5 Career Development Templates

Career development plays a critical role in employee engagement, retention, and growth. For HR teams, creating structured strategies that support professional development is essential to fostering a motivated and skilled team. From guiding individual growth through Development Plans to facilitating feedback with 360-degree reviews and career conversations, the right tools can make a significant difference. In this hub, we've gathered a selection of career development templates to support HR teams in building comprehensive growth strategies.

Whether you're crafting an Individual Development Plan (IDP), organizing career development discussions, or assessing competencies, these templates offer ready-to-use resources to streamline your efforts and drive employee success. Explore our collection and elevate your career development initiatives today!

Competency Matrix Template (Individual Contributor)

Competency or job leveling matrices help make career development next steps clear for both direct reports and their managers. Use this competency matrix template for individual contributors.

The competency matrix template for individual contributors provides these key benefits for teams like yours:

1. Clear Career Progression: The matrix defines expectations at each level, providing employees with a transparent pathway for advancement and clarity on what is required to grow in their roles.
2. Focused Skill Development: By breaking competencies into areas like impact, behavior, and functional skills, the matrix helps individuals and managers identify targeted areas for growth and improvement.
3. Consistency Across Roles: The framework ensures a standardized approach to evaluating and developing employees, reducing bias and making career progression fair and consistent.
4. Improved Performance Management: With detailed competencies such as problem-solving, communication, and expertise, the matrix serves as a practical tool for performance reviews and setting actionable development goals.

Competency Matrix Template (Managers)

Competency or job leveling matrices help make career development next steps clear for both direct reports and their managers. Use this competency matrix for managerial roles.

This competency matrix template for managers provides these key benefits for teams like yours:

1. Enhanced Leadership Development: The matrix highlights key managerial competencies such as team development, supervision, and accountability, equipping leaders with the skills they need to effectively grow and guide their teams.
2. Strategic Alignment: By clearly outlining expectations for managerial roles across levels, the matrix helps ensure that leadership behaviors and decisions align with the company’s overall goals and values.
3. Delegation and Oversight: Focused areas such as scope and prioritization enable managers to refine their ability to delegate tasks, prioritize effectively, and manage complex projects with confidence.
4. Benchmarking Leadership Growth: The matrix provides a measurable framework for assessing leadership readiness and performance, making it easier to identify future leaders and invest in their development.

Individual Development Plan Template

By setting the stage for breakthrough growth in employees’ careers, individual development plans (IDPs) are an effective, low-stakes way for businesses to boost engagement and retention.

This individual development plan template provides these key benefits for teams like yours:

1. Clarity and Focus: Helps employees set clear, actionable goals for both short-term and long-term career growth, providing a structured path for development.
2. Personalized Development: Supports employees in identifying their talents, strengths, and learning opportunities, ensuring that development plans are tailored to individual needs and aspirations.
3. Enhanced Engagement and Motivation: Includes prompts for identifying personal motivators (e.g., autonomy or social impact), helping employees align their work with what energizes them, boosting engagement and productivity.
4. Strategic Career Planning: Aligns career vision with actionable steps, ensuring employees’ growth is both personally fulfilling and beneficial to the organization.

360 Developmental Review Template

360 developmental reviews provide much-needed structure for employees, managers, and peers to share constructive feedback focused on career growth. Use this 360 developmental review template to help your team reflect, revisit, and set career goals.

This 360 developmental review template provides these key benefits for teams like yours:

1. Comprehensive Feedback: The template gathers input from multiple perspectives (self, direct reports, and peers), providing a well-rounded view of an employee’s strengths, accomplishments, and areas for growth, which can be critical for personal and professional development.
2. Structured Reflection: The template encourages employees to reflect on their strengths, achievements, and developmental areas, allowing them to gain deeper insights into their performance and identify clear goals for future improvement.
3. Actionable Development Plans: By identifying specific tasks, responsibilities, or projects employees can take on to move toward their career goals, the template helps guide actionable steps for growth and development within the organization.
4. Improved Communication and Collaboration: The peer and direct report review sections foster open dialogue between employees and colleagues, building trust, improving teamwork, and ensuring everyone is aligned on development priorities and expectations.

Career Development Conversation Template

Talking about growth isn't easy for everyone. This career development conversation template, intended for managers, includes a list of development-focused questions you can ask during one-on-ones, as well as a worksheet for jotting down observations and next steps.

This career development conversation template provides these key benefits for teams like yours:

1. Clarity on Career Goals: The template helps both employees and managers define what success looks like in the short and long term, ensuring that growth objectives are clear and actionable.
2. Focused Growth Planning: By identifying specific areas for responsibility, skill-building, and learning opportunities, the template enables employees to explore new challenges and expand their capabilities in alignment with their career goals.
3. Structured Development Support: The conversation worksheet offers a framework for managers to document key insights, track progress, and identify actionable next steps, making it easier to support employees in achieving their career aspirations.
4. Accountability and Progress Tracking: The inclusion of manager and employee commitments, along with a timeline for follow-up, helps ensure accountability, fostering a continuous development dialogue and reinforcing commitment to the employee’s career growth.

Delivering Meaningful Career Development With Lattice

We hope these templates offer a useful starting point as you prepare your own career development strategy. As you grow your people in their careers, you simultaneously grow your organization's potential. If you’d like to learn more about how the Lattice platform can help you manage your people and their performance, we’d love to chat. Request a demo today.

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