1-2 months before EDP meetings
Customise the EDP form where necessary and review it at a staff meeting. Discuss the form and reach consensus on the background and purpose of the questions.

14 days before EDP meetings
Distribute EDP form online to individual employees.

No later than 3 days before EDP meetings
The EDP form must be completed by employees so the manager can prepare. EDP meetings should only be held if the EDP forms have been completed and both parties have prepared.

The EDP meetings
Conduct the meetings in an undisturbed setting, focusing on the topics and issues arising from the completed EDP form. Type in notes and agreements before wrapping up the meetings. The system will automatically email this to both parties.

After EDP meetings – follow-up
The follow-up stage is critical to success. Managers can click on the ‘agreements’ button to immediately access a single document containing an overview of all the agreements made within the department.
Use this feature daily so it becomes an active management tool!

After the EDP meetings – result reporting
Once the round of EDP meetings has been completed, the manager reports the results at a staff meeting, and finally to the director. Use the automatically generated graphs.

Follow-up and initiatives

Individual follow-up
Once the manager and employee have identified development needs, we recommend you agree on a heading for the area and a general timetable. The employee should then define specific goals, sub-goals and success criteria. This ensures the employee has ownership of the process, dramatically increasing the chances of success.

Broader follow-up in response to isolated low scores
A high average score for a parameter may conceal the fact that certain employees report a low score. For example, general wellbeing for many employees can statistically hide dissatisfaction among a few. To avoid this, the manager must examine the summary report showing the distribution of scores for each question. If this reveals, for example, that two or three employees are dissatisfied, an action plan should be formulated to address the problem.

Broader follow-up in response to general low scores
If the entire department reports a low score for one or more parameters, action is obviously required. We suggest you take up the challenge at a staff meeting and jointly work out an action plan (possibly based on a pre-prepared proposal) with specific initiatives and time frames. This approach will ensure employee ownership of the initiatives.

For each of the above scenarios, the impact of the various initiatives will be evident in the EDP results for the following year.