Brenda's Business Advice

Everyone wants to be good at their job, but there are always hurdles to overcome. Some people struggle with self-direction, others with the use of certain tools or electronics and still others with working in a group setting. Whatever may be hindering your employees, it might seem like it is impossible to work out in a way that doesn't leave them feeling upset or even more unmotivated. Luckily, many businesses encounter the same thing, and so several programs have been developed to counter this problem. One option is a performance development plan.

What Is A Performance Development Plan?

A performance development plan is a way to comprehensively analyse each individual employee and find out where their strengths and weaknesses lie. It is not accusatory because everyone undertakes it, which means that no one feels singled out. What it does is provide a way for employees to get better as they struggle with and maximise the potential of their noted strengths. This is something they should also want for themselves because it makes them more marketable as an employee and can lead to a quicker progression up the corporate ladder. 

How Does A Performance Development Plan Work?

To get started, a performance development plan usually goes over the past year (or quarter) and takes information about a particular employee. This can be things like projects completed, sales targets reached, time spent working and whatever other metrics you might need. This gives you the raw data to begin plotting a future path for them based on their own circumstances, not a general plan that doesn't take into account anything particular about them. Some things that might be suggested to help them might include:

• workshops
• re-training 
• movement to a different sector
• pairing with a senior partner

How Do You Find A Good Performance Development Plan?

Each industry has certain unique factors. For a performance development plan to work, you need to find one that understands what it is analysing in the first place, and that means meeting with several business developers that are experts in this area. By meeting with a range of options, you also get a better sense of what is out there and what to look for. Once you decide on a performance development plan, it is good to keep in touch with a contact in that company so that you can run any questions through them. Often they will help you set up the initial stages of a performance development plan, and sometimes they run the whole thing; it all depends on what company you find and what they offer.