Career Development planning

A guide for People Leaders

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This guide is designed to help leaders hold Career Development discussions with their employees. As this guide
focuses solely on development, keep in mind that we have framed these discussions to take place in tandem with
the Performance Appraisal evaluation. This guide, however, will help to frame the discussions for the purposes of
development. It will provide advice on:
• Supporting the development planning process
• Structuring a development conversation
• Planning & preparation
• Understanding career vs. development – including where to focus for different team members
• Roles and responsibilities
• Development options
• FAQs

Step 1: Build Self-Awareness

Partner with your employee to identify and assess the skills that are important in their current role and
for the purposes of future development (e.g. review job description, UL’s CBS Framework, discuss with
colleague’s, industry experts etc.)
During the skill assessment, support your employee by soliciting and providing feedback from yourself as
their manager and colleagues.
Based on the feedback received your employee is to complete a personal SOAR analysis (refer to
appendix). This will also assist in the career development discussion that will take place.

Step 2: Identify Possibilities

Support your employee in determining and identifying opportunities. What are his/her short term needs?
What are your employees short-term needs (this year, in order to meet your objectives) versus my longer-
term needs (related to your career goals)? How do your employees development needs align to these
goals? What priorities emerge?
What development areas will does your employee enjoy working on? It’s obvious, but chances are you’ll
stick with them if they’re personally as well as professionally compelling.
Are there any constraints that might get in the way of working towards a particular development goal? Be
realistic about what you can fit into your work/home life, and about what can be accommodated and/or
supported.

Determine whether your employee should, grow in their current role or expand their role by suggesting the
following:

Grow in current role Broaden current role Change roles

- Talk with your employee
about searching for
opportunities to learn new
skills
- Encourage them to
volunteering for projects
that will give them more
exposure and visibility in
their role
- Find a subject matter
expert in their field or seek
support from a mentor to
provide guidance on ways
to grow in current role
- Talk with your employee
about taking on
additional/more
challenging responsibilities
- Consider shifting some
existing responsibilities to
more junior colleagues to
free up time for your
employee to carry out
more challenging tasks
- They can become a
mentor to more junior
colleagues
- They can become a
member of a professional
society/organization
- Have a discussion with
your employee about
career options
- Allow them to explore
different functions or
lines of business to
determine if they are
interested in making a
lateral move into
another area of UL

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Step 3: Career and Development Plan Build & Regularly Review

Schedule a career development discussion with your employee, this can occur during 1:1 or formal
meeting dedicated to this topic
Prepare and prepare some more, use the information in the following section to prepare for the
conversation with your employees.
Your employee should drive the discussion; they should share their goals and information on their skills
assessment
Use the Career Development template to build out specific plan regarding your development. Build and
regularly review your plan

The next section will focus on preparing for the career development discussion.

How to structure a development conversation

UL’s career development template is a great planning tool which has key areas for discussion.
• Clarify why you’re meeting
Clarify meeting purpose • Agree accountability – employee owns their development, leaders
provide support

• Understand where they’re at – feelings about current role,

interests, values, drivers etc.
Establish career aspirations
• Ask about career direction – ultimate goal and timing. E.g. How well
do they understand the role they’re interested in and what it will
take to get there?
• If career isn’t a driver – focus on development in current role

• Ask about the things they do well (both technically and

Understand strengths behaviourally)
• Provide input based on their performance, your observations and
feedback from others (where relevant)

• Ask about gaps in knowledge or skills needed to excel in their

Focus on development needs current role & provide input (as above)
• Ask where they need to develop to prepare for their next role

• Discuss priorities for development – what areas do they need to

Set development goals focus on first?
• Help them select 2-3 goals

• Ask what actions they’d need to take to achieve their goals

Explore development options • Consider on-the-job activities, feedback opportunities as well as
more formal learning options.
• What will look different as a result? (Success measures)
• What support do they need from you?

• Agree when the development plan will be drafted by

Agree next steps
• Arrange a follow-up meeting to review and finalise
• Discuss opportunities to check progress against the final plan

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Planning and preparation
Set-up
• Book a meeting with your team member.
• Ask that they prepare for the meeting by:
o Updating their progress against performance goals you’ve established in the PM Tool
o Drafting their development plan

Preparation
Prior to the conversation:
• Reflect on what you know about the person or seek some background information if you don’t know them
well
• Reflect on recent performance in relation to their technical and behavioral skills
• Consider growth prospect – including willingness to learn, agility and ability to see the big picture, ability
to understand other perspectives as well as personal maturity etc.

Ask yourself:
o What are their technical strengths?
o What are their behavioral strengths?
o What aspect of their technical skills needs to improve?
o What aspect of their behavioral skills needs to improve?
o How will they respond to this feedback? Are they willing to change?
o What are their aspirations? Are they realistic?
o What do I know are their immediate development needs?
o What development opportunities can I provide?
o What do I see as the employee’s next role? (In our business unit or other business unit?)
o What do I see as this person’s ultimate potential?
o What do I think they need to do to get there?

Development vs. Career

Development and career growth are part of the same continuum.

Development focuses on how an individual can grow in their current role to either:
• improve current performance either technically or behaviourally;
• develop to be able to take on additional responsibilities; or
• position themselves for future opportunities.

Career development focuses on knowledge and skills Important points to note:

needed to progress to a different role in the future.

While the focus may differ, the planning process is the
same.
Where to focus
For those with 4-5 performance rating: For high
performers the development conversation is about what
they can do to further improve and can their strengths be
leveraged across the team to help others grow. Think of
4 have worked towards their next role.
• Everyone should have a conversation. Even those
content in their current role still need to focus on
how they continue to grow in that role – improve
performance, maintain skills and share knowledge
with others. All of which are essential to the growth
of our business.
• There are no guarantees for promotion. Colleagues
who are promoted are usually good performers
both technically and behaviourally and they usually
elite sports people – they are never satisfied with their current performance level, they are always looking at
improving their personal best.

For those with 3 performance rating: For colleagues who meet expectations the conversation is about how they
can improve in their current role while acknowledging areas of strength.

For those with 1-2 performance rating: For colleagues performing below expectations the conversations are
focused on performance improvement whether or not they are in the right role.

NOTE: We are not communicating where they are in the 9 box grid but rather how they can develop based on
where they are.

Roles & Responsibilities

Colleagues
Colleagues need to be prepared for a development conversation.
• Before the discussion each person should submit their draft development plan to their leader.
• They need to be clear about their aspirations and their current performance level.
Leaders
Leaders play a key role in facilitating development conversations, providing advice, coaching and opportunities for
growth.
As a people leader, you’re responsible for supporting your team members in creating their development plans.
This means:
• Having a conversation to understand needs and aspirations
• Providing feedback on their draft development plan
• Discussing progress against the development plan once finalised

Development options
Some of the most valuable learning takes place on-the-job, through ongoing coaching and feedback. But to be
effective, work assignments must be relevant, have a clear purpose and include supportive feedback.

We recommend using the 70-20-10 principle to encourage a balanced approach to development planning.

70% 20% 10 %
Experience Feedback Education
Learning Through Doing Learning through Others Learning through Study

70% of development focus 20% of development focus 10% of development focus

 Buddying with a colleague in your
business area
 Participating in projects and teams
outside one's own department or
functional area
 Internal or external networking
 On-the-job project work
 Delegated duties or taking on more
duties
 Debriefing a work experience
 Brainstorming
 Observation or shadowing
 Job rotation
 Special/Stretch assignments
 Action Learning
 Participating on a Lean project, Lean
Sigma - Obtain a Green Belt or Black Belt
 Job Shadowing
 Mentoring/Coaching opportunities
as a mentor/coach or
mentee/coachee
 Peer networking & review
 Feedback, requesting feedback from
key stakeholders (e.g. 360)
 Presenting ideas to others
 Professional organizations
 Volunteer opportunities
 Knowledge transfer (training others
in your area of expertise)
 Internal ULU instructor led
workshop
 Lunch & Learn
 E-learning
 External workshop or seminar
 Professional membership/
subscription and conference
attendance
 Speaking at industry-related
conferences
 Professional qualification
 Self-study – e.g. DVDs, reading,
research, books, magazines

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 When it comes to on-the-job development, think about:
o What tasks or projects do I have at my disposal? (Current or upcoming)
o What technical and behavioral skills are needed to complete these tasks and projects?
o Who can I give a particular task/project to, as a development opportunity?
o How will I communicate this? (Spell out how the task will help them develop their skills

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APPENDIX
SOAR ANALYSIS
Strengths
What are your greatest assets,
key strengths, in what ways
do/can you add value
Aspirations
Who do we want to be and
what is our preferred future
Opportunities
What are the best possible
opportunities, in what areas
might you improve even
further, which would make
you even more effective
Results
What are the measurable
results we want to achieve