Performance improvement plans, or PIPs, are generally required before agency management can move to discipline an employee for poor performance, and also can be useful, although they are not required, before taking action based on conduct, MSPB said in the latest edition of a newsletter it issues several times a year.
It said that an effective PIP will typically:
* State in clear detail what performance is expected from the employee and how it will be measured.
* Specify the assistance the agency will provide to the employee (such as on-the-job training, formal class training, mentoring).
* Designate a person responsible for helping the employee through the performance improvement period and indicate how often this person will meet with the employee. (This person is often the supervisor, but it could be a team leader, co-worker, or other appropriate person).
* Instruct the employee to notify a particular person (often the supervisor) and request help if the employee does not understand a work task or how to complete it.
* State how long the PIP will be in effect.
* State the possible consequences if the employee’s performance does not improve.
MSPB stressed that the opportunity to improve must be meaningful. “When an agency is deciding what to place in a PIP, it is crucial that the agency limit its commitments to what it is prepared to actually provide. If the agency includes promises in the PIP that it fails to keep, its unmet promises may compromise its ability to take a performance-based action,” it said.
It added: “We encourage supervisors to involve the employee in the creation of the PIP when it is practical. The employee may have a better sense of the source of the problem, or a better way to express the performance requirements, and therefore be able to help the supervisor to draft a PIP more likely to result in improved performance. Involving the employee also sends the message that the PIP is a genuine effort to help the employee rather than a punishment.”
