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.
Note:
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.
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. | 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)
Reflect on your strengths, values, and career aspirations. Decide on the objective of your plan.
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.
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.
Based on your chosen growth area(s), set clear goals and actions.
Competencies come with resources such as Skills Coach courses and curated Go1 courses.
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 lets you view the competencies associated with that role and select them as strengths or growth areas.
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 (Varies)
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.
Manager Access
Your Development Plan is automatically assigned to your direct Manager, based on your organization’s hierarchy.
If your manager changes, the new manager automatically gains access, and the previous manager loses access.
You and your manager can use the plan to track progress and set new goals throughout the year.
Existing Plans (created before 28 August 2025)
All plans created before this date will be updated so the Direct Manager becomes the assigned manager.
All plan content, goals, and action items remain unchanged.
Notifications and Reminders
Confirmation emails – Sent after you complete each workflow. Once you finish Build Your Plan, your Direct Manager is also prompted to schedule a 1-on-1 with you.
Reminders – Sent every three days (maximum of two) until you complete the step. Completing a step cancels reminders for the previous one.
Share with a Mentor or Coach
If you’d like a mentor or coach to see your plan, you’ll need to manually share it outside the platform.
Open your plan and take a screenshot.
Share the screenshot with your mentor or coach through your preferred communication channel (e.g., email, Slack, Teams).
Note: Mentors and coaches will only have visibility of what you share. They cannot give feedback through the Give Feedback button and are not assigned as plan managers.
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
Managers can give feedback on active Development Plans at any time:
Open your direct report’s 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 Direct Manager changes, the new manager gains access and can continue capturing feedback.
FAQs
Access & Permissions
Can I change my Development Manager?
No. Development Plans are always assigned to your Direct Manager.Who can see my Development Plan?
Your Direct Manager and anyone you manually share it with.What happens if I don’t have a Direct Manager assigned?
The plan remains accessible only to you until a Direct Manager is added in your employee data.Is Develop available in languages other than English?
At this time, Develop is only available in English.
Editing & Closing Plans
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.
Goals & Carryover
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.
What happens to goals created before 28 August 2025?
Goals created before this date remain visible to both the previous Development Manager and the Direct Manager. Goals created after this date are visible only to the Direct Manager.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.
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