Who can use this feature?

Users

Available on:

All Culture Amp subscriptions that include Develop.

Overview

Development Plans help you reflect on your career goals and take practical steps to achieve them. They’re designed to support meaningful conversations with your manager and give you a clear roadmap for growth.

As of January 30, 2024, all new development plans in Culture Amp are competency-based (instead of skills-based). This change allows you to align your development more closely with the competencies your organization values, and access curated learning resources connected to each competency.

Competency-based plans introduce a structured way to identify your strengths, growth areas, and goals. Each step connects to specific competencies with detailed descriptions, levels, and learning resources to guide your development.

Note: As of September 1, 2025, skills-based development plans will become read-only on. If you need to keep a copy, contact your HR team for assistance.

You’ll build your plan through three simple workflows:

Step	Time	Action	Outcome
1. Know Yourself	~20 minutes	Reflect on your strengths, values, and long-term aspirations. Optionally, select your dedicated Development Manager.	A clear objective that guides your development plan
2. Build Your Plan	~20 minutes	Choose one growth area at a time. Set clear goals and actions linked to the skills and behaviors you want to develop.	An actionable plan with clear goals and steps.
3. Review with your Manager	Varies	When you’re finished, share your plan with your manager to get feedback and support.	Your plan is set to active and ready to action

Getting Started

Once Develop has been enabled for your organization, you can access it anytime:

From your Home page, go to Develop > Development Plans.
Follow the prompts to create your first plan.

Steps to Create Your Plan

1. Know Yourself (~20 minutes)

Before reflecting on your strengths, you have the option to nominate a dedicated Development Manager to support your plan:

In the Know Yourself flow (Step 1), use the Development Manager selector to search for and choose a person.
This person does not have to be your Direct (Line) Manager.
If you select a Development Manager, they will receive all plan notifications and gain visibility across all your current, past, and future plans.
If you do not select a Development Manager, your Direct (Line) Manager will automatically receive notifications and visibility.
Your selection here is a person-level setting and will apply to all your plans until you change it.

Continue the Know Yourself Flow:

Click Next to progress to answering questions on how effective the development process is for you. Your responses are anonymous. These responses are aggregated and shared as part of a group. Rate how strongly you agree with the statements.
Click Next to progress to the page where you select Motivators. Think about the things you enjoy at work. What aspects of your day-to-day work tasks and activities give you the most energy? What do you want to keep or do more of in the future? We recommend up to 3.
Click Next to progress to what motivates you the least. Now think about day-to-day tasks and activities that give you the least energy and motivation. They might be things you put off or avoid. We recommend up to 3.
Click Next to progress to the page where you select your Strengths. Select the competencies that stand out as your strengths. They might be things that come easily to you or things that people have given you positive feedback on.
- You’ll be prompted to select at least one competency as a strength.
- Each competency includes a Details view, with a description, levels, and linked learning resources.
- You can also add additional strengths in free-text form.

Tip: Culture Amp provides nine ready-made competencies as default options for employees unless your Account Administrator customizes them. View: Culture Amp’s nine ready-made competencies

Outcome: A clear objective that guides your development plan.

2. Build Your Plan (~20 minutes)

Focus on one growth area at a time.

You’ll be prompted to choose at least one competency as a growth area.
As with selecting strengths, each competency includes a Details view with a description, levels, and learning resources.
Based on your chosen growth area(s), set clear goals and actions.
You’ll be prompted to set at least one goal based on your selected growth area. Each competency includes links to Skills Coach courses and People Science curated Go1 courses. These resources are designed to help you plan specific actions that build your capabilities.
Account Admins can customize which competencies and learning resources appear for your organization.

Outcome: An actionable plan with clear goals and steps.

Adding a Role to a Development Plan

If your organization has made at least one job group from Career Paths visible to employees, you can add a role to your plan during the selection of strengths or growth areas.

Adding a role connects your plan directly to the competencies associated with that role. You can then select those competencies as strengths or growth areas when building your plan.
Choose your current role if you want to deepen your skills, or a future role if you’re preparing for career progression.
You can include multiple roles in the same plan.
To browse available roles, click on the Career Paths view.

Note: New roles and competencies don’t automatically appear in existing Development Plans. If a role or its associated competencies aren’t available in the drop-down, they would have been added to the competency library after you started your plan. To access them, you’ll need to create a new plan.

3. Review with your Manager

Share your draft plan with your manager. Discuss feedback in a development conversation, and agree on final changes.

Outcome: Your plan is set to active and ready to action.

Access and Visibility

The visibility and notification recipient is determined by your Development Manager setting:

If you nominate a Development Manager (DM), they will receive all plan and cycle notifications, and they will gain view access to all your past, current, and future plans and linked development goals.
If you do not nominate a DM, your Direct (Line) Manager receives the notifications.
Your Direct (Line) Manager always retains view access to your development goals.

Manager Access

Your Development Plan is shared with your nominated Development Manager. If you haven't selected a Development Manager, your plan's visibility and notifications will fall back to your Line Manager.

If your Direct Manager changes in your employee profile, your selected Development Manager remains the primary support person until you change them.
You and your assigned Development Manager can use the plan to track progress and set new goals throughout the year.

Notifications and Reminders

Employee Confirmation emails – Sent after you complete each workflow. Once you finish Build Your Plan, your assigned Development Manager is also prompted to schedule a 1-on-1 with you.

Manager Reminders – Sent every three days (maximum of two) until you complete the step. Completing a step cancels reminders for the previous one.

Check In Regularly

Use 1-on-1s to review your progress with your manager, update goals, and keep your plan relevant throughout the year.

Deleting a Development Plan

To remove a plan you no longer need, make sure it has been closed first and follow the steps:

Navigate to Previous Plans.
Select the plan you want to delete.
Click Delete Plan.

Warning: Deleting a plan permanently removes the associated goals. This action cannot be undone.

Manager Experience

Development Managers can give feedback on active Development Plans at any time:

Open the employees plan and click Give Feedback.
A new tab opens where you can enter your feedback.
Click Send Feedback.

Feedback appears on the employee’s profile and remains visible throughout the year.

If an employee’s Development Manager changes, the new manager gains access and can continue capturing feedback.

FAQs

Question	Answer
Can I change my Development Manager?	Yes. You can nominate or change your Development Manager in the Know Yourself step of plan creation or from your Develop overview page. Your choice acts as a dedicated support person who receives notifications and has visibility over all your plans. If you do not nominate one, your Direct (Line) Manager is automatically assigned for support and notifications.
Can I assign a different Development Manager for each of my individual development plans?	No, not at this time. The Development Manager role is set for you as a person, not for a specific plan. Your selection applies to all your current, past, and future development plans and goals. If you change your Development Manager, the new person will gain visibility across all your development activities immediately.
Who can see my Development Plan?	Your Development Manager (if set) and your Direct Manager.
What happens if I don’t have a Direct Manager assigned in my employee profile?	The plan remains accessible only to you until a Direct Manager is added in your employee data by your HR Team.
Is Develop available in languages other than English?	Yes. Develop is available in multiple languages. Learn more.
Can my Development Manager delete or change my goals?	No. Visibility doesn’t grant delete rights. Only the goal owner (you) can delete goals. Development Managers and Direct Managers can view and comment, but not delete the goals themselves.
Can I export my plan?	No, exporting isn’t available yet.
Can I reopen a closed plan?	No. Closed plans can’t be reopened, but creating a new plan will pre-fill some details from the previous one.
Is there a character limit for development objectives?	No, there’s no character limit for development objectives.
Will deleting a goal affect my Development Plan?	If you delete a goal, the action is permanent and cannot be undone. The goal will be removed from all views, including your Development Plan if it was created as part of it. Deleting a goal will not affect the rest of your Development Plan, the other goals and development plan details will remain unchanged.
Why do options from my previous plan appear in my new one?	Information from the Know Yourself step carries over automatically, since it tends to change less often than other details.