professional development plans

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.

DisruptHR Berlin

Lessons from 9 HR leaders on AI, inclusion, the role of HR, and more

HR experts and practitioners from companies like Zalando, Typeform, and Babbel share their lessons and ideas on some of the most pressing HR issues today.

Transparent vs. anonymous feedback

Transparent vs. anonymous feedback: Which should you choose?

Creating a culture of feedback sharing can be challenging. We share the pros and cons of transparent and anonymous feedback, and best practices.

ratings

Why you should reconsider ratings in performance reviews

Ratings may seem like a go-to evaluation tool. But before you include them in the next performance review, consider these problems and pitfalls.

4 manager challenges and how to overcome them

Nobody said managing and leading a team would be easy. In fact, being a good manager is one of the most difficult responsibilities a person can take on. According to Gallup, only about one in 10 people have the talent required to manage. But, why is it so hard?

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,…

Unlock your company’s full potential