Performance Improvement Plan Template

This pack checks every concern a manager wants to raise in a Performance Improvement Plan against the actual record before any of it is written down. A concern with a dated prior instance, a 1:1 note, an email, a prior review, goes into the plan with its source cited. A concern with no such record does not go in. In the worked example, a manager drafted five concerns for a Support Team Lead. Three had a dated record from the last six months. Two did not.

Two of the five concerns had never appeared in writing before this draft: inconsistent stand-up attendance and resistance to feedback in 1:1s. Neither has a single dated instance in six months of notes or two prior reviews. Both were held out, and the plan issued with the three documented concerns only, 60 percent of what was drafted. A SHRM guide on writing a PIP recommends including dates of prior coaching (SHRM), because a plan without them will not hold up if it is challenged.

The plan then runs on a fixed schedule rather than an informal one. A 60-day plan gets three review dates computed from the length, not chosen by feel: day 20, day 40 and the final review at day 60. Each check-in records a status against every concern independently, because a plan met on three concerns and failed on the fourth is not mostly on track, it is one specific thing still failing. The same evidence habit runs through calibration and review writing: name the thing, or do not write it down.