What Is a Performance Improvement Plan?

Your administrative assistant is coming in late twice a week and you are getting tired of hearing her daily personal calls. How can you deal with this problem behavior? Using a performance improvement plan (PIP) as part of an overall system or code of conduct will allow a manager to systematically identify improvement needs and address them in a measurable and objective way.

Function

Before you can effectively introduce the concept of a PIP to your employees, you need to come up with a general code of conduct or set of rules that you expect all employees to abide by in the workplace. These rules along with policies relating to how you will address issues when the policies are violated should be systematically communicated to your employees. Further, you should obtain signatures from each employee that they have read and understand the conduct expectations.

Types

Most PIPs deal with issues that are chronic rather than a one-time event. You would not use this tool if you are handling a very serious policy violation, violence in the workplace being one example. Certain situations will call for more drastic and immediate action, like suspension or termination. In instances where the facts are unclear but you suspect that a serious violation may have occurred and you need time to investigate, note that you can suspend the employee until the facts are gathered and a determination is reached.

Time Frame

Use of a PIP is common when the situation involves excessive absenteeism or tardiness. This is fairly clear-cut phenomenon that can be observed and measured. A PIP of this nature may be very simple and involve three meetings with the employee: to initiate the PIP, to follow up on progress and to complete it, hopefully with good results. You would allow enough time so that the behavior can be corrected and monitored. In this example, you might tell your assistant that in order to complete the PIP successfully, she cannot be late for work within the next 30 days. If she fails, you may give her a written warning, then a suspension, and a third incident may result in termination of employment.

Benefits

One of the key benefits of using the PIP tool is that you are more inclined to treat everyone the same. Once a practice on how to deal with a specific employee situation is set in place, you should abide by it unless extraordinary circumstances come into play. Document any and all steps you take, meetings you hold and related details, assuming that you could be asked to reproduce this information if the employee files a complaint against the company. Employers need to proceed in all circumstances as if it is assumed that they are going to be sued.

Considerations

Having a code of conduct integrated with a performance improvement process will help your managers and supervisors to remove some of the ambiguity involving aberrant employee behavior. Make certain the supervisors know that they will be held accountable for enforcing the code of conduct and get their buy-in at the start, so they will feel part of the process and will be comfortable administering the discipline. A common code of conduct would involve a progressive discipline for chronic undesirable behaviors. This might consist of a verbal reprimand, a first written warning, a second written warning, a suspension and finally, termination of employment. The key to making this work is fairness. You need to treat everyone the same.

Warning

Don't be afraid to take action when it is warranted. You condone the actions of the people who abuse the policies if you ignore them. Understand that everyone in the place of business knows they are doing it, whatever it is, and they are watching you to see if you are going to uphold the code.