Nobody’s perfect (I know, I know!) and yet, we’re all afraid of making mistakes, especially in a professional setting. Even one small mistake could lead to chastisement, and in extreme cases, termination. And frankly, this insecurity can get in the way of excellence — and to be more clear, being severely worried about making small mistakes can make for a pretty toxic workplace.
The world doesn’t need leaders who expect perfection, it needs leaders who enable it instead. Empathetic leaders understand that every employee can use a little help sometimes, so in a world full of mass layoff news, be the leader that believes in their people and invests in their growth.
If you’ve noticed an employee lagging behind, the first step of empathetic leadership is an empathetic Performance Improvement Plan (PIP).
What is a Performance Improvement Plan?
A Performance Improvement Plan, or PIP, is a game plan designed to help your employees do their best. It typically consists of three important pillars: current status of skills and efficiency, areas they can improve on, and of course, the most important - the road ahead. When done right, a PIP can help you and your employee tackle all the performance gaps and deficiencies your team is grappling with. Keep in mind the purpose of a performance improvement plan is to encourage your team to reflect and improve. If not handled rightly, a PIP can also break the employee’s morale. We’ve all probably heard horror stories about a PIP being the de-facto first step in termination, but it shouldn’t operate like that! Criticism without a constructive approach does more harm than good, which is why we’re going to show you how to make a performance improvement plan the right way!
Step-by-step: How to make performance improvement plans
1. Not a reactive measure, but a proactive measure
More often than not, a PIP scares the employee. It is generally seen as a soft-warning, a dreaded document only handed to you when you’re already in trouble. If you’re issuing a PIP, it’s important to first remind yourself that a PIP isn’t reactive, but proactive. With a performance improvement plan, you are trying to course-correct and help your employees so they can continue to succeed. That’s the goal.
2. Understand the expectations of the job
If you’re making a performance improvement plan, it has to be tailored for two things: the job and the employee. To help your senior designer improve, start by ensuring that the requirements of their job are clearly defined.
For instance, a designer needs to be good at design, but that's pretty vague. What kind of design are they helping the business with? Is it UI/UX? Web design? Layout? What are the tools they use? What are some tools they are not that proficient with but need to be? Get specific! Do they deliver on time? Do they have trouble accepting feedback from end-teams? This is the part where you can seek additional feedback (discreetly and professionally) from other team leads, the employee’s direct reports, and other employees they work in tandem with. At this stage, aim to have to have an elaborate diagram or a roadmap to demonstrate what the business requires from this talent.
3. Recognize improvement areas
Once you get an overview of what the job requires, the next step is to establish where the gaps are for the employee in question. For instance, if the designer isn’t delivering on time, there’s your gap! If they aren’t able to come up with their own creative input and direction, there’s your gap.
What about the hard and soft skills? These skills can be checked using this quick and easy personal skills audit tool. Our SkillMeter tells you the skills you have, the skills you can improve on, and the skills you’ll need for the future.
At PowerToFly, we don’t see gaps as weaknesses, but instead view them as improvement areas and upskilling opportunities.
4. Inviting conversations
At this stage, you should know where the employee is doing great and where they can do better. Now it’s time to invite them to the conversation. A lot of performance improvement plans fail because they don’t reach the employee until after they are drafted and documented. At that point, there’s very little autonomy or power that the employee has in the process except to accept it. This is also why many strategies fail – they aren’t aligned with the employee’s perspective or interests.
This is why, before you set the PIP to go-mode, you need to invite the employee for a strategic discussion. We understand that it can be tough to broach this subject, especially if the employee has been struggling to perform as required. You don’t want to seem too critical, but you also have to outline the truth of the situation. It can be difficult to balance not wanting to discourage them or give the employee a reason to get defensive all while you make it clear that the PIP is a corrective measure.
We hear you! Head right here if you’re looking for some help with navigating difficult conversations at work. Oftentimes, if this conversation is had first, you might not even need to draft a PIP. Many inconsistencies and issues can always be ironed out with a transparent discussion.
5. Be S.M.A.R.T. about it!
Specific. Measurable. Achievable. Relevant. Time-bound.
That’s how you want to set your goals for the performance improvement plan, because it’s crucial that your employee understands exactly what is needed, why it’s needed, and when results are expected. Timelines and parameters are what really make a goal real. The layer of “how will it be measured” adds accountability and structure, and of course any PIP should also be useful and doable. If the employee needs a few new skills to get to where you’d like them to be professionally, the organization should also provide them with the resources to do that, possibly in the form of e-learning courses, mentorships, webinars, networking events, etc.
Want a single unanimous platform to collate the holistic learning experience? PowerUp is a community of mentors, professionals, and industry leaders from various niches, coming together to help each other learn and grow. Be it time management or communication skills, there’s an expert to help your employees get better at it.
Importantly, you can also include your employee in the goal-setting phase to give them greater ownership over the entire process and set themselves up for success.
6. Not a one-time wonder!
A good PIP doesn’t stop at setting the expectations, it stops at results. For managers preparing performance improvement plans, it becomes imperative to check how the plan is working over a period of time. Touching base with your employees at regular periods will help you understand the efficiency of your performance improvement plan, which also allows you to tweak the plan as-needed. To do that, it’s important to not just share feedback but also receive it from your employees. For any strategy to work, the importance of feedback in the workplace can not be left behind.
A performance improvement plan is a strategy to help your employees get back to their best form. With the tips above, you can now create a PIP that doesn’t scare, but one that helps and cares.
At PowerToFly, we are always happy to help leaders of tomorrow set examples today, and we believe that the right way to effective talent management is through kindness and empathy.
