
Performance Improvement Plans
At Small Improvements, we believe in fostering growth and providing employees with the tools and support they need to succeed. A Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) isn’t about punishment – it’s about giving employees a clear path to success when they need a little extra guidance.
Table of Contents
At Small Improvements, we believe in fostering growth and providing employees with the tools and support they need to succeed. A Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) isn’t about punishment – it’s about giving employees a clear path to success when they need a little extra guidance.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to use our platform to create a personalized and constructive PIP that sets your employee up for success.
Let’s imagine that a member of the sales team, Salma, has missed her quota for the past two quarters and just received a “Needs Improvement” rating on a recent performance review. We now need to take steps to monitor and document her progress as we work with her to close the gaps in her performance.
-
First, we’ll use Objectives to create and track the specific milestones that Salma needs to achieve throughout the plan.
-
Next, we’ll use 1:1 Meeting templates to provide her manager with some guidance for their weekly check-ins.
-
Finally, we’ll use automated Feedback Requests to more formally document her progress at regular intervals.
Objectives
We’ll start by creating some clear and specific goals that we need Salma to achieve by the end of the PIP. We can create an objectives cycle exclusively for the employee, even if you already have other objectives cycles running in parallel. Consider enabling the “Key Results” checklist to outline the specific tasks needed to achieve each goal.
1:1 Meetings
As an HR Admin, you can create a 1:1 Meeting template to provide Salma’s manager with some structure for their check-in conversations over the course of the plan.
Automated Feedback Requests
Finally, automated feedback requests are a great way to document more formal feedback from various stakeholders over the course of the plan.
By leveraging a combination of these key features, you can create a performance improvement plan that ensures your underperforming employee feels supported and motivated to succeed. Remember, a well-implemented performance plan benefits both the employee and the organization, leading to long-term success and growth for everyone involved.
Discover more resources

Best 8 Employee Survey Tools in 2026
Employee surveys used to be another annual checkbox; long forms, low participation, and little follow-up. But with a more remote workforce and spread-out teams, the way we gather feedback has changed.

How to build the best internal mobility program
Is internal mobility the way to keep talented employees from leaving your company too soon?

The HR Hitlist #2: Enabling bad managers
The time is upon us for human resources to step up as a practice and lead. Never before has the work of HR been so critical to organizational success. To meet this challenge requires that we break some old habits. This is the second in a series of guest posts from thought leader, Jason Lauritsen,…

Four tips to improve employee recognition
Small Improvements talked with HR professionals from three of Berlin’s most successful startups to discover how they created a culture of employee recognition.

25 questions for a 360 review
Asking the right questions can help you have efficient and constructive 360 reviews. So what do these questions look like?
The “4 Cs” of Management: A Monthly Rhythm to Fix Your Broken 1:1s
Stop the “status update trap” and transform your management style. Learn the 4 Cs Framework—Clarity, Coaching, Care, and Celebration—to build a high-performing team and fix your broken 1:1 meetings today.