(note: Whenever I speak to groups I provide cards to them in case they have a question I cannot answer during our conversation(fyi: I call all my presentations ‘conversations’). My commitment is that I will blog answers in 2 weeks. This question was submitted to me after my Talent Scorecard presentation at the 2011 Wisconsin SHRM Conference in Madison. I do not edit questions – because my commitment is to answer what is asked.)
Question: Do you recommend revisiting development plans with performance or not?
Remember that the goal of this is to build a rhythm(see truPerfor around tasks that do not need to be thought about every day, but are important to revisit. You will know you have created a rhythm when you begin to get feedback from people that they were refreshing plans at eval time, not recreating them. Remember that the individual owns the plan, so it should be revisited quarterly to see how things are progressing and make changes as needed. The benefit about using evaluation time to make major changes is many evaluations are timed to happen around
the time leadership teams are putting plans in place for the coming year. If it is truly working, some of those goals are making their way back into the plans. For example, if a division can see an expansion coming that will require leaders to lead teams in different locations, it might be good to start doing it on a smaller scale? Maybe covering leadership of another group that will be without one for 6 months?
There is a voice in this discussion that would say split development plans into a separate discussion from reviews. With TIME being the #1 complaint I hear from leaders around being able to do these at all, I think doing both in one discussion is more realistic.
I know there are other HR leaders reading this. Any comments to add?