8/4/23, 2:59 AM Does a 'performance improvement plan' always spell the end?

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Does a 'performance improvement plan' always spell the end?

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By Alex Christian 3rd August 2023

Ostensibly a set of objectives that fast-track employee improvement, PIPs are

often be a tool for bosses to nudge out underperforming workers.

Article continues below

onathan began struggling just weeks into his new job at a cloud service

J
provider. The New York-based tech worker says he was offered a senior
position: instead, it was a junior role, offering basic IT support at a call centre.

Following complaints of low ticketing numbers – records that document

customer service issues – and failing to stick to the company’s call flow, Jonathan’s manager
pulled him aside. “We had some conversations that they [later] said were verbal warnings,”
explains Jonathan. “Then, they gave me a performance improvement plan (PIP).”

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8/4/23, 2:59 AM Does a 'performance improvement plan' always spell the end? - BBC Worklife
Unlike most PIPs, which offer struggling workers a formal, goal-driven structure and
timeline to meet employer expectations, Jonathan says his plan was essentially
measureless. “It had no end date – just until my performance ‘improved’.” 

Jonathan says the PIP left him feeling nit-picked and micromanaged – ironically, it made him
less able to perform in his role. It also convinced him that there was no future for him at the
company.

“I felt I was being managed out of the organisation,” he says. “There were so many strict
rules they placed on me, and there was so much hand holding. I left the following month.” 

Fundamentally, PIPs are meant to help flagging employees find their footing again. If
workers hit the objectives outlined in the plan, the general idea is they can keep their jobs.
But often, say experts, these plans contain targets that can be extremely hard to meet,
often requiring workers to completely turn around past behaviours or surpass hard-to-reach
metrics against the clock. 

Some employees can recover from this situation and eventually thrive in their roles. Yet PIPs
may often spell the end for workers: a mere formality, which organisations issue to push
unfavoured employees out the door.

Personality over performance?

PIPs have been a fixture of the workplace for decades – and are, theoretically, well meaning.

“The initial intention in creating a plan that sets clear, measurable goals in supporting
employees and improving their performance was probably right,” says Lucy Adams, founder
of London-based HR consultancy Disruptive HR. “But PIPs often make matters worse.”

I felt I was being managed out of the organisation. There were

so many strict rules they placed on me, and there was so
much hand holding. I left the following month – Jonathan
Often issued as a last-ditch attempt by a manager to ameliorate a broken working
relationship, companies typically set PIPs against a deadline, often ranging from two weeks
to six months. They place underperforming workers against a wall to improve – and quickly. 

Although PIP goals can be skills based, Adams says most plans’ criteria often focus on
employee’s personality. A typical plan may include objectives such as being less difficult
with colleagues, or having nicer interactions with clients. 

“While some PIPs may highlight areas of competency, more often than not they seek to
change someone’s attitude. Conversely, a skill-related issue with an employee that’s willing,
positive and motivated is usually resolved without ever resorting to formal means.”

Because PIPs focus so much on individual behaviour, they can be hard to measure. “The
issue may be an employee isn't collaborating enough with colleagues – but how do you
quantify an improvement?,” says Adams. “Asking the worker to change an ingrained
behaviour is also difficult: what a manager may label as rude, the employee may consider
fine. And in a knowledge economy, measuring performance is always hard.” 

And with this focus on attitude and behaviour, whether a worker succeeds is ultimately
subjective. “PIPs can be shrouded in clear, measurable goals but it often ultimately comes
down to one person’s view over another,” says Adams. “It often rests on
an individual manager’s judgement call.”

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8/4/23, 2:59 AM Does a 'performance improvement plan' always spell the end? - BBC Worklife

Experts say workers are often given subjective goals that make their targets even harder to
reach (Credit: Getty Images)

Adams says that employers often use PIPs to protect themselves. “By the time it’s reached a
formal, written process with a timeframe in which an employee must demonstrate a new
attitude, informal conversations and warnings have already taken place. It’s likely the
worker has already tried and failed to change. So, a PIP is merely due process, so a
disciplinary process stands up at a potential tribunal – it reduces an employer’s liability.”

Alongside legal box-checking, managers may also employ PIPs to silently nudge
underperforming workers out of an organisation.

“It’s often a formal, stressful process that essentially tells the employee off for their
attitude,” says Adams. “As conversations progress, criticisms increase, frustrations are
shared. It creates an adversarial relationship – it signals to the employee that their long-
term future may be elsewhere.”

‘The sword of Damocles’

It’s not all doom, however: in some instances, PIPs can successfully help pull employees
back from the brink. 

“We recruited one employee right out of college and he lacked professionalism – but we
could tell he was really talented,” explains Shane Hummus, the founder of a career-focused
YouTube media company, based in the US. “He didn’t initially meet the goals we set, and he
had issues with lateness, so we gave him a three-month PIP.”

The employee immediately responded to the performance improvement plan, says

Hummus. One of its goals included performance metrics that were easy to measure. “Their
numbers improved a lot and there was definitely a noticeable uptick in engagement – he's
one of my best employees now.” 

Employers can use PIPs as a means of coaching and training workers, says Denise Rousseau,
professor of organisational behaviour and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University, in
Pittsburgh, US. But she says communication is key.

When you want the employee to be open-minded to

suggestions, it instead creates a flight, fight or freeze response.
The worker has the sword of Damocles hanging over them,
making it harder to suddenly perform at their best – Denise
Rousseau
“The signal has to be that the organisation wants to help the employee, and these are the
criteria that will enable them to improve,” she says. “If done well, it’s a problem-solving
exercise, with the manager showing the employee that they have every chance of success.”

Even so, by providing a formal, written framework in which an employee must fight to prove
themselves against a time constraint, PIPs sometimes create psychological conditions that

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8/4/23, 2:59 AM Does a 'performance improvement plan' always spell the end? - BBC Worklife
harm job performance. 

“The employee is under so much pressure to perform with a PIP: ‘If you don’t demonstrate
these behaviours by this date, to our satisfaction, then you’re out of the job’,” says Adams.
“When you want the employee to be open-minded to suggestions, it instead creates a flight,
fight or freeze response. The worker has the sword of Damocles hanging over them, making
it harder to suddenly perform at their best.”

Dusting off that CV 

Once on a PIP, workers are faced with a choice: they can choose to strive to hit their targets,
or simply look for their next role, says Rousseau.

“It depends how much they actually want their job. If so, they should ask for organisational
support to enable them to meet their PIP goals. But if they’re facing formal disciplinary
proceedings, that shouldn’t come as a surprise to them – they should already know they’re
on a slippery slope and are vulnerable.”

Ultimately, the experts say more often than not, a PIP spells the beginning of the end for an
employee at a company. The silver lining? This may give the worker a head start finding
their next role while still employed, says Adams.

“Even if the employee successfully jumps through hoops in a short time frame, there are no
guarantees that it will necessarily blossom into a more positive relationship for either party,
longer term.” 

Working in the crosshairs, it may be time to update that resume, after all.

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