Planning for Employee Development

Title 5 CFR 410.303 states that employees are responsible for self-development, for successfully completing and applying authorized training, and for fulfilling continued service agreements. In addition, they share their agency's responsibility to identify training needed to improve individual and organizational performance and identify methods to meet those needs, effectively and efficiently. IRS and individual responsibilities are found in the IRS National Agreement in Article 30.

To achieve the mission and goals of the organization, employees will need to continue developing as self-directed learners. Self-directed learning is a process in which individual employees:

Take the initiative, with or without the help of others, to identify their individual learning needs;

Develop their learning goals;

Identify material resources for learning;

Choose and implement appropriate learning strategies; and

Evaluate their learning outcomes.

Managers are responsible for assisting their employees in identifying and addressing developmental needs. Management may support an employee’s development through a variety of methods, including:

Arranging for assignments or developmental details that the manager and employee agree will provide needed knowledge and skills;

Providing IRS-owned or licensed course materials and other references (e.g., books, videos, computer-based training materials, etc.) for study at work or home;

Providing official time, leave without pay, adjusted work hours, or annual leave as appropriate to complete agreed-upon developmental activities; and

Arranging for attendance at appropriate in-service and outservice courses, meetings, and conferences, if management determines that these opportunities will enhance individual and organizational performance, and funding is available.

If a manager determines that an employee must complete certain training courses or activities to acquire or improve skills needed to perform current or mandatory duties, then the manager must provide the employee official time to complete the developmental activities. These activities may include assembled classes, self-study courses, or developmental assignments and other activities.

Employees are also encouraged to pursue self-development for potential future positions or assignments. In accordance with Title 5 of the United States Code, a manager’s decision to support an employee’s self-development plans using any of the means listed in (3) above must always be based on the degree to which the manager believes the employee’s newly acquired experience, knowledge, or skills will enhance organizational performance or meet one of the agency’s mission-related goals.

If time, budget, or other resources are limited, first priority is to support mandatory training as discussed in (4) above, before other employee self-developmental activities.

Managers may not allow employees to take training materials of a sensitive nature home to complete, either to acquire mandatory skills or for self-development. IRS software should not be loaded on personally-owned equipment. Software licenses are purchased for use on IRS equipment. By installing IRS software on a personally-owned computer, the IRS is deprived of that license. See IRM 10.8.27.