Do Performance Improvement Plans Work?

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A standard component of most organization’s human resource policies is a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP).  This process formalizes the timing, objectives and monitoring expectations for addressing performance issues.There is no denying the necessity of the PIP process from a legal or regulatory standpoint, but does it deliver expected outcomes?

Unfortunately, PIPs could be considered analogous to counter-offers, as in most cases, I haven’t witnessed positive outcomes.

Let’s assess it from both an employee and a manager’s point of view.

For the employee, a PIP is very likely going to be received as a slap in the face as it formalizes the perception of poor performance beyond the employee-manager circle.  Even in the most tight-lipped organizations, it is extremely difficult to keep the knowledge that the employee is under formal review completely confidential, and at a bare minimum, the employee is aware that one or more staff in HR are now aware of the issue.

This shame or embarrassment may cause some employees to resign mid-way through the PIP.  While this might be the outcome that the organization is hoping for, it is an unfortunate means to an end.

Unless the PIP is truly the first instance of negative feedback received by the employee, they are likely already aware that they are not meeting expectations, so the fact that their performance has not improved usually indicates that the expectation gaps will not be easily bridged.  Formally documenting identified issues might help to focus attention, but often times the problem may simply be too difficult to fix and this realization would likely have dawned on both employee and manager in advance of instituting the PIP.

For a manager, the act of having to formally document the issues and worse, to formally audit performance over a defined period of time adds significant administrative effort to their daily routine.  How likely is it that the manager will have a positive mind-set going into the process knowing that this burden is about to fall on them?  This negativity will color their participation and will increase the chances of a negative outcome. 

If there were easy solutions to address performance expectation gaps, most managers would likely have already explored those with the employees, hence the manager is likely to treat the PIP as an (un)necessary evil.

Ideally, HR departments could present managers and employees with statistics on the outcomes of past PIPs.  This will help convince some managers of the benefits of persisting in coaching and developing expected behaviors, and might inspire some employees to see the upside of pursuing other opportunities on their own terms.

Contributor:   Kiron D. Bondale

Kiron D. Bondale, PMP is the Director, Corporate Project Management Office for Agricorp.  

Kiron has worked for over thirteen years in the project management domain with a focus on technology and change management.  He has setup and managed Project Management Offices and has provided Project Portfolio Management

(PPM) and Project Management (PM) consulting services to clients across multiple industries.

Kiron served as a volunteer director on the Board of the PMI Lakeshore Chapter for six years and remains an active member of PMI.

He has published articles on PPM & PM in multiple industry journals and has delivered presentations within the PPM/PM domain at multiple conferences and webinars.  In addition to this blog, Kiron contributes articles on a monthly basis to ProjectTimes.com.

Kiron is a firm believer that a pragmatic approach to organization change that addresses process & technology, but most important, people will maximize your chances for success.

For more of Kiron's views on project, business & change management, please visit his blog at http://kbondale.wordpress.com or contact him directly at kiron_bondale @ yahoo . ca

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Report Abuse   Judy_Dobles 02/26/2012 2:03:36 PM EST Looking at the question, do PIPs work, from a different perspective, my answer is, "Yes." By their very design, they are meant to be the last step in a process. In my experience the percentage of individuals that are on PIPs is very small. As mentioned earlier, supervisory coaching usually rectifies the situation. Not every person hired is going to work out as an employee for multiple reasons. I think the PIP works because it clearly lays out what is expected of the employee and what the supervisor will be doing to assist them on a daily or weekly basis. It makes the employee understand clearly what they need to do. If the employee shows no initiative or improvement, then exiting them from the company is the right thing to do. Replies (0) Post a reply Sign in or Sign up to post a comment

Report Abuse   Trainingdirector 02/22/2012 1:49:30 AM EST I totally agree with Kiron. When managers learn to properly give pro-active feedback on performance on a day by day and week by week basis, the big issues leading to the ridiculous PIP process just don't occur. Further, the most common implementation of a PIP is to set the documentation in place, give it a safe timeframe of a few months, then sit back and hope the individual will do something different. Thats abdication, not management. Correctly executed Performance Conversations will conform to legal requirements, take far less elapsed time (you have to learn to make performance management a one-time conversation) and get immediate change. Replies (0) Post a reply Sign in or Sign up to post a comment