How to Write a Performance Improvement Plan

A performance improvement plan is not a written warning with a different header. A warning documents what already happened. A PIP documents what has to happen next: specific objectives, a review date, the support the employee gets, and what follows if the target is missed. Managers who skip straight to a warning, or write a PIP that is really a warning wearing a plan’s name, tend to produce one of two failures: a document too vague to act on, or a document so punitive it reads as a pretext for a decision already made.

The plan that works does three things a vague one does not. It names the gap in measurable terms. It gives a timeline short enough to matter and long enough to be fair. It says, in writing, what support the employee gets during that window, not just what they owe.

Start From The Gap, Not The History

A PIP opens with the current standard and the current performance, stated as facts a third party could check. Not “your work has been disappointing,” which is an opinion, but “four of the last six client proposals missed the internal review deadline by two or more days,” which is a record.

Resist the pull to recap every prior conversation. One or two lines of context are enough; the plan’s job is to describe where things stand now and where they need to get to, not to relitigate the quarter. If the history matters, it already lives in whatever record led to this plan.

Set Objectives That Can Be Checked, Not Just Felt

Each objective needs a measurable definition of done and a date. “Improve communication with the team” cannot be checked by anyone, including the employee trying to meet it. “Send a written status update to the project channel by 5pm every Friday, with no missed weeks through the review date” can.

Three to five objectives is usually the right range. More than that and the plan stops reading as a path to a passing grade and starts reading as a list built to be failed.

Name The Support, Not Just The Standard

This is the part most plans leave out, and it is the part that makes the document look fair rather than punitive. State what the employee gets during the review window: a weekly one-on-one, a shadow period with a senior colleague, access to a specific training resource, adjusted scope while they catch up. A plan with objectives and consequences but no listed support reads as a countdown, not a plan.

Acas, the UK’s workplace relations body, frames this the same way: a performance plan should set out the issue, the standard required, the support on offer, and the review period together, and a PIP should generally follow informal conversations that already tried to fix the problem without one. If a disability or a health condition is part of the picture, reasonable adjustments belong in the support section, not left to a separate conversation.

State The Stakes Once, Plainly, At The End

Say what happens if the objectives are not met, once, near the close of the document, in one sentence. Do not repeat the consequence after every objective. That reads as a threat attached to each line rather than a shared understanding of what the review date means.

Before:

Sarah, we need to talk about your performance. You’ve missed deadlines, your client said you weren’t responsive, and honestly the team has noticed. I need you to get it together in the next month or we’ll have to look at other options. Let me know if you have questions.

After:

Sarah,

This plan covers June 1 through July 13. The standard: client emails answered within one business day, and the weekly status report sent every Friday with no gaps.

Over the last six weeks, three client emails went unanswered for four or more days, and two status reports were not sent. This plan is to close that gap.

Support during this period: a 30-minute check-in with me every Monday, and I’m moving the Kessler account off your list until July so your open workload matches the standard above.

If both measures are met consistently through July 13, this plan closes with no further action. If they are not, we’ll move to the next step in the performance process.

I’ll put 15 minutes on your calendar tomorrow to walk through this together.

The second version gives Sarah something she can actually pass or fail, and it gives a reader eight weeks from now a record of what was asked and what was offered.

A Wrivio Context for performance documentation could say:

Rewrite this as a performance improvement plan. Calm, factual, and specific: replace feeling-based language with checkable facts, make sure every objective has a measure and a date, and make sure stated support appears before any stated consequence. Keep every name, date, number, and deadline exactly as written. Do not add a consequence that was not already in the draft.

Press Ctrl+Shift+Space, paste the draft, and check the diff against the original facts before sending; a rewrite should sharpen the structure, never add a deadline or a penalty that was not already agreed with HR.

Common Questions

How long should a performance improvement plan run?

Most run 30 to 90 days depending on the role and the size of the gap; a short, well-defined gap can close in four weeks, while a plan covering several objectives at once usually needs closer to 90 days to be fair.

Should a PIP be delivered by email or in a meeting?

Deliver it in a conversation first so the employee can ask questions, then follow up in writing within the day so there is a clear record both sides can refer back to.

What is the difference between a PIP and a written warning?

A written warning documents past conduct or performance for the record; a PIP is forward-looking, with objectives, a timeline, and support intended to close a specific gap, and the two are sometimes used together rather than as alternatives.

Should HR review the plan before it goes to the employee?

Yes. A second reader catches vague objectives, inconsistent dates, and language that reads as punitive rather than factual, and having HR review also protects the company if the plan is challenged later.

What happens if the objectives are met but only barely?

Decide in advance, internally, what “met” means for a borderline case; writing that threshold into the plan itself, or agreeing it with HR before the review date, avoids a dispute about the standard after the fact.

Download Wrivio for Windows to turn a rough performance plan draft into one with checkable objectives before it reaches HR or the employee.