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The skills development plan... Everybody talks about it but nobody really knows how it works! Here are 5 valuable tips to build an efficient and profitable plan for your business.
Since January 1, 2019, the skills development plan has been in place to simplify the old training plan. This new law does not require businesses to develop a skills development plan. However, it is advisable not to miss this opportunity.
Moreover, this document makes it easy to organise training courses. Unfortunately, it is not always easy to know how to organize yourself well... Here are 5 steps that can help you build the best possible skills development plan!
By the way... What is a skills development plan?
1. Define your business strategy
The first thing to do before you even start developing your skills plan is to define a strategy that takes into account the various developments related to your sector of activity. Firstly, you need to keep yourself informed on a daily basis about new innovations in your sector. Secondly, you can analyse your company's needs and compare them with those of your potential competitors. Thus, you will have all the cards in hand to define the main training areas your company needs.
Attending conferences, following the news and networking are great ways to keep up to date with the latest trends! Also, it is important to take into consideration the expectations of your employees and partners, if you have any. Training employees who are able to meet their needs more effectively can only be beneficial..
2. Assess your business needs and priorities
In a second step, you will need to define your company's specific needs and priorities. To help you in this process, you can draw up a complete profile of the members of your company: age, gender, function, skills acquired. With these profiles, it will be easier for you to list all the skills already present in your company and to identify those that still need to be developed.
Furthermore, it is strongly recommended that you get in touch with the managers of your company. They will certainly be able to provide you with information on the training required within their respective departments. Indeed, because of their daily proximity to their teams, they will be more likely to direct you on the profiles and skills of each employee.
In addition, some of your employees will have probably sent you training requests during their annual professional interviews. The law does not oblige you to accept them. It will be your duty to review their requests for training and decide, based on your predefined needs and priorities and the consistency of their requests, whether or not it is possible for the employee to access the desired training..
3. Establish and cost your skills development plan
Once your needs have been defined, you can finally get started on your skills development plan. There is no standard template imposed. However, your plan must include your various training actions, the assessment of your company's skills, the validation of acquired knowledge and experience and a provisional calendar. Please also note that training must be separated into two categories:
- Job adaptation training, which corresponds to all training courses aimed at maintaining the employee's level by training him/her on possible changes and new developments in his/her position. The employer has the obligation to train employees in the innovations of their profession in order to maintain their place in the company..
- Skills development training, which enables employees to acquire or develop new skills in order to progress within the company.
You will also need to develop your skills development plan based on your available budget. You will have to make organizational choices so that you do not exceed your budget. How many employees will you train? Which training organizations will you use?
4. Presentation of your skills development plan
Your plan is finally finished, all you have to do now is to have it validated by your works council, if you have one. You will also have to submit it to management and the staff representative.
For your presentation to be successful and for your skills development plan to be validated, you can prepare in advance what you are going to say. For example, you will have to propose your training actions, the predefined budget and the different evolutions that can be envisaged in the company.
5. And finally... the launch of the skills development plan!
Once your plan has been completed and validated, it is time to plan your courses. As a reminder, these can take place within your company or in a training organization. They can also take the form of e-learning or face-to-face training.
For even more comprehensive training, you can opt for blended learning, which combines online and face-to-face training. The training schedules must correspond to your employees' normal working hours, and they will be paid the same as if they were present at their workstations.
You now have all the advice you need to draw up your skills development plan. As you will have understood, building a good plan will allow you, firstly, to be able to allocate the best possible training to your employees and, secondly, to ensure the longevity and success of your company by encouraging your employees to train on the evolutions of their jobs.