What is the importance of putting a Personal Development plan in place?

Retaining, upskilling and promoting staff should be at the forefront of an accountancy firm’s thinking. 

Improving the level of service clients receive and growing a business should be underpinned by a high quality and engaged team. 

Firms say that they are people orientated which they are but sometimes let themselves down on nurturing their own talent.

Individuals are often told by their firms that the “next step is up” without any timeframes or reassurances of what promotion may look like for them. 

Employers don’t want to give any clear indication of promotion because they don’t have anything to honour. 

There appears to be a lack of detailed discussions with employees and their seniors around what they need to do. It is important they fully understand the skills they need to acquire or improve on in order to progress and make the step up to Director level or even Partner.

Even when conversations have taken place, there aren’t step-by-step guides and timeframes for individuals at junior, semi-senior and senior positions to work towards.

If you are looking at Director and Partner level, the focus is on how you develop a team, nurturing talent and winning clients. Thus becoming less about personal ability or skill sets and more about character. 

Setting more tangible goals that aren’t dictated by time or CPD training and qualifications. Creating goals that could be focused on generating an amount of fees or winning clients in a particular sector would be beneficial. 

Firms are very good at talking to employees about what senior roles look like and the associated benefits but there is no support or practical advice on how to get there. It would also appear that there is a lack of time devoted to demonstrating how to do deal with situations that aren’t skill based. Things such as obtaining and converting potential clients or how to deal with a client arguing fees aren’t spoken about. 

At the higher levels of the accountancy profession, a career should be broken down into 3 year segments with a view not just on the next promotion but the move after that and so on. Your sights should be set on where you need to be in six years with a focus on the steps you need to take to get there. 

Creating a series of stepping stones that are measurable and challenging that fit into a timeframe will help you plot your way to a promotion or next move. 
 

What does a Personal Development plan look like?

 

 

What do you want from your career?

Taking the time reflect on what you would like to achieve from your career is an exercise that everyone should do periodically. Your ambitions may change as time goes on, so it is important to consider what you want from your career. 

Set yourself a series of aims and objectives which are broken down into 3 year segments. They should cover hard and soft skills, experiences, promotion and remuneration. 

It would be advisable that you share this with a manager or partner to get their thoughts and feedback. This may prompt them to make suggestions on additional points that need to be considered. 

Then break your objectives down into milestones so that you can clearly see what you need to do to achieve and continually sustain them. 

It would be sensible to outline the support you may need from your firm. You probably aren’t going to be able to accomplish everything without involving your firm, colleagues and seniors.

Assess your current position

• How long have you been in your current position? This can be an indicator but the individual also need to consider if they are constantly learning or being pushed more so than the title changing.
• How much personal development are you currently experiencing? 
• Discuss with the firm your future aspirations and identify if they align with the evolving needs of the firm.
• Try to forget how long you have been with a firm - focus your attention on the present situation. 
• Is it time to consider what else is happening in the market? 

 What is required to make the next jump up?

Ask yourself a series of questions to help you understand what you need to do to put yourself in a position for a promotion – 

• What skills do I need to learn or improve on?
• Do I need more exposure to clients or different types of work? If so, how can my firm help me with this?
• What stepping stones are in place? 
• What are you in control of?
• Will you have the opportunity to follow the plan? 

The risk of not having a personal development plan in place is that your career can stall. As a result, you may find it hard to be considered for promotions with your current firm or potential employers may not find you attractive – this then hampers the chances of your achieving your ultimate career aims. 

A consequence of not having a plan in place could result in your skills becoming outdated, colleagues progressing further and faster than you and missing out on valuable experience. 

The very nature of plotting your path to personal development allows you to keep abreast of the market, the changing recruitment patterns, the opportunities on offer and the skill sets required in an evolving world.

If your firm doesn’t have a personal development plan in place for you, I suggest you go and ask for some support.