I was delighted to take part in PDP training this week, part of the VGC Academy programme.
Christine Collins from Onion Personal Development delivered the two days of training, to prepare managers to deliver personal development plans (PDP) in line with the VGC competency framework.
This framework gives us a structure for measuring current performance and behavioural competencies, and provides guidance on how people can develop within VGC. It demonstrates what ‘success’ looks like at VGC, and how people can progress through the levels to achieve their potential.
In this week’s training we covered
- Communication. This included how we should communicate with staff to prepare them for their PDP. We will explain what will happen, how they are expected to contribute, and what everyone should to get out of the process.
- Assessing behaviours and performance. We want to make sure we are not introducing any bias into the process. People are encouraged to gain feedback from others, and gain evidence of performance throughout the year. Christine described various models to support assessment, including the skill / will model and intrinsic / extrinsic motivations.
- Setting SMART targets. These will address both tasks and behaviours.
- Having conversations to assess job satisfaction, personal strengths and opportunities for growth, planning learning and development and creating continuous improvement. We also discussed how to give constructive feedback and empower people by using TED – The Empowerment Dynamic.
We look after each other
The training is part of developing our leadership culture at VGC. Managers are developing their team leadership, collaboration and influencing skills.
At VGC every employee has an annual review, where we discuss how their role fits into the company objectives, their successes, and their objectives for the following year. Everyone has a personal development plan (PDP), which sets out how they aim to improve their skills. The process is part of helping people to achieve their full potential, while meeting the needs of the business.
We have so many capable and motivated people at VGC, and by providing our management team with support in delivering PDP, we ensure that our process is positive and empowering for the individual and the company.
The people who attended the training will now move on to working with members of each team to develop their own PDP and objectives.
We are grateful to the CITB Leadership and Management fund for their support in the development and delivery of this VGC Academy programme.
