A performance improvement plan (PIP) is a formal process to help low performers meet their role’s expectations. It shouldn’t be seen as a punishment or a disciplinary action but rather as a tool to improve their performance and address their issues.
Before going into the plan details, it is essential to do a retrospective to understand why this person is going through a PIP to avoid the situation from repeating.
Have you asked the following question? Did the team provide the right environment and support for their success, or was it simply because the individual lacked motivation or the skill set? For example, someone joins a new team and doesn’t get any support because everyone is always busy firefighting or the team does not have enough seniors to coach and help with onboarding. Is it a fair outcome to put someone on a PIP in these situations? Probably not!
To avoid similar situations, it is vital that as a manager, you practise active management by giving regular feedback, having regular 1:1s and coaching your direct reports to help them succeed.
Implementing a PIP
Assuming an employee is consistently performing poorly and not meeting expectations. Then, a solution to help them to turn around the situation is to apply a PIP. The following steps are a guideline to help you provide a fair experience in such a challenging moment.
Identify the issues
Spend time identifying recurrent issues about their performance. Be specific and give examples showing they are not meeting the role expectations. The more information you have, the better prepared you will be to explain the situation and help to create a plan.
Conversation
Schedule a meeting with your direct report in a private place and give feedback about their performance by sharing all the examples identified previously. If you have been practising active management and regularly giving feedback, it shouldn’t surprise them that they aren’t meeting expectations.
Set Expectations
Setting expectations is necessary for the PIP to succeed. Define a deadline (usually three months) for your direct report to improve their performance and start meeting expectations. Be clear on what you expect from them to avoid miss expectations and excuses.
Define Goals
Now that you are on the same page, work with your direct report to set clear goals to help them meet the expectations. Create a shared document to document the goals and track the progress. Defining explicit goals is a significant part of the process and can contribute to increasing their success. The SMART framework is an excellent approach to setting goals, which ensures all goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
Monitor the Progress
During the PIP process, you must set up a recurrent meeting to discuss the progress towards meeting the goals. Provide constructive feedback as much as possible to help them succeed and celebrate their successes to motivate them to keep going.
Make a decision
The time has come, and you have to evaluate their performance during the PIP. In most cases, there are only two options: either meeting or not meeting expectations. In some cases, it might make sense to extend the PIP if some personal issues (e.g. sickness) were involved.
- Meeting Expectations - Congratulations, your direct report worked hard to improve his performance and survived the PIP. You should celebrate and value their resilience (e.g. give them a day off). However, consider taking follow-up actions like proposing training on specific areas where they don’t excel and coaching more frequently to avoid repeating the situation.
- Not meeting expectations - Unfortunately, they didn’t meet the expectations, and you need to have a challenging conversation about terminating their contract. There is no easy way to communicate such a thing, but you must handle the situation empathetically and be supportive. Prepare the conversation ahead and share the outcome in a private place. Be straightforward and respectful. Explain your decision to terminate their contract and give some advice to help them in the future.
The Dark Side of PIPs
Putting someone through a PIP is an unpleasant experience and a draining process where someone needs to prove to their manager and team they can perform their job at the expected level. It is mentally exhausting, stressful and impactful on someone’s mental health. It is a period where they need to work hard to improve their performance and sometimes deal with the social factor from their coworkers since they might threaten them differently, knowing they are low performers (this must be avoided at all costs by making the PIP a private plan between the manager and the direct report).
Returning from a situation like this requires a lot of resilience and perseverance. Even if they successfully survive the PIP, in most cases, people tend to leave the company after a few months. It is not easy to forget that they went through a PIP and must regain their colleague’s respect.
Mentioning this does not mean PIPs are useless. Sometimes, people can turn around the situation, get promotions and succeed. As a manager, your job is to support them and make it a more pleasant experience.