User Guide for iPlan Level I & II

Designed to help employees get the very best from the TypeFocus iPlan Program

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Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................................................. 2

WELCOME TO THE IPLAN PROGRAM........................................................................................ 3

HOW TO REGISTER ......................................................................................................................... 3

WHAT IS THE IPLAN PROGRAM? ............................................................................................... 4

WHAT BENEFITS DOES IT HAVE FOR YOU? ........................................................................................ 4 WHAT PRINCIPLES IS IT BUILT ON?................................................................................................... 4 WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS TO MY MINISTRY/AGENCY?....................................................................... 4

DESCRIPTIONS OF THE “LEVELS” OF THE IPLAN PROGRAM............................................... 5

LEVEL I OFFERS: ............................................................................................................................ 5 LEVEL II OFFERS: ........................................................................................................................... 5 PROGRAM MAP: ............................................................................................................................. 5

FEATURES OF THE IPLAN PROGRAM ....................................................................................... 6

HOW TO START AN EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE & DEVELOPMENT PLAN ......................... 7

ONCE YOU’VE STARTED AN EPDP, YOU WILL SEE THIS SCREEN: ....................................................... 8

FINISHING AN EPDP ..................................................................................................................... 9

FINAL THOUGHTS ABOUT THE EPDP ............................................................................................... 9

HOW TO BENEFIT FROM THE SELF-AWARENESS REPORT ................................................ 10

HOW TO BENEFIT FROM THE CAREER DEVELOPMENT REPORT....................................... 11

HOW TO BENEFIT FROM THE TEAM SURVEY ........................................................................ 12

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Welcome to the iPlan Program

How to register 1. Go to the website http://iplan.typefocus.com 2. Highlight your Ministry or Agency in the drop box by clicking on it 3. Click on the “next” button 4. Click on the New Users: Click to Register button. 5. Enter your Ministry or Agency site password (which your manager should have given you)

and your “work email address” – please note that when you continue, an email message will be sent to the email address you’ve just given. It will come to you as an email and you will need to go to where you normally get your emails (e.g., Outlook) to continue the registration process.

6. If you receive an error message at this point saying that your email is not authorized, you will need to have your Ministry iPlan administrator enter your email address into the program. Your manager should be able to put you into touch with this person.

7. The email will arrive in a few minutes with a temporary password and a link to take you to the registration page. You will be able to create your own username and a new password, so your information will be kept private. The following information is also collected: • your classification (needed to relate competencies to your position) • gender (needed so the program can create gender-correct pronouns for your reports) • employee ID number (needed for the government-wide CHIPS program)

8. If you are still having a problem, please contact your Ministry iPlan Administrator. Your manager should have this information.

Once registered, you’ll be able to take advantage of all the benefits of the iPlan program.

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What is the iPlan Program?

What benefits does it have for you? You will understand: • How your work contributes to ministry goals • Key competencies required to be successful in your job • What you need to develop in order to be successful • How your work/performance will be measured and recognized

What principles is it built on? • Employee initiated and managed • Forward looking • Incorporates a planning, focusing and reviewing cycle • Results-oriented and linked to Service Plan and team goals • Personal development & competencies key components • Employee-supervisor dialogue is key to success

What are the benefits to my Ministry/Agency? • Common organizational approach to setting goals and reviewing performance and

development • Alignment of individual plans with ministry goals • Ongoing process and dialogue between employees and supervisors on performance and

development • Links to corporate learning & development, career & succession planning, rewards &

recognition

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Descriptions of the “Levels” of the iPlan Program

Level I offers: • Online Employee Performance & Development Plan (EPDP), and • Competency Centre.

Level II offers: • Online Employee Performance & Development Plan (EPDP), • Competency Centre, • Self-awareness Report based on personality type, • Career Development Report based on competencies, and • Team Survey Report.

Program Map:

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Features of the iPlan Program This is the iPlan’s home page with all the features identified.

You can edit your own information like your name, email and classification.

Includes tutorials and tools to change your personality type.

Available only with Level II.

Graphic view of program

Frequently Asked Questions

Totally voluntary; strictly for your own self-development.

Available for team leaders to find out how their teams are doing. Often the first step in a team building session.

These two features form the “heart” of the EPDP process.

Available with Level I.

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How to start an Employee Performance & Development Plan When you click into the Employee Performance and Development Plan link, it will take you to a page with these instructions for an employee: Starting an EPDP 1. You can start your EPDP by clicking below. Once started, you will need to complete the

following steps: • Step 1 will ask you to identify your supervisor. • Step 2 will ask you to select the start and end date of the report.

2. You may have a maximum of 2 EPDPs running at the same time. 3. At the mid-point, it is recommended that employees and supervisors meet to discuss the

progress being made. 4. At the end of the report period, employees and their supervisors should meet again to

discuss the report. This report can replace the regular performance appraisal, if printed, agreed to, and signed off by both parties.

Editing existing EPDPs • Once you have started an EPDP, you can click the ‘edit’ button next to the report you wish to

edit. Cancelling an EPDP • If you wish to cancel an existing EPDP, click the ‘cancel’ button next to the report you wish to

cancel. You will be asked to confirm your cancellation. New Report Feature • If you wish to restart an EPDP or copy the content of an existing EPDP into a new report,

click on the ‘new report’ button next to the report.

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Once you’ve started an EPDP, you will see this screen:

What is the meaning of STATUS? Pending – means you’ve started an EPDP but it is not approved Approved – means both you and your supervisor have approved it as being developed to the

point where you can use it Archived – means that both you and your supervisor have archived it at the end of the

reporting period Note: the approval and archiving features are found at the top of the developing EPDP report: After you’ve developed your EPDP report and discussed it with your supervisor, you will both “approve” the report by clicking into the link above. When both of you have done so, the status will change to Approved. The same process would occur at the end of the fiscal year when you want to archive the report so you can start a new one.

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Finishing an EPDP You shouldn’t have any problems working through the four parts of the EDPD report. It makes most sense to work through them in this order:

• Key Work Goals • Key Competencies • Personal Learning Plan • Comments

Final thoughts about the EPDP EPDPs are done in partnership between an employee and his or her supervisor. When the EPDP file is set up, both the employee and supervisor can access it. This makes it very easy for both people to be in close communications with each other because any changes or comments made are immediately available to the other. Hints about using the EPDP: • Because the file is always open to change, you might want to take a hard copy at the time of

approval and again at the time of archiving. It will always be the hard copy that is the “official” report.

• If the supervisor wants to make editorial comments along the way, he or she should probably MAKE THEIR COMMENTS USING CAPS so they will be easy to identify

• Whenever the employee or supervisor makes significant changes/edits to the file, it would be helpful to email the other person so they can be kept up to speed.

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How to benefit from the self-awareness report The dictionary defines personality as the combination of your distinctive individual qualities. The better you understand these qualities, the better your career decisions and the more you can contribute to your team’s goal setting efforts. Carl Rogers, a famous psychotherapist, once said that everyone is trying to answer the question, "Who am I . . . really?" Knowing your personality type helps you answer this question, and as you understand yourself better, you begin to understand others better too. The self-awareness report is based on one’s personality type and is a comprehensive 19-page report touching on such issues as workplace preferences and frustrations, areas of development and handling organizational change and stress. The basis for the report is the TypeFocus Personality Type Indicator, which was developed by David Wood (who is trained in psychology and psychometrics) over a period of six years. This instrument has demonstrated good reliability and validity statistics and has been in use by school and university career centers since 1997. Self-awareness is the first step to personal success because the better you understand yourself, the more you are empowered to change, adapt and grow. Imagine being able to communicate - really communicate - with your colleagues, so you share a common language and a way of understanding each other that builds trust and creates great working relationships. This is what the Self-awareness Report in the iPlan program is all about - helping you work more effectively with less stress and better results. The Self-awareness Report is only available in the Level II option of the iPlan program. Everyone who has access to this report through the iPlan program should also have the opportunity to attend a workshop that explains personality type theory and applications. Some important considerations for your peace-of-mind: Your personality results are for your own self-awareness; taking the questionnaire is voluntary and your results are confidential. No one but yourself can access your results from the program; the only time someone will know your results is when you choose to share your results with them. You may take the personality assessment, print the results for your own files and then delete your scores by going to: Resources > Personality Tools > Re-do the questionnaire (which deletes the existing scores in preparation for a new set of scores) – then simply don’t complete the questionnaire.

You may choose to come to one of the Personality Type Workshops to gain a better understanding of the theory and application before committing to doing the questionnaire yourself.

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How to benefit from the Career Development Report In this report, you will identify a target career and assess your competencies against it. Your goal is to continue working on your strengths and address any competency gaps that might exist. You can then prepare yourself for this position by creating an individual career development plan, which can be discussed with your supervisor or mentor. Determining your career development needs is an important part of work life because it will help you and your supervisor to:

• Develop shared expectations for your training and development

• Facilitate your ongoing career planning

Get the job you want! Note that both the Self-awareness Report and the Career Development Report are solely for your own benefit and both are voluntary.

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How to benefit from the Team Survey An effective team is a group of interdependent people who agree on a goal - and who agree that the best ways to achieve that goal is to work together. An effective team also creates an enjoyable experience for its members, who look forward to team meetings and feel a real sense of progress and accomplishment. Like individuals, teams go through stages of development. And, like individuals, teams may also get stuck in an immature phase, which leads to reduced effectiveness. Understanding your team's stage of development helps you to be an effective team member. You can initiate the Team Survey as many times as you want and for as many different teams as you want. Your completed results are automatically saved, so you can compare one team to another or compare the same team from one year to another. This report benefits you as a team leader in two ways:

• Your career success is related to how well you can lead and develop teams, so this report is especially useful as a developmental feedback tool.

• This report also makes an excellent starting point for team building sessions.

Once you have initiated a team survey, everyone identified as being part of the team will receive an email from the iPlan program asking him or her to log into a web address to respond to a “team effectiveness survey.” As the initiator, you will be able to determine when you want to close the survey off. The program will not let you close the survey until at least three people have completed it. This provides some anonymity for the participants. When you choose to close the survey, the results will be collated and made available to you from the iPlan program.