a number of positive outcomes, such as:

• Job commitment
• Intrinsic job motivation
• Organizational citizenship behavior (helping behavior that supports the functioning of the organization)
• Quality of work-life
• Employee retention(this means reduced costs associated with selection and training)

According to organizational scholars, the benefits of investing in employee development are clear. Having employees who are engaged in learning is described as “one of the most important sources of competitive advantage for organizations.” 1