Increase Participation: By providing a clear process and structure, cycles encourage more employees and managers to create and engage with development plans. This includes clearer deadlines for creating and actioning development plans, establishing a defined window for putting those plans into action.

Improve Accountability: With clear deadlines and automated reminders, cycles ensure managers and employees take action, making HR and administrative efforts more effective and impactful. Including an end date for each cycle also gives you a chance to review existing plans and get ready for new ones, so plans don't just sit there forever.

Better Reporting & Insights: Live dashboards display completion rates and plan statuses. This helps managers, HR, and admins offer timely support and guidance, and makes it easier to spot any trends or challenges. This structured approach gives managers and HR a clearer picture of everyone's development progress, making it easier to offer extra support and help.

Stakeholder Alignment: Form a core project team, including the Develop Administrator(s) and other key stakeholders, to ensure alignment and buy-in before you begin.

Set Your Timeline: Establish a clear timeline for the cycle, as this sets expectations and keeps the process on track. Best practice is to align this with a performance cycle if possible.

Secure Sponsorship: Get sign-off from senior leadership to demonstrate that employee development is a company priority and to drive wider engagement.

Change Management: Educate managers and employees on the cycle's purpose, outcomes, timelines, and expectations. Use enablement sessions, internal emails, and launch packs.

Define the Cycle Name: Give your cycle a clear name (e.g., "H1 FY26 Development Cycle – Engineering"). The name of the cycle will be used in communications and referenced throughout the platform.

Select Employee Cohort: Use filters to specify who is included in the cycle. You can target by department, location, or demographic, and exclude employees with open plans if desired.

Schedule Key Dates: Set your timezone, Launch Date/Time, Plan Creation Due Date, and Cycle Close Date. The recommended plan creation window is between 2-3 weeks.

Triggering the Cycle: The cycle will automatically launch at the scheduled time. Its status will update from "Scheduled" to "Live."

Employee Actions: All selected employees will receive an invitation via Slack, Microsoft Teams, or email with a direct link to the platform. If an employee has an open plan, they'll be prompted to close it before creating a new one.

Manager Visibility: Managers are notified about their direct reports in the cycle and can see the plan status for each employee.

Employee Actions: Employees follow a guided plan creation workflow, which includes self-reflection and setting goals. They submit their plan as "Ready for Review" once complete.

Manager Role: The manager is prompted to review the plan with the employee, ideally in a one-to-one conversation, and then activate it.

Automated Reminders: The system sends reminders to employees and their managers before and after the due date for participants who have not completed their plans.

Accessing Reports: Develop Administrators can view real-time participation dashboards showing completion rates and plan statuses by cohort, team, and manager. This data can be exported as a CSV. People Managers can only see the plan status for their direct reports.

Targeted Follow-Up: Use the dashboards and exports to identify low participation, nudge at-risk groups, and provide support to managers.

Cycle Closure (Admin Only): On the scheduled close date, the cycle status automatically changes to "Closed." The system sends a final notification to employees and managers to prompt them to review, reflect and close any still-open plans. You can also close a cycle manually.

Post-Cycle Activities: The Develop Admin can export and archive data and prepare participation metrics for future planning. HR can conduct debriefs and gather feedback from managers and employees to understand what worked well, identify any roadblocks, and refine the process for the next launch.

Start Small: Consider piloting with a small cohort before a company-wide rollout to identify friction points and prove the value of the cycle.

Align with your performance process: For best results, we recommend launching cycles after performance reviews to maximise the relevance of self-reflection and goal-setting.

Use Participation Data Strategically: Review real-time dashboards to identify low participation groups and send targeted follow-ups and reminders to encourage completion.

Empower Managers: Prepare managers with training and resources. If your organization has previously used Develop, the addition of Development cycles should feel reasonably intuitive for managers.

Iterate: Collect feedback, debrief, and refine the process for the next cycle.