Individual Employee Goals


Every employee should have both opportunity and encouragement for professional development. Cultivating employees’ skills or abilities can help them achieve their career and personal goals, improve their competencies, and increase work morale and job satisfaction. It can empower and motivate individuals to produce and grow and to serve the organization while building their careers. Discussing employees’ professional needs and aspirations for growth enables managers to help those em- ployees establish professional goals and identify the learning activities needed to reach them. It can also lead to change in, or addition of, assignments to enable em- ployees to develop different competencies. It is the responsibility of the nutrition leader or manager to recognize employees are the organization’s greatest assets and to help develop them. While there are many ways to derive goals and make plans to achieve them, the


process must begin with identifying where the employee is in relation to their main objective. Many health care institutions have adapted the individual development plan (IDP) process as a guide for identifying and setting goals and pinpointing the steps needed to achieve each goal’s components. An IDP can help employees identify their strengths, interests, and areas needing improvement so they can meet job ex- pectations and identify and reach their career goals. Although there are no formal rules for developing and documenting this and the IDP, the process usually includes five sequential steps: preplanning, employee-supervisor meeting, IDP preparation, IDP implementation, and evaluation.5 The IDP process begins with the employee and is completed in partnership with the


manager. Employees are the main drivers in leading their own professional growth, and managers are key partners to provide coaching and support to assist employees in reaching the employees’ goals. Employees begin the IDP process by drafting their individual plan and completing any required paperwork. In this draft of the plan, em- ployees identify their strengths and areas that need to be improved, their professional goals and aspirations, and the possible steps needed to achieve those goals.6 Meeting with the manager to discuss the drafted plan is the second step in the


process. The employee and manager should work together to make sure the IDP is realistic, attainable, and agreeable to both parties. Managers act on behalf of the institution to ensure the development of skills or realization of goals identified in the IDP is needed by the organization, while the employees act on their own behalf to ensure the attained expertise and objectives will result in greater satisfaction with their work and enhanced potential for career progression. A good time to establish the initial IDP with the employee is during an annual


performance review. It is important to note that the IDP is not an evaluation or appraisal tool but a tool that focuses exclusively on the employee’s growth and de- velopment. The IDP belongs to the employee and should not be a reflection of what the manager or employer is expecting. Its primary purpose is to help employees reach short- and long-term career goals, as well as improve current job performance by obtaining and improving on the skills required for their current position.5 The third step is to prepare the IDP (see Figure 7.2 on page 138). In this step, the


employee and supervisor complete a written plan of goals, outline steps needed to reach those goals, and set completion dates for those steps. The written plan places ownership of career development and professional growth on the employee and


CHAPTER 7: Professional Staff Development 137


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