Performance Improvement Plan

The plan has been developed to illustrate the performance issues clearly; the required performance improvement; and how performance will be measured; the support to be provided to assist improvement; and a clear timeframe for improvement. The initial performance improvement plan should be developed by the employer. Any issues raised must be work-related; (do not include personality factors or personal issues unless these have some direct bearing or impact on work performance). In general, the performance standards or expectations for the employee should be the same as for any other individual in the same role (be fair in expectations). Once the first two columns on the Performance Improvement Plan form have been completed by the employer, discussions should then be held with the employee, i.e. prior to finalising details to be included in the third and fourth columns. This enables the employee to comment on the issues raised and the performance standards or expectations set. Any training and support requirements need to be discussed jointly to enable the employee to highlight any skill or knowledge gaps preventing them from achieving required performance standards. Finally, a reasonable timeframe for review of performance should be set.