 |
 |
 |
Download performance improvement plan template in Microsoft Word format.
Help Underperforming Employees Succeed with a Performance Improvement Plan Template
Could your business benefit from a performance plan template? If you’re a business owner, manager or supervisor who is currently dealing with one or more employees who are underperforming, the answer to that question should be a resounding “yes.” In the business world, especially in large companies, it is not uncommon to have a certain percentage of employees who are not measuring up as expected, even some who have been with the company for quite a long time. But what recourses are available for these types of situations? You could, of course, start a paper trail, documenting every instance in which the employee underperformed, which may ultimately lead to his or her termination, but in certain cases there are bound to be employees that have demonstrated, at times at least, their value and worth to the company, and in these cases you may want to consider using a performance improvement plan template to help them become more successful.
What Is a Performance Improvement Plan?
The chief objective of a Performance Improvement Plan is to facilitate an open dialog—one which allows for a frank and constructive discussion with regard to job performance—between an employee and his or her supervisor.
As a supervisor, one of your main responsibilities is to help those you supervise become more successful with regard to their position in the company, and this includes working with, and measuring the performance of employees who may be lagging a bit. A Performance Improvement Plan can be a very useful tool in this process. These plans allow you to, with the employee’s input, outline specific expectations that are required by the company and create a plan for how those expectations can be achieved. It can also address the various ways that you, as the supervisor, can intervene in order to ensure those expectations are met.
The Performance Improvement Plan Template: What Items/Topics Should Be Included?
How the plan is formatted will depend largely on the type of business you’re in, but generally, a performance improvement plan template should address each of the following topics:
• The Performance to Be Improved. In this section you will list specific examples of tasks or responsibilities that need to be improved upon.
• Expectations. Here you will list the consistent level of expectation for each performance area or task that needs improvement.
• Support. This section will include the support and resources that you, the supervisor will provide to help the employee meet the specific expectations.
• Term. Here you will outline a certain date or dates when you will meet with the employee to provide feedback with regard to their performance, including the rubric you plan to use to measure that performance.
• Consequences. This section is essentially a record of the potential consequences the employee will face if he/she fails to meet the listed expectations.
• Other Resources. In this section you can list other resources that may help the employee to succeed. This could include shadowing a “good” employee or issuing the employee handbook.
A performance plan template, one which includes each of the six elements listed above, is a fantastic tool for creating a positive forum in which constructive, success-based criticism can be offered to a struggling employee, and where expectations and consequences can be clarified.