Do you have a Professional Development plan for your organization? If you do, how detailed is your plan? Are you implementing it? If you don’t have a plan, why haven’t you created one? How are you providing training to your staff? What about for yourself? Do YOU have a professional development plan? Whether you are a small business, church, school or individual, you should have some type of professional development plan.
A professional development plan is a road map that can be used to improve the skills of an organization or individual. For example, a small business may have a professional development plan to ensure that their staff have the necessary skills and resources in order to meet the company goals. Individuals can have a professional development plan in order to improve their work-related skills or to help them achieve their career goals.
In order to create a professional development plan, you need to begin with some type of needs assessment. This can be anything from an informal assessment to a comprehensive survey. Once you have completed your needs assessment, you can then mine that data in order determine what gaps there are in your staff’s skills. Which skills are the most needed? Which are most important to the overall mission of your organization?
Once you have determined these gaps, begin drafting a plan of attack. This plan of attack should include the following at a minimum:
- The type of training
- The frequency of the training
- Who is providing the training
- Cost(s) associated with the training
- Evaluation
You need to have these items to ensure that you are staying on track. Remember that while you may have someone “in-house” who can provide the training, that person may not be the best one for the job. An outside consultant can provide you with a fresh perspective on your unique requirements. Another important part of this is the evaluation. After you have completed the training, you need to go back and assess your staff to ensure their skills are now up to speed.