Photo By Daniel DeAngelis | Norfolk Naval Shipyard’s Career Counselors Dave Randall and Lauren Warne shows...... read more read more
In the world of books, there are three kinds of writers. There is the planner who creates an outline of their story so they know exactly how they are getting from the epilogue to the postlogue. Some planners are known to have an outline 40 or more pages long. There is the pantser who sits down with their writing tool of choice and just start writing, having no idea where they are headed. They are writing by the seat of their pants. Then there is the writer that has traits from both a planner and pantser who are commonly referred to as being a plantser, which is the most common amongst writer types. They might know their plot points or even the ending, but they have no clue how they will get there until they start writing and see what kind of path is created to said plot points.
Plotters, pantsers and plantsers are not limited to just writing. For instance, there are people who start packing two weeks before their vacation and they have every hour of their trip planned out to a "T." Then there are people who start to pack as they are headed out the door and have no clue where they are going until they start driving. Then you have people who know where they are going for vacation and what they would like to do, but just takes it one day at a time once they finish packing and leave the house.
There are people that when they enter the workforce, they know what they want and have a checklist of things to do to get to that goal of theirs, while others join the workforce still trying to figure out what they want to be when they grow up, even after they’ve been working for several years.
“We found out that a lot of times people at Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) don't know where they want to be in the next year or two or ten or if they do, they don't know how to get there,” said Production Resource Department Training Division (Code 900T) Career Counselor David Randall. “This is where the Individual Development Plan (IDP), a living document, comes in to help steer them in the right direction.”
The IDP is an individually tailored action plan that describes goals and activities for the employee’s development within a specified timeframe. Per Department of Defense Instruction 1400.25 and SECNAVINST 12410.25B, all DOD civilians should have one.
“Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) actually requires all NAVSEA civilian employees to have an IDP in place,” said Code 900T Career Counselor Lauren Warne. “We currently sit at approximately 30 percent, but leadership is taking actions to reach the goal of 100 percent.”
Both the employee and the shipyard reaps the benefits of an IDP. For the employee, it enhances knowledge, skills and experience; provides a path to goals; and increases promotion competitively.
“This is a time for the employee to set some goals and start exploring, finding out what is available to them,” said Warne. “It may be working towards a promotion or advancement as far as starting to prepare, starting to take classes for what you would need to become more eligible and qualify for a different position and figuring out what those next steps would be to get you there. The goal can also be to retire within a year. There are no set limits on what both personal and professional goals can be.”
For the shipyard, IDPs improve job capability and performance; increase levels of work life satisfaction; and improve succession planning and bench strength. The IDP also justifies the allocation of resources.
“The top two reasons that people report exiting the NAVSEA organizations are number one, for career advancement, and number two, for promotion or higher pay,” said Randall. “It's important that we recognize that when we lose this great talent the shipyard invested time and money in, NNSY would need to invest more time and money to bring someone else up to that caliber. That’s time and money that could be used to help support the shipyard’s mission to get ships out on time and under budget.”
Warne added, “It is recommended that an IDP should be updated annually, but reviewed by the employee and their supervisor every six months,” said Warne. “In doing so, this will help both the employee and supervisor understand both the employee’s and shipyard’s needs and wants. This gives leadership not only a chance to help the individual to reach their goals, but it can help fill the shipyard’s needs as well. For instance, one employee might have retiring at the end of the year as their goal, which means certain qualifications and certifications will be lost, and another employee has those same qualifications and certifications as their goal to achieve. This doesn’t necessarily mean that an employee will automatically be given those qualifications and certifications, but it is a starting point.”
It doesn’t matter if you are a planner, pantser or plantser, all shipyard employees are highly encouraged to attend the one hour IDP information course. Here they will meet with the career counselors and go over what an IDP is and how it will benefit them as well as how to fill one out. IDPs can be created through WayPoints on WebCentral, but hard copies can be completed as well for those who do not have access to a computer. Dates and times of classes can be located in NNSY’s biweekly newsletter Yardbird, social media and digital signage.
“At Norfolk Naval Shipyard, we must do everything we can to take care of our people,” said Shipyard Commander Capt. Jip Mosman. “We must provide the tools needed to develop both personally and professionally and ensure our shipyard is a safe and thriving environment for all to learn and grow in their careers.”
For more information on IDPs or to sign up for a class, contact David Randall at 757-504-6879 or Lauren Warne at 757-846-7493 or email NNSY_WFD@us.navy.mil.
| Date Taken: | 10.01.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 10.23.2023 14:12 |
| Story ID: | 456331 |
| Location: | PORTSMOUTH, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 153 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Take Control of your Career with an Individual Development Plan, by Troy Miller, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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