Performance Improvement Plans Tell a Multi-layered Story

If you've been a high performer your entire life or you're not in leadership, it's likely you've never heard of a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). But for many working professionals, those daunting words come with lots of emotion as well as uncertainty and the process can be disconcerting. I imagine PIP's have been used forever by businesses everywhere and while the acronym means the same from company to company, I am certain the manner in which they are leveraged to impact employee performance varies, drastically.

I believe Performance Improvement Plans should be just that- a plan to improve employee performance once it is no longer considered satisfactory. But performance improvement plans tell a very interesting story about not only the employee, but the leader facilitating the process. Over the years, I have observed managers use PIP's to attrition employees out of organizations for unsatisfactory performance or as a remedy for behavioral concerns that are, frankly, not always or necessarily the employee's fault. Granted, there are times employers undeservingly get cat-fished. But there are also times when managers are directly responsible for unfavorable outcomes and no one's talking about it.

We are going to talk about it today.

The Problem With PIPS

Let's preface the conversation by saying a few things. Many organizations don't spend adequate time teaching performance management to new leaders and they don't have the conversation about the process timely, for various reasons. Organizations also expect new leaders to understand when and how to use PIP's effectively and sometimes the expectation is honestly, unrealistic. When it comes to managing employee performance, a lot of managers make the broad assumption that every employee on their team has the same understanding of what success looks like within the organization. They assume employees know how to use the resources they've been provided and believe employees understand the consequences of poor performance, even if the manager hasn't held performance conversations managing those expectations throughout the course of the employee's time with the company. There are assumptions being made on both sides regarding conversations that aren't taking place and the end result is usually either a loss of employment or a devastating blow to someone's livelihood.

When managers are introduced to PIP's, they are usually educated on their responsibilities as facilitators of the process. They may be given an explanation of what the acronym stands for and are taught, at a very high level, when and how to use PIP's. Throughout my career, though, I have generally not heard any discussions addressing any ownership on the manager's behalf for ineffective performance. It seems it is almost always a one sided issue and managers are assumed to be both effective and lacking responsibility for the gap in effective performance. This is the problem with PIP's- they tell a very one-sided story.

The Foundation of Effective Performance

There are very basic expectations required to establish the foundation with which we can build an employee's performance on. These expectations look a little like:

• Organizations assuming responsibility for clearly establishing guidelines for satisfactory performance from the very beginning
• Management direction being aligned and consistent from leader to leader.
• Performance discussions regularly occurring with employees and shifting priorities being communicated timely with adequate employee support.

Consistency in the aforementioned helps to cultivate a culture where people can quickly acclimate once on-boarded and become successful. But what if I told you many organizations don't do a great job of clearly establishing expectations from the beginning and sometimes, managers mandate their own expectations for "effective" performance that can be inconsistent with what an employee may have originally been taught. Herein lies the problem. The lack in consistency and cohesion can be frustrating for new and tenured employees, and can lead to disengagement in addition to under-performance. I mean think about it...if things aren't well aligned on a leadership level, how can you expect those following to have a clear understanding of what's expected?

PIP's Should Reflect Manager Performance, Too

There have been times I have worked with new leaders who were challenged by time management. Their employees would begin with the company and because these managers were balancing multiple competing demands, they struggled to carve out time to really engage the employee during their first few weeks, leaving all of the responsibility for on-boarding with trainers. Once the employee made it out of training, the manager would handle their day to day responsibilities and extinguish fires but beyond that, didn't really spend the necessary time to ensure their direct report was positioned for success. I've watched employees with experience find a way to stay afloat because of prior knowledge but employees who had no prior experience would struggle to become successful. And once their ineffective performance hit the radar of senior managers or HR, ding, ding, ding...Now the manager would move into the performance management cycle not taking any responsibility for the absence of success. The employee would have a tarnished reputation and little chance at redemption when they were never truly set up to be successful.

I always wondered, as employees would end up leaving the company, if anyone was paying attention to the fact that this occurred on a much more frequent basis with certain managers and if anything was being done to address the issue. I mean, if I had someone working in my organization that was costing me $100,000 every couple of months (considering it can cost $50,000/pp to onboard), I would want to know why and how to make it stop! Now, don't get me wrong...we had a lot of responsibility. In my prior article, I talked about how crazy busy things would get for us so I get it. But even in this instance, there was a gap at the top that was allowing rain into the house and the place was flooding. I would always think, there is no way we got the hiring process wrong that many times. This performance concern should be reflecting the manager also.

Everyone Starts Day One

In the first article on Performance Management, I discussed documentation with you and I advised you to create a drop file day one for each employee. I also encouraged you to start your documentation post interview, noting any initial concerns raised during the interview process. Now, let me explain why I provided that advice. If I'm hiring for a customer service representative who can multi-task, has great attention to detail and can problem solve effectively and I find a potential candidate who seems to possess the desired skill but some of their interview responses suggest they may struggle with displaying empathy, that is something I should document. This person will engage in conversations where they will be required to display empathy on a regular basis and I should start working on that skill with the person from day one.

A proactive leader shouldn't wait until the employee is out of training generating escalations rooted in a lack of empathy to begin addressing an issue that, for the most part, was known and could have been addressed. And if the leader wasn't proactive, knowing empathy was necessary before the employee started and it was an opportunity, they have some responsibility in fact that the person is now not meeting expectations. Your concerns should be documented from the beginning, you should be equipping the employee with resources that address their opportunities, from the beginning, and you should have documentation supporting the collaboration with this employee on the skill, tracking their success. If the employee is able to turn this opportunity and it never emerges as an issue, the manager should document that. But if the issue emerges, despite the focus, then the manager should be able to have a coaching conversation with the employee and recall, distinctly, when the expectation was set and understood, what resources were provided, what conversations have taken place relative to the opportunity and now, what needs to be done to get on track. If you are preparing to place someone on a PIP and you can't clearly illustrate how you helped to position the employee for success, I am going to challenge you to rethink your position.

3 Things You Can Start Doing Today

You're reading this article because you understand the importance of becoming an expert at this process and I am writing this article because I cannot continue to watch talented employees attrition out of organizations because of costly misunderstandings. This article doesn't contain all the answers but here are 3 tips you can implement that will assure you're doing your part from the very beginning:

• Note issues when they're identified and create a documented plan for improvement. This plan should include very clear details on the opportunity, the steps taken to address the opportunity (with resources provided) and confirmation of the employee discussion along with their response. This is beneficial because if the opportunity continues to persist, you can move into accountability discussions with the employee and easily provide documentation to support your position. For instance, if the employee has not been returning voicemails, pursuant to telephony expectations, you should find the protocol for handling voicemails on the company intranet and share the resource with the employee, establishing expectations during an in-person meeting. Then, you should check for understanding during your discussion and send a recap email confirming the conversation and the employee's understanding of the expectation. Invite the employee to respond to your email with any questions and ask that they reply confirming their understanding if there are no questions. This way, there is no ambiguity as to what was discussed by either of the parties involved in the conversation.
• Do your part. As a leader, I encourage you to conduct first day discussions with your direct reports clearly establishing expectations. You should also conduct performance discussions on a regular basis (every other week or weekly) and employees should always know where they stand. Expectations should be balanced and the goal is to ensure you are doing everything you possibly can to position your employees for success, holding yourself accountable to meeting the mark, just as you have with your team. Make this a way of life and it will never be a surprise when you have to tell someone they're not meeting expectations, if that is ever the case.
• Never assume the employee knows something. Even if the employee is experienced, my rule of thumb is simple- if I haven't taught you, you don't know it. This allows me to give others grace. Taking responsibility for teaching everything once (or twice as needed) and documenting my discussions creates a means of accountability. Once I can confirm setting an expectation, I can hold others accountable to meeting it. But if no expectation is set and I later attempt to hold someone accountable for something I can't validate they know, it will cause delays in addressing the opportunity, even if it is something that is presumed to be common sense.

As a National Training Manager, I would always teach managers that trainers are like school teachers and managers are like parents. You can count on trainers to teach the lesson but managers should always be responsible for going over homework and establishing a healthy foundation for effective employee performance. Are you doing your part as a leader?

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