20 Employee Development Ideas: Ways to Develop Skills and Knowledge

Talent development professionals, leaders and self-directed learners often create specific development plans around gaining experience and building skills and knowledge. The "go to" option is often formal training—such as facilitator-led programs and conferences. We find it helpful in working with coachees or participants to think beyond formal training in order to create plans that have variety and tap into different modes and methods of learning.

To support these efforts, we created this quick-reference collection of 20 ways to develop skills, abilities and knowledge. Use it to introduce options that might not otherwise be considered when creating an individual development plan.

Share it with direct reports, coachees, participants and others as you create meaningful, well-rounded development plans.

Since we first shared the list, this page has grown into a fuller guide to employee development ideas beyond formal training. Below the 20 options, we describe how we use them in development conversations with coachees and participants and share a few notes from client work on making the less familiar options succeed. The printable version remains available for development planning discussions.

View the printable PDF

Why development plans need more than formal training

Formal training has an important place. It builds shared language, gives people practice with feedback and, in the case of certifications, meets requirements that some roles carry. The difficulty is that a development plan made up only of courses tends to ignore the effectiveness found in learning through experience and other means. Most of what people learn in a role comes from the work itself and from the people around them. That is the thinking behind the 70-20-10 model of development, which grew out of the Center for Creative Leadership's research on how executives learned from experience [1]. Our article on streamlining the learning options in a 70-20-10 model covers how to keep the mix manageable. Keep in mind that the percentages are a guideline to strive for rather than a formula. What matters is that a plan draws on experience, relationships and formal learning rather than on one of them alone.

When we coach individuals or facilitate development planning with cohorts, we find that people rarely run out of ideas for formal training, while ideas for ways to learn from experience and from other people come less readily. A coachee might say, 'I need to get better at influencing other departments,' and the first and often only idea in their plan is a communication course. The list above exists to fill that gap.

The 20 options grouped by type of learning

The 20 options fall into a few groups. Here is how we think about them when helping someone build a well-rounded plan:

Only two of the 20 options are formal training. Most development plans we see start there, so the list is deliberately weighted toward the other types of learning.

How to use the 20 options in a development conversation

Here is the development approach conversation we use with coachees and the process we teach managers to use with their direct reports:

1. Start with the need, not the option. Identify the skill, ability or knowledge and the situation where the skill is used. 'Presenting recommendations to the leadership team without over-explaining' gives you far more to work with than 'communication.'
2. Choose no more than three development options. We suggest at least one experience-based option, one that involves other people and, where it fits, one formal option. Plans with more than three options tend to lose focus.
3. Attach each development action to a real situation and a date. A stretch project should have specifics and an end date, and a shadowing opportunity has a person and a week assigned.
4. Agree on what 'finished' looks like. Decide together what evidence you both expect to see to know the development has taken hold, such as a presentation delivered, a process documented or feedback gathered from a peer.
5. Set the follow-up conversation before the meeting ends. Plans that are only revisited at appraisal time tend to get overlooked. A 30-minute check-in every six to eight weeks is usually enough to keep a plan moving.

As an example, consider a first-line manager in a manufacturing operation who wants to be more effective at influencing peers in other departments. A plan built from the list might include shadowing the plant manager in two cross-functional meetings (option 6), initiating feedforward discussions with the two peers they work with most (option 9), and attending an influence workshop later in the quarter (option 17). Those are three options drawn from three types of learning, each attached to a date, with a check-in on the calendar six weeks out. The workshop is one part of the plan, and the options around it give the individual places to apply what the workshop covers.

Making the experience-based options work

The options that cost the least, such as stretch projects, shadowing and interviewing experts, are also the ones we most often see written into plans and then abandoned. A few practices to consider include:

• Give every stretch assignment a sponsor and a finish line. An assignment without an end date can become extra work rather than development. An assignment without a sponsor rarely gets visibility.
• Pair every 'exposure' and 'learning' experience with a debrief. Option 11, debriefing an on-the-job experience with an expert, is often what turns a difficult project into learning. Without it, people often remember the difficulty of the project more than what they learned from it.
• Prepare before you shadow or interview. Planning three or four written questions, and making a note afterward on what to apply, makes a one-hour observation far more useful than an unstructured day.
• Treat teaching as development rather than a favor. Asking someone to train others on a process (option 7) often develops the trainer as much as the audience. Our article on using managers as trainers covers how to prepare them.
• Be realistic about time needed. A one-time project sized for a quarter is achievable. One sized for a year competes with the person's regular responsibilities and is often the first thing dropped.

Building the options into talent development programs

In our work with clients, our coaches and facilitators have used the list:

• As a handout in development planning workshops, so that participants leave with plans that have variety in them.
• As a menu inside individual development plan templates, where a column for the type of learning prompts people to look beyond training.
• As a coaching tool when a coachee is stuck on 'what else could I do?'
• As a shared reference during performance conversations, so managers and direct reports draw from the same list of ways to develop employees.

• As content to enter into AI tools to help narrow the types of options individuals prefer.

As an example, we included the list of development options in a regional talent acceleration program done for a medical device organization's employees who were participating in development identified through assessments. During the program, we presented the list as part of individual development planning, had individuals review and select a few options they preferred and used the language on the options as a means to have the participants prompt AI to give examples for their industry, role and specific needs and preferences. This helped to fine-tune development plans and introduce the idea of learning from experience and from peers and others.

Organizations without a large talent development team can do the same with little effort. Add the list to new manager development, where managers are learning to hold development conversations for the first time, and to onboarding, where new hires are often very motivated to build a plan. Be sure that managers know the list exists and that they are expected to use it. If only the talent development team has seen the list, it is unlikely to change what gets written into plans.

Measuring whether the list is making a difference does not need to be complicated. Here are a few indicators we look at:

• The share of development plans that include options from more than one type of learning.
• Follow-up conversations held on schedule, which managers of managers can see in their own one-on-ones.
• Application evidence, such as the presentation delivered, the process documented or the intern onboarded.
• Requests for coaching, mentoring pairings and stretch assignments, which tend to rise once people know the options exist.
• What participants say six months later about which options built a skill.

When budget is the constraint

Most of these employee development activities cost little beyond time. Stretch assignments, shadowing, expert interviews and teaching others all draw on resources the organization already has. In many organizations, people assume that development means a course with a cost code, and that assumption limits plans more than budget does. Making the list visible, and having managers point to it, is often enough to change the assumption. Where budget does exist, we suggest spending it on options the list cannot replace, such as a professional coach for a leader in transition or a certification a role requires, and letting the low-cost options make up the rest of the plan.

Frequently asked questions

How many development options should one plan include?

No more than three, drawn from more than one type of learning, each attached to a real situation and a date. That is enough to build a skill without competing with the person's job. Some coachees do well with two options pursued thoroughly, and we rarely see plans with more than five hold up over a year.

Which employee development ideas work without a budget?

Most of the experience-based and relationship-based options work without a budget: stretch projects, shadowing, expert interviews, mentoring relationships, feedforward discussions and teaching or documenting what you know. Combined with reading and free online content, these can make up most of a strong plan. The section on budget above covers where to spend the funds you do have.

How do you develop employees who are already strong performers?

Strong performers often need broader scope and perspective more than they need to close a skill gap. Options such as working in another location, taking on a challenging one-time project, mentoring others and shadowing a customer or a senior leader tend to fit them well, and a conversation about what they want next matters more than any list does.

How often should a development plan be revisited?

A short check-in every six to eight weeks, with a fuller review twice a year. Plans that are only opened at appraisal time rarely make progress.

How do you develop employees when formal training is not an option?

Start with ideas from the list. Use them to gather more specific ideas, perhaps using your organization's AI tools to give additional ideas or deeper context. Most of the 20 options are not formal training. A plan built from experience, relationships and reflection can be as strong as one built around a course, provided each option has an owner, a date and a follow-up conversation.

Where to start

Pick one person you are developing, or one plan you are reviewing, and count how many types of learning it draws on. If the answer is one, choose two or three options from the list that fit the real need, attach them to dates and put the follow-up conversation on the calendar. Share the printable version with direct reports, coachees and participants so they can bring their own ideas to the discussion.

Use the list to cross-check ideas that come back from your AI prompt.

If you'd like to go further by curating resources for your organization, reach out to PPS International Limited for support in curating your existing resources into meaningful learning maps and development guides.

Download the printable 20 Ways to Develop Skills, Abilities and Knowledge (PDF)

References

1. McCall, M. W., Lombardo, M. M. and Morrison, A. M. (1988). The Lessons of Experience: How Successful Executives Develop on the Job. Lexington Books. Summarized by the Center for Creative Leadership at ccl.org.