What to do if you’re put on a performance improvement plan?

What is a performance improvement plan?

A performance improvement plan (PIP) is a formal process used by companies to help employees who may not be meeting performance expectations. It is typically initiated when a manager does not believe that an employee is performing at the level of their peers for the role. By placing employees on an improvement plan, your manager is setting up a clearly documented path should the company need to justify any terminations.

Does being placed on a performance improvement plan mean termination?

Not necessarily. While you should begin polishing your resume as termination is a possible outcome if you fail to meet the standards of the performance improvement plan. There aren’t any accurate numbers that show the success rate of how many employees succeed or fail their performance improvement plans. Anecdotally, the odds may be stacked against you since performance improvement plans are usually done as a last resort, but that doesn’t mean it is not impossible to overcome.

Here are 7 steps you should take if you are placed on a performance improvement plan

1. Take a breath.
2. Update your resume.
3. Develop a clear plan with your manager
4. Ask for help
5. Execute against the goals 
6. Regularly check in with your manager on your progress 
7. Ask for feedback from your peers

Take a breath.

Being placed on a PIP can be an unexpecting event for most people. Whether you agree with your manager or not, it can be an overwhelming experience. It’s easier said than done but try not to make any quick decisions if it happens like quitting your job immediately before you have another one lined up, there’s still the possibility that you can turn it around. Worse case scenario, you’d still want to maintain your salary and benefits for as long as you can until you find another opportunity.

Update your resume.

You will need to have an offensive and defensive strategy. Take advantage while you still have your salary and benefits and make it sort of a second job to apply for new jobs, your 5pm to 9pm. If you have saved your old job description, use that to polish up your resume. You still have access to company resources so take the time to go through your projects and document what you did and its impact. You may also be constrained to external companies only since many companies prevent you from moving to another department if you are currently on an improvement plan. 

Develop a clear plan with your manager

If you are placed on PIP unexpectedly or not, you need to develop a game plan. Whether that is a comeback plan or exit plan, you need a strategy. You should ask your manager for a specific outline of what you can do to meet expectations and most importantly, what is the specified timeline. Knowing how much time you have with a PIP status is critical. It gives you a clock and can determine if this is something you can reasonably accomplish, or if you should use the time to look for a new job.

Ask for help

If you don’t have a mentor, get one. A mentor can be a second pair of eyes over your plan and let you know how realistic and feasible it is. They can also provide you with feedback on how to approach the scenario and what you should do next. Seeking support for others, whether that be family or friends, as this can be a difficult experience. Do not try to power through or go through this on your own. Reach out for emotional support to help you think clearly about your next steps.

Execute against the goals 

Once you know what you need to do and have a plan, flawlessly execute it. It can be hard to do this when you know there’s a possibility that it could all still end in termination despite your hard work. Reframe this perspective and look at its worst-case scenario, you are honing your skills, and you can take that experience with you. Best case scenario, you are putting in the work that could help you keep your job.  

Regularly check in with your manager on your progress 

You don’t want to get to the end of your PIP timeline to ask for feedback from your manager. You want to show that you are taking this seriously and working to turn this around. If you work onsite or remotely, try to set up a daily or weekly end of day sync with your manager to show progress of what you worked on that day, what you will work on tomorrow, and how you are executing against the plan. These regular checks in are a good gauge for you and your manager to see progress and get a read on the situation. Here is where you can also read between the lines. If you are executing, hitting the goals and milestones set in the plan, and your manager is still not giving you a positive outlook about it, make sure your progress is documented but this is also a clear signal that you need to look for a new job.

Ask for feedback from your peers

This is important and requires you to be open and receptive. Asking for feedback can feel vulnerable, but you are in a vulnerable situation. Sometimes there are things about us that we are oblivious to, and we need to get another opinion on. If you are not performing against your peers, you need to know what your peers are doing. Ask your teammates what they think of your work, how you can improve, or what else is needed for your projects.

What happens if you are successful with the performance improvement plan?

If you know why you were placed on a PIP, you may want to stay in your role if you succeed. You can use this experience to learn from your mistakes and as a learning opportunity. It’s not impossible to come back from this but if you have a great relationship with your team and manager, continuing to work with them could be a good experience.

For some who are successful, it still may make sense to look for another job. Successfully passing the PIP will buy you more time with the company, but depending on your circumstances, you may have tarnished reputation within your organization.

What happens if you fail the performance improvement plan?

If you fail the PIP, you are likely going to be terminated by your company. Many states have at-will employment so you may or may not get a package and depending on the reason of the PIP, you may or may not qualify for unemployment benefits. When you are looking at new jobs, your prospective employers will want to complete an employment verification, this is just to verify your job history is accurate. When it comes to employment verification, most companies use a third-party service. These third parties are typically only permitted to verify the dates you were employed at the company, not the reason you are no longer employed. If you are asked why, you left your previous position, you can say something simple like “it was not a good fit”, “I wanted to try a different sector” etc.

The intention of the performance improvement plan is to give employees a clear path to meeting expectations and an opportunity to address performance issues before more serious consequences, such as termination, can happen. It is designed to be a supportive, collaborative, and constructive process. However, the outcome can vary depending on the circumstances of the PIP, and the employee’s response to the plan. It’s important to communicate regularly with your manager to understand and gauge what the likely outcome of success or failure is.

Regardless, we can also argue that an employee should know about their unmet performance expectations before being placed on a plan. Through one-on-one meetings with your manager, you should be getting feedback on a regular basis. If you have been having these meetings and nothing was ever said previously you may have a case to argue for why you are being placed on PIP. Always document your conversations and your work contributions no matter what level you perform at, you never know when you will need it.

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