Page 177 - Retaining Top Employees

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The Role of the Manager, Part 1 165

IGPs, each IGP must be:
• Specific to the employee.
• Relevant to the employee’s particular needs and devel-
opmental requirements.
• Timely.
Design the IGP to fit the employee, not just the organization.
And don’t wait until the
employee expresses dissat-
Finding Templates
isfaction with his or her If your organization does
growth opportunities; at not have a formal IGP
that point it will be less process,set up an informal process
effective—and maybe not with at least your top employees.To
enough to keep that person get started,fire up your favorite
around. It’s not enough just search engine and key in “individual
development plan.” When I did it
to provide opportunities;
(using Google),the top 10 results
you should anticipate that
contained no fewer than seven great
your better employees will templates for such plans.
want and expect them.
Training and Experience
After designing and agreeing on the IGP with the employee,
your next responsibility is to ensure that the employee gets the
training and experiences specified in the IGP.
It’s exceptionally frustrating for employees to go to the trou-
ble of discussing their personal and career goals and what they
want to achieve, only to find that their needs, despite being set
out in an IGP, are simply ignored or are downgraded because of
time or money or other priorities. To be frank, it’s better not to
construct an IGP than to raise the employee’s expectations by
starting down this route and then dash them by neglecting to
follow through.

Convenience
It’s not always the employer’s fault when IGPs fall by the roadside.
It’s not at all unusual for employees to help develop an IGP and
then fail to take some or all of the opportunities offered. There are