Career development planning benefits the individual employee as well as the organization by aligning employee training and development efforts with the organization's mission, goals, and objectives. An individual development plan (IDP) is a tool to assist employees in achieving their personal and professional development goals. IDPs help employees and supervisors set expectations for specific learning objectives and competencies. While an IDP is not a performance evaluation tool or a one-time activity, IDPs allow supervisors to clarify performance expectations. IDPs should be viewed as a partnership between an employee and their supervisor, and involves preparation and continuous feedback. Many agencies require IDPs for new and current employees, and encourage employees to update them annually.

When using an IDP, supervisors develop a better understanding of their employees' professional goals, strengths, and development needs. Employees take personal responsibility and accountability for their career development, acquiring or enhancing the skills they need to stay current in their roles. Some of the benefits of an IDP are:

• Provide an administrative mechanism for identifying and tracking development needs and plans
• Assist in planning for the agency's training and development requirements
• Align employee training and development efforts with its mission, goals, and objectives

There are no regulatory requirements mandating employees complete IDPs within the Federal Government, although many employee and leadership development programs require IDPs (e.g. PMF Program). Completing IDPs is considered good management practice, and many agencies have developed their own IDP planning process and forms. While there is no one "correct" form for recording an employee's development plan, an effective plan should include, at minimum, the following key elements:

• Employee profile - name, position title, office, grade/pay band
• Career goals - short-term and long-term goals with estimated and actual competion dates
• Development objectives - linked to work unit mission/goals/objectives and employee's development needs and objectives
• Training and development opportunities - activities in which the employee will pursue with estimated and actual completion dates. These activities may include formal classroom training, web-based training, rotational assignments, shadowing assignments, on-the-job training, self-study programs, and professional conferences/seminars
• Signatures - supervisor and employee signature and date

For more information on IDPs and to view IDP templates, please visit the OPM Training and Development Wiki.

Executive Development Plans

While there are no regulatory requirements for IDPs, Senior Executive Service (SES) members are required to have a plan for their continued training and development. Under 5 CFR 412.401, all Senior Executives must complete and regularly update an Executive Development Plan (EDP).

Facing constant challenges, changing technologies, and a dynamic environment, executives must pursue ongoing professional executive development to succeed and grow. It is crucial that executives continue to strengthen and enhance their Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs), broaden their perspectives, and strengthen their performance.

Federal agencies are required by law (Title 5, U.S. Code, Section 3396) to establish programs for the continuing development of senior executives.

SES members are required to prepare, implement, and regularly update an EDP as specified by 5 CFR 412.401. The Executive Development Plan (EDP) is a key tool in assisting executives in their continued development. EDPs should outline a senior executive's short-term and long-term developmental activities which will enhance the executive's performance. These activities should meet organizational needs for leadership, managerial improvement, and results.

EDPs should be reviewed annually and revised as appropriate by an Executive Resources Board or similar body designated by the agency to oversee executive development. OPM has developed a sample EDP template for agencies to reference when developing their own EDP form. You can find the sample template and other information on EDPs on the Training and Development Wiki.

If you have any questions regarding training policy or executive development, you can contact the Training and Executive Development Group by sending an email to HRDLeadership@opm.gov.

An Individual Learning Account (ILA) is a base amount of resources expressed in terms of dollars and/or hours that is set aside for an individual employee to use for his or her learning and development. Accounts may be used to develop knowledge, skills, and abilities that directly relate to the employee's official duties. An ILA provides a flexible and innovative approach to encouraging agency employees to take control of their own learning and career development. ILAs were piloted in the Federal Government from March 2000 through September 2000.

ILA's can also be used to supplement existing tuition reimbursement programs. Appropriation law requires monies appropriated for a given fiscal year be expended in that fiscal year (31 USC Sec. 1502). Executive Order No. 13111 states: "To the extent permitted by law, ILA accounts may be established with the funds allocated to the agency for employee training. No new funds are required to implement ILA's. The best way to determine if your agency has an ILA program is to inquire at your agency's Human Resources Office.

You can find more information on ILAs on the OPM Training and Development Wiki.

Mentoring and coaching are both valuable tools to aid personal and professional development. While there are similar aspects to each method, they are fundamentally different in a variety of ways. Mentoring is a process that focuses specifically on providing guidance, direction, and career advice. Coaching's primary emphasis is on maximizing people's potential by working on their perceptions, self-confidence and creative drive.

Mentoring and Coaching efforts can operate as stand-alone programs or they can be integrated into an organization's training and development program. Many organizations, Federal agencies included, run formal mentoring and coaching programs to enhance career and interpersonal development.

Mentoring is usually a formal or informal relationship between two people-a senior mentor (usually outside the protégé's chain of supervision) and a junior protégé. Mentoring has been identified as an important influence in professional development in both the public and private sector. The war for talent is creating challenges within organization not only to recruit new talent, but to retain talent. Benefits of mentoring include increased employee performance, retention, commitment to the organization, and knowledge sharing.

Within the Federal Government, mentoring is often a component in developmental programs like the Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program (SESCDP), Presidential Management Fellow (PMF) Program, or the USDA Graduate School Executive Leadership Program (ELP). Agencies implement formal mentoring programs for different purposes. Some of these purposes include:

• To help new employees settle into the agency
• To create a knowledge sharing environment
• To develop mission critical skills
• To help accelerate one's career
• To improve retention

Informal mentoring is another option for employees to enter into a mentor/protégé relationship. An informal mentoring partnership has less structure and can occur at any time in one's career. The relationship is usually initiated by the mentor or protégé.

Please refer to the Best Practices: Mentoring publication for detailed information on mentoring.

For more information visit the OPM Training and Development Wiki.

Coaching and mentoring are both valuable tools to aid personal and professional development. While there are similar aspects to each method, they are fundamentally different in a variety of ways. Mentoring is a process that focuses specifically on providing guidance, direction, and career advice. Coaching's primary emphasis is on maximizing people's potential by working on their perceptions, self-confidence and creative drive.

Coaching and mentoring efforts can operate as stand-alone programs or they can be integrated into an organization's training and development program. Many organizations, Federal agencies included, run formal mentoring and coaching programs to enhance career and interpersonal development.

While mentoring tends to have relatively broad scope and focus, coaching is generally structured in a way that the coach-coachee relationship ends when a particular performance goal is achieved. Coaching is designed to provide employees with the support they need to become better performers, and so it is common practice to preface coaching with some form of performance assessment or evaluation.

Like mentoring, coaching programs can be formal or informal. Whether an organization chooses a formal or informal approach to coaching depends on which option is a better fit for the company's mission and goals.

Formal coaching is used explicitly and takes place during scheduled appointment times. Both parties are committed to the process, and an end goal is set. The clear parameters of formal coaching demand that both coach and coachee spend most sessions in coaching mode – i.e. with the coachee doing most of the talking, and the business coach primarily engaged in listening, asking questions and giving feedback.

Informal Coaching, on the other hand, may occur in everyday workplace conversations. Informal coaching does not have an overall beginning or end, but is an ongoing process in which the coaching conversation becomes open-ended. Supervisors may adapt informal coaching as a management style when providing feedback to employees.

For more information on mentoring and coaching, please visit the OPM Training and Development Wiki.