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Relevance of Employee Development Plans in Employee Performance

Management

Article  in  SSRN Electronic Journal · October 2010

DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.1711647

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 Title :

Relevance of Employee development plans in employee performance

management

Dr. Jessy John

Affiliation:

Maharishi Arvind Institute of science and management

Jaipur, Rajasthan.

Address:

Plot No.75, G-2, Shine Residency, shanti nagar, DCM Extension, Ajmer
road,Jaipur, Rajasthan.

Email: jessyjohn03@gmail.com

Ph: 09983665288.

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1711647

Relevance of Employee development plans in employee performance
management

Executive summary

Employee development plan is the modern tool adopted to improve the

efficiency of the employees and also to gain insight about the areas in which
they can make the most of their potentials. It specifies the courses of action to
be under taken to improve the performance of the employees. Employee
development plan has got high relevance in the present organizational set up
as there has been a paradigm shift in the focus of performance appraisal
system across the world. Focus has been shifted from simple rewards,
incentives and punishment to the need of defining, planning and managing
performance of the employees. Today organizations’ are focused on managing
the performance of the employees. It has been observed that in many
organizations’ the employees were not given neither suitable task or
environment or responsibility to realize their potential to the maximum. This
has resulted in job dissatisfaction and high rate of job hopping.

The paper articulates about the theoretical perspective about the

relevance of employee development plan and its role in achieving the
developmental goals of the organization as well as the employees.

Key words: performance management, employee development plan

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1711647

Introduction

In today’s competitive business scenario only those organizations will

be able to survive, who maintain a check on quality management of both the
organization and its employees. Corporate Leadership Council has identified
that individual development plan is one of the most influential leadership
development strategies (Stringer and Cheloha, 2003). Organizations with the
vision of persistently improving its employees need to continually educate and
train them. The employees should be encouraged to utilize their potentials to
the utmost. From this perspective it can be deliberated that a responsive
knowledgeable workforce who is able to adapt to the need for change is
essential to improve the work processes and performance. Developing an
employee engrosses improving his or her skills in their current job as well as
developing them for future responsibilities. Scores of companies are now
holding managers accountable for the development of their employees and has
made employee growth a component of the manager’s performance appraisal.
Performance management is the integrated management process that
inculcated this need of continually training and developing the employees for
improving employee effectiveness.

Definition: performance management

Performance management is the planned and integrated approach used

to escalate the effectiveness of organizations by improving employee
performance through potential building of teams and individual contributions.
Performance management involves all the initiatives whereby managers strive
to guide and motivate high performance by employees. Such initiatives have
traditionally focused on providing formal performance appraisals, rewards and
recognition for high performance, as well as taking remedial action to address
performance deficiencies.

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 According to Aguinis (2007) performance management is a continuous
process of identifying, measuring and developing the performance of
individuals and teams and aligning performance with the strategic goals of the
organization. So it can be deliberated as a system of evaluating performance
of employees so as to enable them to reach reasonable goals thereby to ensure
better performance of the company. Glendinning (2002) enumerates that
performance management measures the employees training needs, standards-
setting, appraisal and feedback, relative to how his or her performance should
be and how it is helping the organization in achieving its goals.
Aguinis (2007) has elaborated that performance management system
that do not explicit the employee contribution to the organizational goals are
not true performance management systems.
So there is a need to establish clear linkage between an employee’s
performance and organization’s goal achievement.
Providing response to the employees about their present state of
performance level is an important component of a well implemented
performance management system. Feedbacks about the present performance
level can be used as a mode to coach the employees to improve their
performance on an enduring basis. This feedback allows for the identification
of strengths and weakness as well as the causes for performance paucity
(London and Smither, 2002). So it can be deliberated that performance
management is not just a means of meeting with a subordinate once a year to
review performance; it is more about daily or weekly interactions to ensure
continuous improvement in the employee’s capacity and performance
(Wingrove, 2003).
Performance management can also facilitate adaptability and
continually improving performance in rapidly changing contemporary
workplaces (Heslin et al, 2008). To do so, however, traditional periodic
performance appraisal initiatives need to be supplemented by ongoing
performance coaching (London, 2003).

4
 Efficiency improvement is the main agenda behind employee
performance management as it related to improving the ratio between the
inputs consumed and the outputs achieved by the employees.

Employee performance management

Employee performance management generally consist of work
planning, goal setting, offering feedback and reviews, offering opportunities to
learn more in one’s field and rewarding those employees who perform well. If
performance management is effectively performed it can maximize the
efficiency of the employees.
The first step for maximizing employee efficiency is to set up realistic
goals for each and every employee. But these goals should be customized
depending upon the knowledge, skills and abilities of each employee.
Participative involvement of the individual employees should be
ensured while framing their goals with the intention of making it realistic and
achievable. Employee participation will make certain their loyalty towards the
organization and its goals. They should be encouraged to set aside his/her
personal goals and to reframe it with the organization goals. According to
Stringer and Cheloha ( 2003) good development plan should be framed to fit
with the needs of the individual’s being developed and is ought to be
developed in accordance with the development philosophy of the organization.
Secondly the organization should maintain open communication
between supervisor and employees; this will facilitate the supervisor to keep a
track on the performance of employees regularly.
Finally it is necessary to measure actual performance relative to the
expected performance. Each and every employee is expected to perform
according to a set standard by the organization.
Performance interview, archiving performance data and use of
appraisal data are the few activities carried out by the organization as a part of

5
employee performance management. The data derived from these activities
will give an insight about the current performance level of the employees.
Gantt chart is a tool that is commonly used for measuring the
effectiveness with which the organization achieves its goals. The same tool
can be used for evaluating each and every employee a propos to their
potentials and Key Result Areas as the criteria’s for evaluation. The
discrepancy that is found between actual and desired performance will give an
insight with respect to the courses of action to be embarked on to improve
employee performance.
When the aim is to develop individual employees, prominence should
be given to frame individualized employee developmental plan. Motivated
employees are always looking for better ways to do a job (Aswathappa, 2008).

Employee developmental plans.

Today employee development plan is considered as a significant
component of performance management system.

Existence of a concrete employee-development plan is a key factor that

distinguishes between a triumphant company and one that struggle. Growth of
a company is directly associated with its commitment toward fostering
employee development. Companies need to actively persuade the employees
to take up exigent job that will not only expand their knowledge base but also
will enable them to understand and develop the hidden skills within. It also
aims to do away with the weakness of the employees by tapping the firm’s
training and development offerings by integrating it with employee’s career
interests, progress and the organizations succession planning process (Dessler
and Varkkey, 2009). According to Gellerman (1968) competence grows when
it is systematically nourished, pruned of its errors, and transplanted, as it
grows longer, to new ground.

6
 Employee development plan should be framed after due consultation with
the concerned employees. Manager’s before jumping into a conclusion
regarding the areas that need employee development should try to understand
the employees with respect to their perception about job satisfaction, goals,
steps undertaken to control the present situation and so on. Information also
needs to be discovered with respect to the greatest strength of the employees,
areas that needed improvement, internal and external obstacles, constraints
with respect to the environment and the resources available. The outcomes of
these self appraisals will enable the employee to identify lacunae that exist in
them and areas that need improvement and where development can occur.
Illustrated below are few self appraising questions

ü How well do you perform your job?

ü What are the skills that are considered necessary for your job? Do you
have all the necessary skills?
ü Is there any gap between your expected level of performance and
actual performance?
ü What attribute of your job do you like least/best?
ü Did you achieve anything significant since your last your performance
appraisal?
ü Is there any change that you would like to see in your current job?
ü How can your supervisor and/or the organization assist you to do a
better job?
ü Your professional goals for the next year?
ü Where do you see yourself in five years?
ü What you want to do to prepare yourself to move ahead in career
ü What activities would help you to develop yourself?

These self appraisal questions will act as an eye opener for the employees
about their own skills sets and the areas that need improvement. These
employee needs when clubbed with the developmental and technological up

7
gradation that the organization will be undertaking in the next year will define
the actual developmental need of the organization. The supervisor along with
employees will then frame a developmental plan with a deadline for each and
every activity.

Employee development plans that are framed with employee

participation when introduced along with appraisal system is going to be
highly effective as it is human nature to work effectively under pressure and
when motivated by rewards. These rewards can be intrinsic or extrinsic. Each
development plan comes with an expected outcome and a time frame. These
two aspects along with its critical value during appraisal will keep the
employees on toes. It has been found that under pressure individuals perform
very effectively and they acquire those skills which seem to be unachievable
when unchallenged. If developmental plans are kept aloof from appraisal
system then the employees will be contented with the achievement of daily
results and will never try to stretch themselves further. Developmental plans
when clubbed with reward system will motivate employees to develop new
skills and for the same they will explore new arenas of knowledge. So
employee development plan that too a bit challenging ones is very effective in
bringing out the best in a individual.

Research evidences show that “stretch goals” leads to better

performance than “do your best or easy goals”. Stretch goals motivate
employees to use the knowledge they have to reach the goal or to search for
new knowledge that they may need (Latham , 2004). Underlining objective of
stretch goals is to coerce the employees to identify and utilize the hidden and
unrealized potentials of the employees so that the organization will be able to
scale higher heights.

8
Objectives of developmental plans

The general objective of employee developmental plan is to encourage

continuous learning, performance improvement and personal growth.

Specific objectives are to: improve the current performance level,

sustaining the performance standards, preparing the employees to acquire new
career competencies and to enrich the employees work experience (Aguinis,
2007).it is a tool that can motivate and force the employees to adopt stretch
goals.

Uses of Employee Development Plans.

According to Aguinis (2007) main uses of developmental plans are to

promote continuous learning, improve and sustain performance and enrich the
employees work experience hence their personal growth. According to Greene
and Knudsen (2001) in employee development approach, employers provide
the tools, environment and skill development prospective for the employees so
that they are better equipped to serve the company to the maximum potential
as possible.

The performance benefits of challenging, specific goals are that it

positively affect the performance of individuals (Baum & Locke, 2004),
groups (O’LearyKelly, Martocchio, &Frink, 1994), organizational units
(Rogers & Hunter, 1991), as well as the entire organizations (Baum, Locke, &
Smith, 2001).

A good developmental plan will encourage the employees to explore

new growth opportunities which itself will act as an intrinsic reward
contributing for employee satisfaction, increased commitment and retention.

Setting challenging goals through Employee Development Plan

Research evidences shows that prudent use of goal setting is an
important tool for effectively training the employees (Heslin et al, 2008).The
major truism of goal setting theory is that specific and difficult goals will lead

9
to higher performance than when people strive to simply “do their best”
(Locke, 1966, Locke & Latham, 1990). The challenging and specific goals
have been found to influence the performance of employees and this has been
proved by hundreds of laboratory and field studies (Locke & Latham, 1990,
2002).
Setting challenging goals are not enough there should be some criteria
not the basis of which the achievement will be evaluated. These evaluation
criteria should be communicated to the employees also. According to Locke &
Latham (2002) by providing direction and a standard against which progress
can be monitored, challenging goals can enable people to guide and refine
their performance. It is proved without doubt that difficult goals can improve
the motivation and performance of employees by leading them to focus their
concentration on specific objectives (Locke & Bryant, 1969), increase their
effort to achieve these objectives (Bandura & Cervone, 1983) and for
developing new strategies to deal with complex challenges for goal attainment
(Wood & Locke, 1990).
When explored about the motivators of challenging goals it was found
that it often lead to valuable rewards such as recognition, promotions, and/or
increases in income from one’s work (Latham & Locke, 2006). Even though
lofty goals sets a higher bench mark to obtain self satisfaction, after attaining
these goals it was found to create a heightened sense of efficacy (personal
effectiveness), self satisfaction, positive affect, and sense of wellbeing
especially when the goals conquered were considered challenging (Wiese &
Freund, 2005). self satisfaction which the employees accrued after achieving
goals were found to increase organizational commitment (Tziner & Latham,
1989), which in turn positively affected organizational citizenship behavior
(Organ et al, 2006). Self satisfaction was found to have a negative relationship
with employee turnover (Wagner, 2007). A positive and linear relationship
was found between difficult goals and performance (Locke & Latham, 1990,
2002).

10
 Personal development plan has increased the job performance of the
employees. It has become easier to promote the employees. As soon as they
are "signed off" on their own development plan they are then able to use their
training hours to work through the next one. This gives them a greater insight
and the manager will have the opportunity to see whether they are ready for
the next role (Higson and Wilson1995)

These findings prove that a well framed employee development plan

with challenging goals will improve the overall productivity and performance
and efficiency of the organization and individuals.

Framing employee development Plans

Aguinis (2007) has enumerated the major questions that need to be addressed
before framing a development plan.

1. Identify the developmental objective to be reached. These objectives

need to be personalized for each employee depending upon his/ her
weakness or the development needs and the challenges they are
supposed to undertake in the future for auxiliary growth in profession.
2. What are the new skills and knowledge to be acquired?
3. How the skill development is going to happen.
4. Information regarding the resources that need to be explored and the
strategies that needs to be adopted.
5. Specific deadline for achieving the skill development objective
6. Criteria for evaluating the skill acquirement
On the basis of the insights gained the manger can start to frame the
development plan.

11
Employee development plan process

Given below is a typical employee development plan process (Kennedy,

1999).

Leaser assesses: current and future

Employee assesses his/her
Values, Strengths,
•
Proficiencies, Areas of interest,
Areas of potential growth, fit with
FM focus/ future needs
departmental/ divisional needs, goals
and skills etc. required to meet the
developmental needs. Areas of
potential growth for employees.
Development of staff and leadership
qualities. Workload issues.

Employee attends EDP Employee and leader

planning workshop discuss and determine

Employee career goals1-5 years- what skills / experiences are needed to •meet
departmental needs, •enhance employee’s ability to meet current needs•enable
employee to meet future needs•develop staff and leadership qualities and •develop
knowledge worker skills

Actions: employee, leaders and division head will have to achieve

identified goals •perform individual research •make reference materials
available•attend class •assign new responsibilities •provide mentor or
coach•establish information exchanges •support/ obtain professional

Employee’s educational development

plan

Employee requests funding and release time. Corporate release time and
or funding request form get leaders signature and forward to EIT member

EIT member Release time a/or funding request form and send to office of
strategy Mgmt for trafficking

Employee/ leader take action and apply learning: discuss with others

Employee and leader: discuss developmental plan and revise very other
year with updated information

12
The figure above explains the whole process involved in framing an employee
development plan.

Elements of Employee development form

A format (employee development form) is used for collecting data from

the employees as well as their immediate supervisors. The major contents of
the format are:

1. Employees major strengths

2. Areas for improvement/ development
3. Major challenges for next year / KRAs.
4. Development plans: areas for development
5. Development strategy
6. Employees comments on this review
7. Reviewers comments
8. Growth potential in present position and future growth potential for
increased responsibilities
9. Employers signature
10. Reviewers signature
(Dessler and Varkkey, 2009)

Employee Development form

Employee Name: Designation:

Department:

Type of Evaluation: yearly/ half yearly/ quarterly/monthly___________

Date of evaluation

13
Job profile: Education qualification:
Trainings undergone;

Job record:

A. Performance Goals:

List the employee's most important key performance indicator/ goals for the
evaluation period.

Key Goal Tools needed for goal Completion

performance achievement date
indicator

Measuring the extent of goals achievement by:

Employee himself

Immediate supervisor

Line manager

Gaps found

Major challenges faced in achieving goals

Additional Training or skill development needed:

Discussion and Measurement:

14
 B. Personal and Professional Developmental Goals:

personal and Competencies Strategy Resources Criteria for Completion

professional goals and skills to be for needed measuring date
obtained achieving goal
the goal achievement

Short range goals

( needed for the
current position)
for the next one
year

Middle range
goals (needed
both for the
present position
as well as for
future growth) for
next 2 years

Long range goals

for next 3 years.

Additional Training Needed:

Steps to be taken by the supervisor/ employee to assist employee to enhance

job performance and in professional development:
Employees Suggestions for Supervisor or Departmental Development:
Employee’s Signature:
Date:

Supervisor’s Signature:
Date:

Employee Developmental activities

Any employee development programme that will be initiated in the

organization should match with the needs identified through the analysis of

15
employee development form and development plan. Before introducing a new
employee development programme it is the responsibility of the HR manager
to win employee confidence and readiness with respect its utility.

Employees should be given challenging tasks and responsibility with

authority. For instance they will be provided with the opportunity to represent
the department or will be delegated with special projects depending on the
competency and expertise of the employees.

Aguinis (2007) has formulated several ways through which employees can
reach the objectives framed in the developmental plans.

1. On the job training : the targeted employees will learn from his/ her
coworker or supervisor
2. Courses: encourage the employees to undertake new courses relevant
for their professional growth for which they will be provided with
tuition reimbursement.
3. Self guided reading: it should be guided by the objective that needs to
be achieved and to be accomplished within the time frame and learning
outcomes.
4. Mentoring: developmental process under mentor
5. Attending conference
6. Getting a degree:
7. Job rotation
8. Challenging temporary assignments
9. Membership in professional trade organizations.

Factors that enable successful implementation of development

programmes

Higson and Wilson (1995) have put forth a series of factors that can
determine the success of any employee development programme.

16
Ø Every employee including the manager should have a development plan.
Ø Employees with less experience are entitled to undergo regular training
programmes.
Ø The manager will support with the assessment process of each individual
employee
Ø Manager should be committed in developing his staff and facilitate them in
realizing their career goals
Ø Development plan and programmes need to be frequently monitored and
evaluated by the manager.
Ø Manager need to seek the expertise of an external in order to ensure the
credibility of the programme.
Ø Development plan should be integrated with the appraisal system.
Learning should be appraised formally each year and at regular intervals.
The outcome of the review will guide the content of the next years training
programme.
Ø Manager’s appraisal should be linked with the development process of the
subordinate staff.

All the above mentioned factors give stress upon the highly significant role
that need to be performed by the managers.

Today all the organizations are adopting itself to the new challenges and
change management system. From this development perspective managers are
asked to shift their focus from the role of simple performance appraiser to
career developer of his subordinate. Employee development programmes
framed on the basis of development plan has become the way of life of today’s
learning organizations. Development programmes have not only enhanced
supervisor- subordinate relationship but has played a very significant role in
increasing employee motivation, job satisfaction and morale. Performance of
the employees will be measured on the basis of the development and
refinement happened to the employees with respect to the skills and overall

17
performance in the present job profile and ho they are preparing themselves
for future assignments. The manager’s will be evaluated on the basis of their
role in employee development. So development of employees should be one of
the new mantra for organization development.

Conclusion.

Well framed employee development plan will not only enable the
individual employee to manage his/ her career but will also lead the
organization to the future. When employees discover their own potentials and
lacunae’s along with their immediate supervisor it will be a real eye opener to
the employees. This will in turn increase employee’s commitment and
ownership towards the development programmes – platform through which
they will be able to polish their skills. When potentials of the existing
employees are utilized fully it will not only improve organization commitment
and job satisfaction but will also reduce employee attrition rate, hence helping
the organization in saving the cost involved in training and developing new
employees. So employee development plan should be made a part and parcel
of employee performance management. It will guide and equip the
organization and employees for discovering and facing present lacunae’s and
future challenges.

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