Performance & metrics · Updated October 2026
An individual development plan (IDP) is a short written agreement between an employee and their manager on which skills the person will build over the next 6 to 18 months, how, and why it matters to the business. It looks forward at growth, unlike a performance improvement plan, which is remedial.
One page is enough. Anything longer rarely gets reopened.
| Section | What to write |
|---|---|
| Direction | The role or responsibility the person is aiming at, and a realistic window |
| Skills gap | 2 or 3 gaps, taken from the competency framework for the target role and the last appraisal |
| Actions | Specific activities per gap: a stretch assignment, a course, shadowing, a mentor |
| Support | Time, budget and a named sponsor who will clear obstacles |
| Evidence | How both of you will know the gap has closed, with a review date |
Mix the actions rather than defaulting to a course. The often-quoted 70-20-10 split (about 70 percent from challenging work, 20 from other people, 10 from formal courses) came from a mid-1990s survey of senior executives at the Center for Creative Leadership, who reported how they believed they had learned. Treat it as a reminder that most growth happens on the job, not as a formula to hit.
A PIP is triggered by a performance shortfall and carries consequences. Career planning is the wider conversation about where someone could go in the company. The IDP sits between them: it turns that conversation into dated actions. For people flagged as high-potential employees, the IDP is often the working document behind succession planning.
Sample entry: an assistant manager in accounts wants to become manager within 18 months. Gap: team-handling and month-end close ownership. Actions: lead the Q3 close for one entity, take a people-management module on the LMS, and be mentored monthly by the finance controller. Review: end of Q4.
What usually goes wrong: plans written in April and never opened again. Put the IDP on the agenda of the mid-year review and the year-end conversation.
Everyone can have one, kept light. Prioritise new managers, high-potential staff and people moving into a new role, where the gap between current and needed skills is widest.
From the target role’s competencies, appraisal feedback, 360 input and a conversation, and at organisation level from a training needs analysis that rolls up many individual gaps.
No. Plans should split into zero-cost actions (assignments, shadowing, mentoring) and funded ones, with the funded ones checked against the training budget before they are promised.
No, and say so in the document. It commits the company to support growth, not to a particular role or date.
To see how much the funded part of a plan costs per head, use the training cost per employee calculator.