Is a performance improvement plan beneficial to the employee or to just fire someone? Quick Hits

This might be the most honest and yet heart wrenching conversations I’ve done.

A couple of weeks ago Stewart Wiggins and I were talking about PIPs and I shared that I have only ever seen three outcomes from someone being put on a PIP:
• They quit
• The manager forgets to document the process and the PIP expires
• They get fired

Stewart agreed and said that he has worked for companies that purposefully create performance improvement plans that were SO impossible that there was no way the person could succeed.

That conversation led to this one.

Ed Samuel has 30 years of experience spanning the corporate world and now working as a career coach at Sam Nova.

Pascal Derrien has had big corporate jobs and now is the CEO of Migraine Ireland.

Along with Stewart who has many years of corporate experience, I knew this panel would have some great insight into the benefits and risks of being put on a performance improvement plan.

In the last 90 seconds of our conversation, I asked for their advice – “If I’m put on a PIP should I try to get better at my current job or start looking for something else?”

All three said start looking.

Ed added a word of warning that many companies in the US don’t even have to give you the 90-day PIP process.

They can fire you because there is often wording on the offer letter that says they can let you go for any (or no) reason.

After listening to the experience and opinions on this Quick Hits – do you think PIPs are actually meant to help improve performance?

Connect with the panelists:
Stewart Wiggins:   / stewart-wiggins  
Pascal Derrien:   / pascalderrien  
Ed Samuel:   / edsamuel  
Dr Robyn Odegaard:   / robynodegaard  

Want a summary of the Quick Hits I post every week, plus the links to the LinkedIn pages of each of the panelist to show up in your in-box every week? Just let me know where to send it: https://drrobynodegaard.com/quick-hit...

#quickhits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on pertinent subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.DrRobynOdegaard.com
#PIP #PerformanceImprovementPlan #yourefired