How to Establish a Performance Improvement Plan

How to Establish a Performance Improvement Plan

Ideally, your organization will be staffed with exceptional employees who live up to all your expectations and beyond. You'll do periodic performance reviews where you acknowledge this great performance and outline how your employees can improve to reach whatever career goals they have.

Most teams don't live up to that ideal, though. There may be one or more great workers, combined with some who do their jobs adequately and one or two who fall short. If someone in the latter group consistently fails to meet your basic expectations, it may be time for disciplinary action. A Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) is a formal way to document exactly what you expect of an employee. Here are a few tips for writing a winning PIP.

Focus on Behaviors

As early as possible, begin documenting behaviors that you find don't match up to your expectations. Your PIP should focus on those behaviors, citing specific events to give the worker concrete examples. This documentation will also prove crucial if you later must let the employee go and that termination is disputed.

Outline Expectations

Immediately after stating the problem, you should identify exactly what you expect the employee to do to get on track. If you manage a sales team, for instance, you should set monthly goals and emphasize that you expect the employee to reach or exceed them every month moving forward. Also let the employee know what resources you'll provide to ensure success, whether it's training or mentorship from a high-performing teammate.

Describe Next Steps

Your employee should walk out of the meeting knowing what comes next. Your PIP should include, in writing, a deadline for improvement and a scheduled meeting to discuss how things are going. If there are consequences for failing to meet the goals outlined, such as demotion or termination, that should be mentioned in the PIP, as well.

Tracking and Follow-Up

Before your meeting, you should have already put a plan in place to track your employee's progress. If you've set a goal, document in the plan what metrics will be used to monitor performance. Make sure you can demonstrate that the goal wasn't met, whether it's through customer complaints, sales figures, statements from coworkers, or some other documentation.

Although Performance Improvement Plans aren't good news for the employees who receive them, they're a necessary step for poor performers. When administered correctly, a PIP will give employees goals to work toward, which in some cases will turn a poorly-performing worker into a valuable part of your team.