Performance discrepancies or issues in employee performance are common things in every organization. Once in every financial year or new recruitment, the organization would find the necessity of a performance improvement plan. It is certainly not possible to expect that every employee of the organization would be consistent throughout the period. Due to many personal and professional reasons, often the change in performance is seen. This deficiency is cured by providing them an opportunity to improve their performance through a performance improvement plan template.
Table of Contents
What is a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP)?
A performance improvement plan, also known as a performance action plan, is a process initiated in an organization to rectify the identified performance deficiencies of employees. It is regarded as a great opportunity for an employee since they receive an opportunity to resolve the professional issue that is dragging the employee’s performance down.
It is conducted in an organization to resolve behavioral problems. Unlike other organizations, some companies are willing to invest time in setting a performance improvement plan instead of demoting or terminating an employee. The company’s ultimate objective is to increase the performance level of the employee who has been lacking in the row. Therefore, the best way is to craft the performance improvement plan template.
Performance Improvement Plan Templates
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Performance Improvement Plan For Employees
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How to Plan a Performance Improvement Plan?
Before drafting the performance improvement plan template, some pre-constructive actions are required. The company policy works in a certain way, and therefore before implementing the performance improvement plan template, you need some prepping.
1. Have a consultation with HR.
- The HR of the company are determined if the performance improvement plan is appropriate for the situation.
- The HR administers the conjunction in performance improvement plan with the employer to prevent any bias.
- The HR guides the employer and employee throughout the plan.
2. Inform the employee.
If you and HR are convinced to initiate the performance improvement plan, inform the employee. Only if the management of the company is sure of the case, they should notify the employee.
The employee would be ready then to follow the upcoming strategies. It is important as without notifying your employee you will not be able to conduct the program and expect the full participation of them.
3. Outline the strategies.
If not written, outline the strategies verbally with your team. As a manager, you must be having something in your mind that you are thinking of implementing in the improvement plan to have an actual outcome. For the fact, you could hold a meeting, where your team and the concerned employees will be called and discuss the matter.
Planning out strategies is not enough. It must also be seen if the particular strategies are appropriate for the employees. Different employees work in different ways and, therefore the techniques to improve their performance level might also be different.
Not much of a work, consider these three points before drafting the performance improvement plan template Excel, and you will be ready to make the document.
Now you are ready to head towards the drafting of a performance improvement plan template. Use Google Sheets or MS Excel to draft the document. You could download a free printable performance improvement template as well. The readymade document would be a convenient tool to craft the same.
Editable performance improvement plan template |
90 day performance improvement plan template |
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How to Implement the Performance Improvement Plan?
After consulting with Company HR, discussing the plans with the employees you could start to prepare the PIP. Follow the following steps to reach an effective performance improvement plan.
1. Identify the issue.
Identifying the issue is the foremost thing to do. Identify if the issue is a behavior problem or the performance problem. In case of multiple problems make different columns and write them down. Present it with proper facts and events. Register the impact of the issue as well as decide the problem or directly mention why it is an issue.
2. Find the frequency.
While identifying the issue you must have recorded the date from which the issue has been noticed, along with it mentioning the frequency as well. If the employee appears to be consistent with the underperformance, then it is a serious concern and requires a serious problem-solving method. But if the employee is competent but since a month there have been some differences in the performances, then it might be resolved within a week program as well.
Therefore before outlining the preventive measures and the solutions, determine how often it happens and what is the frequency of it.
3. Identify the necessary change.
To improve the performance, proper measurement and identification of the required modifications are essential. Measure the steps and define the standards that must remain in the employee performance. The required change in the employee activities and performance is not in everyone’s case, therefore, it is not a good idea to use the same formula for everyone.
4. Determine the resolutions.
The communication with the employees and the identification of the required change will give you an idea of the strategies that must be applied. Determining the appropriate strategies is the essential task of the performance improvement plan. Therefore while defining the resolutions and the strategies that can act upon to help the employee get over the issue must be within the periphery of the employee.
To improve the performance, adding extravagant techniques is a waste. Therefore while writing the resolutions make sure it resembles the employee’s method as well.
5. Set expected outcome.
As a manager or an employer, you are competent enough to determine the outcome. After a duration, if the strategies are applied without any fail as a manager, you could easily write down the outcome to be expected. It is essential for the employee as well since it informs them of the standard the employer is expecting him/her to match.
6. Know the Policies and Participants.
The performance improvement plan or PIP is concerned about the failures. It identifies the root cause of the performance deficiency, measures the issue, and finds out a plan to resolve it. The general causes identified in most organizations were the introduction of the new work process, a dearth in the training process, communication gap, etc.
Identifying performance degradation, and chalking out strategies to improve the same is an intelligent move to take by an organization. This process helps the organization and the employees in various aspects. The communication gap that usually occurs between an employer and an employee improves, it builds confidence within employees, they get motivated since the company itself is taking an initiative to bring an improvement in their performance.
Participants.
With this starts, the actual PIP. Addressing the participants of the performance improvement plan is essential. All employees, employers, and other members of the organization associated with the planning process must be registered in this section of PIP.
Depending on this portion of the document, the entire performance improvement plan template is based. Therefore, write the proper area of concern. It is the problem area that is affecting the employee’s performance, therefore it is to be written in a clear and clean statement after proper identification of the issue.
Even if the employee and employer are both aware of the area which is of concern, it must be penned down in the document. It impacts in a good way when we see the problem several times as it helps us find out the problem accurately, or there remains a possibility to get diverted from the issue which results in a plan not accurate for the concerned obstacle.
7. Know the Employer’s observation.
The employer or the manager the employee is accountable to master she only has some observation that has confirmed the need to craft a performance improvement plan template. In this process of improvement, the employer has a great role to perform.
The issues they observe the problem are planned to rectify. Having said that, if the problem appears to be deep enough, an entire team is employed to solve the issue. It majorly happens when the decrease in the work performance is observed in the majority of employees working under certain instructions or any particular employee.
8. Counselling or Discussion Report.
Commencing the improvement plan begins with a proper discussion with the employees. Without proper communication, the behavioral problems cannot be resolved. Many a time, the problem isn’t really about the professional ground, it goes on to the psychological and personal issue as well that leaves an employee to show any improvement in the work, or go even down with their current working standard.
After proper communication with the employees in concern, it is to be registered in the document if such a point comes out.
9. Identify the Areas of Improvement.
Just like the area of concern, the area of improvement is one of the essential grounds to consider in the document. It contains the duty is required for the improvement. It might include timely reporting, knowing the work well, discussing the concept, and nurturing accountability as well.
Usually, the areas of improvement happen to be the exact answer to the area of concern. You could use the Google spreadsheet or MS Excel, to justify both the portions. Therefore, use columns and rows to write down the areas of improvement. It is majorly the responsibility of the employer or the team head employed to look into the matter.
10. Know the Resources.
In the improvement plan, there exist activities that steadily take the employee towards the improvement zone. The improvement activities need resources. It could be completed in the physical or psychological form. Usually, the improvement plan is a mix of both.
Therefore, state the resources available to resolve the issue. Writing the resources is essential as this written statement often acts as evidence or record that helps the organization find out the strategies applied, if required, later.
11. Estimate the Expected Outcome.
If the performance improvement plan is a month-long or a week-long method, mention the outcome expected out of the activities performed. After 30 days program, the management or the employer would like to see some improvements in the employee. But there are some estimations or computations that measure the result.
If the expected outcome is written down in the performance improvement plan template, later it could be compared with the actual outcome. Through this, the management, as well as the employer and employee, would comprehend the impact of the plan.
12. Management Support.
The management supports the entire process of the performance improvement plan. The employer solely does not choose to start a program to improve the employee’s performance. Since there are companies who prefer to terminate the employee’s state of looking into their issues.
The management plays the greatest role in the improvement activities, and hence to be written down. The presence of the management must be recorded in the document with transparency.
Sample of performance improvement plan |
Personal performance improvement plan template |
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How to Craft a Performance Improvement Plan Form
The Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) is a document that will assist with the improvement of performance for those underperforming employees. The following introduction will provide the necessary information about what goes into a PIP form and how it can be used as an effective tool to help improve performance.
The first step of the process is to identify what needs to be improved, whether it is attendance or attitude. It then needs to be determined what resources are available for assistance in accomplishing the goal, such as feedback or training programs. The next step is composing an action plan with specific steps that need to be taken and a timeline for carrying them out. It should also include expectations for progress, reinforcement, and review of plan periodically.
Finally, each Project Implementation Plan (PIP) should be signed off on by both parties before corrective action implementation begins.
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