Within any organisation, development is an on-going process – and one that is often difficult to keep on the agenda. Difficult for the employee: Which development aspects should I focus on? How should I approach this? What’s my current situation? Difficult for the manager: How can I help my team members to take the necessary steps? Which concrete aspects are they presently focusing on in their development? And complex for the HR officer: What are the precise needs of the organisation? Which education programmes and trainings need to be set up to achieve these targets? How can I encourage and advise management to keep development firmly on the organisation’s agenda? And – perhaps even more complex - How can I maintain overview? The Development Compass allows you to assign the various responsibilities for employees’ personal development to the appropriate parties: the team members initiate and formulate objectives; the managers guide the process and HR coordinates and supports the various activities that are unfurled.

Importance of development within an organisation

If you do not continue developing, you start to stagnate. While personal development is the responsibility of the individual employee, it is also of crucial importance for the organisation as a whole. The Development Compass assigns joint responsibility to the various parties involved. The employee initiates his or her development and sets tangible goals; the manager assesses, acts as a sparring partner and coaches; HR coordinates and supports the development process with the aid of programmes, tools and expertise.

The Development Compass allows the employee to directly incorporate the input and results of his or her online competence assessments in his or her personal development plan. The Development Compass provides insight into which competencies are in most need of development and where the best quick wins can be found. This helps the employee to clearly formulate which aspects he or she will be developing exactly, why this is required, which benefits can be expected, his or her plan of action and when this will take place.

The Development Compass consists of six distinct stages:

• Choose a maximum of 3 competencies that are to be developed.
• Choose a maximum of 6 behavioural criteria that are to be developed.
• Indicate for each criterion which learning objectives you have decided on and which resources you will be using to achieve them.
• Describe the chosen resources in concrete terms.
• Keep a record of tensions in your development process in your personal Action Journal.
• Share the contents of this Action Journal with others.

At each stage of the process, the employee is offered practical pointers that connect closely to his or her specific learning objectives. The employee can immediately put these tips to practice within his or her personal development process.

Download and share

Employees can also share their Development Compass with third parties – their manager, for example, or a coach or HR officer. This way, everyone can keep up to date on what is going on within the organisation. It is also possible to download the Development Compass in the form of a report: easy to take with you to a consultation or performance review, for example.

If you would like to learn more about the Development Compass and its various possibilities, feel free to contact HFMtalentindex via tel.: +31 85 401 50 50

or e-mail: info@hfmtalentindex.com

Are you interested in gaining even greater insight and overview regarding the development of employees as a group? In that case, read on about the Team Development.