Is a PIP the right tool for the job?
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A common and tricky question is: is this performance or misconduct? Is this intentional? Is this failure by choice or capability? Understanding the situation and cause is critical, so you can walk the correct path, so here are some signs to look for.
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What is performance?
Performing is doing what you need to do, and performance is how well it is done. A performance problem is not doing what needs to be done- well enough. Poor performance is not doing it to the level required. To achieve this, it must be within the person’s current capacity to do. If someone is too short to reach something, they can’t.
This is different from won’t, which is where someone is able to do something, but chooses not to. Can’t is the opposite of can, and can is question of capacity; Can= I can do that, Can’t= it’s beyond what I can do. We all have limitations of what we can and can’t do- I can’t fly a space shuttle and neither can you.
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What is performance management?
Typically we are talking about poor performing employees who are not meeting the requirements of the role or the contract, which they are being paid to deliver. They need to give us X, and they are giving us less than X. Performance management is management interventions (actions, assistance, goals, training, coaching, even telling off) to solve this problem, this shortfall, to:
- Give them clarity about what they need to do to meet the goal postst
- give them the upskilling they need
- either to give them a fair chance to lift their game to regularly deliver the deliverables of the role,
- or leave (the business or the role).
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What is a PIP?
A performance improvement plan (PIP) is a structured process of performance objectives, training, timeframes, and potential penalties. Firstly, you might not be familiar with what I mean by PIP- it’s not a legal term, but a (presently) common term. But because it’s common parlance only and not a technical term, this can mean that meanings can vary. I’m used to PIP constituting the stage of the performance process whereby warnings are given, but I’ve worked for clients that don’t use it this way- requiring the distinction of ‘informal PIPs’, and ‘formal PIPs’, which was not ideal.
Listen here for how often it’s not intentional.
A PIP is the stage of the process where performance management and disciplinary policy combine; where warnings can be given. How- you need to fit with your policy, and that is a story for another day. But the key points for this article is - a) it needs to be the right approach for the situation, and b) it needs to be preceded by coaching and assistance.
Signs that performance management/PIP is the right tool.
If performance mangement is the right tool, the correct approach to take (i.e. not misconduct or incapacity), it is important to note that you should (or not, every situation is different) see the following characteristics:
- What they can’t do is new to them, because they are a new to the role. This could be a new hire, or a new promotion, but if they are struggling with something, you’d expect to see that it isn’t something that have routinely succeeded in before.
- What they can’t do is new to them, because the job has evolved. The outside world changes (see here for looking out and around) and this means that what and how a job is done will move with time. A good example is technology, and older workers struggling with the new tools of the job, but it could be different customers, new markets and so on. What has worked in the past to get the job done isn’t guaranteed to get the job done tomorrow.
Read here for more on how managers are just asking employees to do their jobs.
- They are resisting (but not refusing) the learning. This an aspect that is often on the cusp of performance or misconduct. Do they really just not wanting to do what is required? There is a whole ‘old dog new tricks’ subtext to this, but the underlying constraint we have is this: we don’t know what they are thinking, so we can only address what we can see. This question of ‘attitude’ will quickly be revealed and resolved, whether they are prepared to try to fix their can’ts, or not, but better to make it clear what they need to deliver, rather than getting caught in the quagmire of whether they are ‘really trying’.
Read here for more on learning.
- They keep reverting back. This has a similar on-the-cusp feel as above- if the employee reverts back to old habits after a period of doing the right thing. For example coming into work on time, after this being discussed with them, but then going to back to tardy habits after a few months. This can seen as misconduct, that they have chosen to do something they could do, but (most of the time), it’s a question of old habits re-emerging.
Read here for how HR can be the experts on how people act.
Signs that performance management/PIP is not the right tool.
Sometimes performance managing someone is solving a problem with a hammer- if it’s not a nail (e.g. a screw), the tool won’t work and you’ll do a lot of damage.
· It’s not new. The most common confusion between can’t (performance) and can’t (incapacity) is that the person isn’t performing something that they could have done before. If someone can longer do something they used to be able to do, this is perhaps a sign that their body (and this includes their mind) has a problem. It’s entirely possible that the problem is a physical constraint, not a loss of willingness to do the job. This might not be the case, but its definitely worth a check.
· They aren’t doing things. Theres a fine line between doing something less than well, or forgetting to take a step in a process (forgetting to turn on the shop alarm when doing the close is a one example). But in some circumstances, an employee could simply be choosing to not do something.
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· There is a time and a place. A very useful but simple rule for misconduct is that it often happens at a time and place; e.g. at 7.45am in the dining room (with or without the candlestick), this person did this, or didn’t do that. It’s not perfect, with a useful way to start. If it wasn’t just one time, but a series of times, and not specifically one thing but a series of lapses, it’s more likely to be performance. But if there IS a time and a place and specific actions- more likely you are looking at misconduct.
Read here for more of the fundamentals of disciplinaries.
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