Individual Development Goals (IDP) (NextGen)

Note: The following article is only available for users on the NextGen user interface. 

Contents

• Overview
• Configuration
• Usage
• FAQs

Overview

Individual Development Goals (IDP) provide a dedicated employee growth-planning experience from the Talent Profile. Development goals are separate from standard performance goals and can help employees turn skills they want to develop or strengthen into trackable learning plans.

Employees can create development goals linked to specific skills, including AI-recommended skills, skills they want to develop, and skills they already have. Depending on your organization's configuration, employees can add AI-generated development steps and courses from connected learning management system (LMS) providers as milestones.

Employees and managers can also create custom development goals without linking them to a skill. In the Goals module, goals can be identified as Developmental using the Scope field.

Development Goals support the following audiences:

• Employees: Create concrete, trackable learning plans for skill development without combining that activity with performance ratings.
• Managers: View development activity and skill development for direct reports separately from performance conversations. Managers can also create Developmental Goals for direct reports using the supported goal-creation workflows.
• Administrators: Control availability of the development experience and related AI and LMS capabilities through organization configuration.

Development Goal creation options

Important behavior and limitations

• Goals created from the Talent Profile default to the Developmental scope.
• Goals created in the Goals module and set to Developmental are displayed on the Talent Profile.
• Only goals with the Developmental scope are shown on the Talent Profile or under My Development Goals in the Goals module.
• The owner of a goal created from the Talent Profile defaults to the owner of the profile being viewed.
• The owner of a skill-centered goal is locked and cannot be reassigned.
• A skill can have only one active skill-centered goal at a time. A goal remains active until it reaches 100% or is Completed.
• Removing a skill from the Talent Profile removes its linked skill-centered goal. Deleting the goal does not remove the skill from the profile.
• Changing the Developmental scope of a skill-centered goal to another value breaks the connection between the skill and the goal.
• Development Goals use the default business period from the Goals module.

Configuration

Prerequisites

The Individual Development Goals experience depends on the Goals module. The IDP capability cannot be enabled when the Goals module is disabled because goal, milestone, and classification data use the Goals infrastructure.

Additional functionality depends on your organization's configuration:

LMS integrations

Development Goals support course selection from the following connected LMS providers:

• Udemy Business
• LinkedIn Learning
• Docebo

An Administrator must provide valid API credentials or Client IDs in Betterworks to activate an integrated learning provider. Please note, an active license with the LMS provider is required for authentication.

If an existing provider license expires and authentication fails, the provider is hidden from the Betterworks UI.

Note: Betterworks does not act as an LMS and does not enroll employees in courses. Courses added to Development Goals contain links to the LMS, where the employee completes the provider's enrollment or course-start workflow.

Permissions

Development Goal permissions are inherited from the core Goals module. When goals are accessed from the Talent Profile, additional restrictions apply.

• An employee has Create, Read, Update, and Delete access to their own Development Goals within their profile.
• A manager has limited access to Development Goals for their direct reports when viewing those employees' Talent Profiles.
• For a skill-centered goal, the owner cannot be changed.
• Skill-centered goals cannot be cloned because cloning could create incorrect skill and proficiency-level mappings.
• Visibility can depend on the organization's default goal visibility settings and whether Skills are visible to the applicable role.

Development Goal fields

Note: Goal privacy also depends on your organization's goal settings.

Usage

Create a skill-centered Development Goal

Use a skill-centered Development Goal when you want to create a learning plan for a specific skill on your Talent Profile.

1. Open your Talent Profile.
2. Select a skill that you want to develop or strengthen.
3. In the Skill Details side panel, select the applicable development intent, such as I want to strengthen this skill or I want to develop this skill.
4. Select Create development goal for this skill.
5. Optionally, add AI-generated development steps or courses as milestones when those capabilities are available for your organization.
6. Review the pre-populated Development Goal.
7. Edit the available goal fields as needed.
8. Save the goal.

When the goal is created, it is linked to the selected skill. The goal defaults to the Developmental scope, and the goal owner is the owner of the Talent Profile.

Note: The owner of a skill-centered Development Goal is locked. To create a skill-centered goal on behalf of another person, use Impersonate Mode rather than changing the owner of an existing goal.

Add AI-generated development steps

If AI capabilities are enabled, Betterworks can suggest personalized development steps based on the employee's job information, target skill, target skill level, and skills the employee already has.

1. Open the applicable skill in the Talent Profile.
2. Review the AI-suggested development steps in the Skill Details panel.
3. Select one or more recommendations to add them to the Development Goal.

Selecting an AI-generated recommendation automatically selects Create development goal for this skill. Each selected recommendation is added as a separate milestone.

AI-generated text recommendations return three concise development steps. If you regenerate the recommendations, Betterworks requests alternative suggestions that do not repeat the previous steps.

Browse and add courses

If your organization has a supported LMS integration, you can add courses from the connected provider to a Development Goal.

1. From the applicable development-goal creation flow, select Browse Courses.
2. Select an available LMS provider when more than one provider is configured.
3. Review the course results.
4. Select one or more courses to add to the goal.
5. Review the resulting goal and milestones, then save the goal.

For a skill-centered goal, selecting a course automatically selects Create development goal for this skill. Selected courses are grouped into milestones by LMS provider.

If AI course recommendations are enabled, Betterworks uses information about the employee and target skill to recommend relevant courses. Users can regenerate AI course recommendations to request different courses when alternatives are available.

Users can also switch to another configured LMS provider and search again. This starts a new search against that provider rather than regenerating the existing AI recommendations. Direct course-match results are loaded with pagination of 10 items per page.

Note: Course searches do not cross-reference the employee's personal LMS transcript or active enrollments. Search results can therefore include courses the employee has already completed or is currently taking.

Start a course

Betterworks provides course discovery and goal tracking but does not enroll employees in courses.

1. Open the Development Goal containing the course.
2. Select the course link.
3. Betterworks redirects you to the applicable LMS.
4. In the LMS, follow the provider's standard workflow to enroll in or start the course.

Create a custom Development Goal

Use a custom Development Goal when you want to define a learning commitment without linking the goal to a specific skill.

1. Open the Talent Profile.
2. Select the option to Define my own learning commitment.
3. Choose the applicable Development Goal creation option.
4. Create a text-based goal or, when an LMS is connected, select courses to include in the goal.
5. Review and edit the available goal fields.
6. Save the goal.

A custom Development Goal is not linked to a skill.

Create a Developmental Goal from the Goals module

You can use the existing goal-creation workflow to identify a standard goal as a Developmental Goal.

1. Open the Goals module.
2. Start the existing goal-creation workflow.
3. Complete the goal details.
4. Set Scope to Developmental.
5. Save the goal.

The goal retains the standard behavior of a goal created through the Goals module. Developmental Goals are displayed on the Talent Profile and under My Development Goals.

Assign Development Goals to multiple employees

Managers can create and assign Developmental Goals to direct reports using the existing goal-creation workflow. When assigning an IDP goal to multiple employees, each employee should receive an individual copy so that course progress can be tracked independently.

Note: Assigning a Developmental Goal directly to a team or department creates one shared goal entity. Course progress for individual employees will not track correctly on a shared goal because course tracking defaults to the goal creator's account.

1. Create the base Developmental Goal.
2. Open the goal's action menu and select Clone.
3. Distribute individual copies using one of these methods:
   • Select Clone to my direct reports.
   • Select Clone to specific people, teams or departments, then select each employee individually by name. Do not select the overarching team or department.

Note: Skill-centered goals cannot be cloned because doing so could result in incorrect skill and proficiency-level mappings.

Edit a Development Goal

Development Goals can be edited according to the user's goal permissions and the type of Development Goal.

1. Open the applicable Development Goal from the Talent Profile or Goals module.
2. Open the goal's edit action.
3. Update the available fields.
4. Save your changes.

Note: Do not change the Developmental scope on a skill-centered goal. Changing its scope breaks the connection between the goal and the skill.

Development Goal milestones

Development Goals can contain AI-generated text milestones and course-grouping milestones.

FAQs

What happens if my organization does not have an LMS integration?

If no LMS is connected to Betterworks, Browse Courses is hidden from both the Skill Details and goal-creation screens. Users can create development steps using the text-based Define learning commitment option.

Can Betterworks University courses be linked to Development Goals?

No. Betterworks training materials, including onboarding courses and guides, are hosted in Betterworks University. They are not available through the Goal Integration capability and cannot be directly linked to Development Goals through a connected LMS.

Will internal courses hosted in Docebo appear in search?

Betterworks does not store the Docebo course catalog. When a user searches for a course, Betterworks sends a real-time request to Docebo through its API.

If your organization hosts internal courses in its Docebo instance and the Docebo API returns those courses in the search response, they appear in the Betterworks UI. Betterworks does not differentiate between native Docebo content and client-imported content returned by the API.

What happens if an LMS provider does not have an active license?

Valid API credentials or Client IDs are required to enable an integrated learning provider. Without an active license for the provider, authentication fails and the integration cannot be enabled. If an existing license expires after configuration, Betterworks detects the authentication failure and hides that provider from the UI.

What happens if the Goals module is disabled?

IDP depends on the Goals module for goal data and processing. If Goals is disabled, the My Development Goals section on the Talent Profile and the skill development functionality in the Skill Details side panel are hidden. Users can still view existing skills but cannot set or track actionable development commitments through IDP.

What happens if AI is disabled?

AI-assisted functionality is hidden from the IDP creation flow. Users can continue to search for courses manually, define learning commitments, and create Development Goals without AI-generated recommendations.

What happens if Skills are disabled?

If Skills are disabled, the Skills section is not displayed on the Talent Profile, so users cannot create skill-centered Development Goals. Users can still create general Development Goals and attach available learning courses through Define learning commitment.

Can users enroll in courses directly from Betterworks?

No. Betterworks provides course discovery and goal-setting functionality but does not trigger LMS enrollment. Selecting a course for a Development Goal saves a link to that course. When the user follows the link, they are redirected to the LMS and must use the provider's standard Enroll or Start Course workflow.

Will course search show courses already started or completed?

Yes, it can. Course search queries the provider's course catalog in real time, but Betterworks does not cross-reference the employee's personal transcript or active LMS enrollments during the search. Search results can therefore include courses the employee has already completed or is currently taking.

What happens when I select a course or AI recommendation for a skill?

Selecting either type of content automatically selects Create development goal for this skill. AI-generated development steps are added as individual milestones. Selected courses are grouped into milestones by LMS provider.

Can I create a skill-centered goal without milestones?

Yes. You can select Create development goal for this skill without selecting an AI recommendation or course. Betterworks creates a goal linked to the skill without milestones.

Can a skill have multiple active skill-centered goals?

No. A skill can have only one active skill-centered goal at a time. The goal remains active until it reaches 100% or is Completed.

What happens if I remove a skill from my Talent Profile?

Removing a skill from the Talent Profile also removes the skill-centered goal linked to that skill. The reverse does not apply. Deleting the Development Goal does not remove the skill from the profile.