How to Build a Meaningful Employee Development Plan

Formal learning has an important role in employee development. It can build knowledge, introduce new ideas and give people the tools and frameworks to develop with confidence.

The greatest impact comes when that learning is combined with opportunities to put it into practice.

For Academy learners, a good development plan helps connect what you are learning through your programme with real experiences in the workplace, support from others and clear development goals. This can help turn learning into stronger performance, greater confidence and lasting changes in how you lead.

Think 70:20:10

A useful framework for doing this is the 70:20:10 model:

• 70% on-the-job experience
• 20% social learning
• 10% formal learning

The percentages do not need to be followed rigidly. The value of the model is that it encourages you to think about how formal learning can be reinforced through experience, feedback and reflection.

Start with what needs to develop

Before deciding on activities, start with the outcome.

What does the person need to become better at? What would help them in their current role or prepare them for the next step? What difference would that development make?

For example, instead of writing:

“Attend a presentation skills course.”

A stronger development goal might be:

“Build confidence communicating ideas clearly to senior stakeholders.”

That shift is important. It moves the focus from completing an activity to building a capability.

Once the goal is clear, you can then think about how the 70:20:10 model could support it.

70%: Learning through experience

The largest part of development often happens through doing.

On-the-job learning means creating opportunities to practise new skills in real situations. This could include:

• leading a project
• chairing a meeting
• presenting to senior stakeholders
• taking responsibility for a new area
• managing a difficult conversation
• deputising for a manager
• leading a change initiative

These experiences give people the chance to stretch themselves, make decisions and learn from what happens.

Someone developing their leadership skills, for example, may learn about different leadership approaches through a formal programme. Taking responsibility for a cross-functional project then gives them the opportunity to apply that learning in practice.

20%: Learning through other people

Development also happens through the people around us.

This is often described as social learning and includes learning through feedback, observation, discussion and shared experience.

It might involve:

• coaching or mentoring
• feedback from a manager or colleague
• shadowing someone more experienced
• peer learning
• observing different leadership styles
• reflecting on an experience with someone else

This can be particularly powerful when it follows a real workplace experience.

Someone might chair an important meeting, for example, and then discuss it afterwards with their manager. What worked well? What could they have handled differently? What will they try next time?

The meeting provides the experience. The conversation helps turn that experience into learning.

10%: Formal learning

Formal learning provides the knowledge, tools and frameworks that underpin development.

This might include:

• qualifications
• leadership and management programmes
• workshops
• online learning
• webinars
• conferences
• professional reading and research

Formal learning can help people understand new approaches, challenge their thinking and develop techniques they can then apply in the workplace.

For Academy learners, the important step is to think about how learning from your programme can be put into practice.

If you learn a new coaching technique, where could you use it? If you explore different approaches to delegation, what could you try with your own team? If you learn about stakeholder management, which relationship could you approach differently?

That connection between learning and application is where development becomes much more meaningful.

Think about the impact

A development plan should not simply be a list of things someone is going to do.

It should also be clear about the difference that development is expected to make.

Ask:

• What should this person be able to do differently?
• What should their colleagues or team notice?
• How could this improve performance?
• How will we know progress is being made?

If someone is developing their delegation skills, for example, success might mean team members take greater ownership while the manager has more time to focus on higher-level priorities.

If someone is developing their communication skills, the impact might be clearer decisions, stronger stakeholder relationships or greater confidence when presenting ideas.

Thinking about impact helps keep the development plan focused on outcomes rather than activity.

Bring the three elements together

The 70:20:10 model is most useful when the three parts work together.

Take a development goal such as:

Build confidence presenting to senior stakeholders.

A development plan could include:

70% – Experience: Present a project update at a senior management meeting.

20% – Social learning: Observe an experienced presenter and ask your manager for feedback afterwards.

10% – Formal learning: Use relevant learning from a communication or leadership programme to prepare and structure the presentation.

Each element supports the others.

Formal learning gives you ideas and techniques. Experience gives you somewhere to apply them. Feedback and reflection help you improve.

Keep the plan practical

A development plan does not need to be complicated.

For each priority, capture:

Development goal
What skill, behaviour or capability needs to develop?

Experience
What real workplace opportunity could help?

People
Who could provide coaching, feedback, mentoring or support?

Formal learning
What course, programme, qualification or resource could help?

Impact
What difference should the development make?

Review
When will you check progress and decide what comes next?

The plan should also be a working document. Development needs change, new opportunities appear and confidence grows, so regular conversations are important.

Your next step

Choose one development priority for yourself or someone in your team.

Then work through four questions:

1. What experience would help develop it?
2. Who could support, challenge or provide feedback?
3. What formal learning would strengthen it?
4. What would success look like in practice?

The aim is not simply to complete development activity. It is to create a clear connection between learning, experience and impact.

That is what turns a development plan into meaningful development.