Managing Performance

Would you put this employee on a PIP?

It started with a PIP

Because performance management isn't about managing poor performers. It's about improving performance.

Updated October 2026

There is a particular sentence that HR people hear quite a lot.

“Can we put them on a PIP?”

Sometimes the answer is yes. But our first question would usually be:

“What have you already said to them?”

And that is where things can get interesting. Because ‘occasionally’ the answer is something along the lines of:

“Well, nothing formally.”

Right.

Have you told them they're underperforming?

“Not exactly.”

Do they know what they're supposed to be doing differently?

“We've hinted at it.”

Ah.

And now we'd like a Performance Improvement Plan.

Welcome to performance management.

We've slightly misunderstood what performance management is

Performance management has somehow become synonymous with underperformance.

Someone isn't delivering. The manager gets frustrated. HR gets involved. Meetings happen. Documents appear.

But that's only a tiny part of it.

The actual purpose of performance management is rather less dramatic:

Improve individual performance so that you improve business performance.

That's it. Move underperformers towards becoming solid performers; help solid performers become high performers. Help high performers become even better, take on more, develop new skills and — ideally — stick around.

Performance management should be happening across the entire organisation, not just to the small group of people who aren't currently meeting expectations.

Which is all rather no-shit-Sherlock, good-management-101 when you say it out loud.

And yet we've somehow built entire performance management systems that seem to have forgotten it.

The PIP is not the performance management

Somewhere along the way, the Performance Improvement Plan became performance management's main character.

It shouldn't be.

A PIP is simply one tool that might be useful when performance concerns have become sufficiently serious or persistent that a more structured approach is appropriate. Good performance management happens long before that.

It happens when somebody joins, when objectives are agreed, in one-to-ones. It happens when priorities change or when somebody does something brilliantly. And, importantly, it happens the first time something isn't quite right.

Not six months later when everyone is frustrated and somebody finally emails HR.

Performance management shouldn't feel punitive

This is probably the biggest mindset shift.

If employees only hear the words performance management when something has gone wrong, of course they're going to be terrified of it. We've trained them to be.

Imagine if regular conversations about performance were simply part of working somewhere.

·      What's going well?

·      What could be better?

·      What do you need from me?

·      What's getting in your way?

·      What's the next level for you?

·      What should we focus on over the next few weeks?

Nothing particularly revolutionary there. No nine-box grid required. No 14-page competency framework that took someone in L&D six months to write.

Just managers and employees talking regularly about how things are going and how they could go better. And something interesting happens when you normalise those conversations. The difficult ones become considerably less difficult.

Most people would quite like to know how they're doing

People generally want to know what's expected of them. They want to know whether they're doing it well and most people want to get better at what they do. That applies just as much to your solid performers as it does to somebody who's struggling.

In fact, there's a particular danger in ignoring the people who are doing a perfectly good job.

They're reliable. They deliver. Nobody complains about them. So managers naturally spend their time elsewhere. Meanwhile that employee can spend three years being told:

“Great job, keep it up.”

That’s somewhat pleasant but not terribly useful. What could they be brilliant at? What are they ready to take on? What skill would make them significantly better? What could move them from good to exceptional?

Performance management should answer those questions too.

And your high performers still need managing

Possibly more than anyone.

High performance isn't a permanent personality trait. People need challenge, feedback, development, recognition and clarity about where they're going. Simply leaving your best people alone because “they're doing brilliantly” isn't a retention strategy.

Sometimes your highest performers need the most thoughtful performance conversations because the question isn't:

“How do we fix this?”

It's:

“How do we make sure you're still learning, stretching and wanting to be here twelve months from now?”

That's performance management too.

Start with clarity

Before deciding somebody is underperforming, there is a rather important question:

Do they actually know what good looks like?

Not vaguely. Not because it's somewhere in a 6-page job description they received three years ago. Could they clearly explain what is expected of them?

That means sensible objectives, clear standards and an understanding of priorities. And those expectations need to change when the job changes.

If somebody has five objectives but their manager actually only cares about two of them, say so. If a deadline has suddenly become critical, explain why. If the standard required is different from what was acceptable six months ago, don't expect people to discover that telepathically.

Clarity prevents an enormous amount of underperformance.

Feedback should be normal

This is where organisations can save themselves an extraordinary amount of time.

Small conversations, often. Not enormous conversations, occasionally.

·      When somebody does something well, tell them what they did well.

·      When something could have been better, tell them what could have been better.

·      When you notice a pattern developing, talk about it.

·      When priorities change, reset expectations.

·      When somebody improves, acknowledge it.

None of this needs to be particularly time-consuming. Five minutes today can prevent five hours of meetings, emails, HR advice, documentation and formal process three months from now.

And there's another benefit.

If feedback is normal when things are going well, feedback doesn't automatically mean “I'm in trouble.”

That's a much healthier place to work.

When something isn't working, talk about it

Early.

It rarely requires a meeting invitation entitled PERFORMANCE CONCERNS.

Sometimes it is simply:

"That report wasn't quite where I expected it to be. Can we go through what I was looking for?"

Or:

"We've missed the deadline again. What's getting in the way?"

Or even:

"You don't seem quite yourself at the moment. Is everything okay?"

Because there is another important part of managing performance properly: Find out what's actually going on.

Someone who can't do something needs something different from someone who won't do it. Perhaps expectations weren't clear or they haven't been trained properly. Perhaps their workload is ridiculous, something has changed or they need additional support or an adjustment. Perhaps their manager hasn't given them what they need to succeed. Or perhaps they simply cannot perform at the level the role requires.

All of those things are possible.

Good management works out which one you're dealing with before reaching for a form.

Be kind. But also be clear.

These two things are sometimes treated as opposites. They aren't.

In fact, avoiding an uncomfortable conversation for three months and then suddenly starting a formal process isn't particularly kind.

Clear feedback can be delivered with empathy.

“I want you to succeed here, but this needs to improve.”

Both parts of that sentence can be true; Employees deserve support but they also deserve honesty. Managers who continually soften feedback until nobody quite understands what they're saying aren't necessarily being compassionate.

Sometimes they're simply transferring today's slightly uncomfortable conversation into a much more difficult one later.

Write things down without turning into a Victorian clerk

Documentation matters.

Particularly where performance concerns are becoming more serious. But documenting performance management doesn't mean every conversation needs minutes, witnesses and a small filing cabinet. After a meaningful conversation, a short email can often do the job:

Thanks for the conversation earlier. As discussed, we're going to focus on X and Y over the next four weeks. I'll arrange the additional support we discussed, and we'll catch up next Friday to see how things are going. Shout if you need anything else from me in the meantime.

There. Everyone knows what was agreed. And nobody required a six-page template.

So when should you use a PIP?

Sometimes a structured improvement plan is exactly the right thing to do.

If concerns are significant, informal support hasn't worked, or somebody needs very clear objectives and a defined period in which to demonstrate improvement, structure can be helpful.

But a good PIP shouldn't feel like HR suddenly appearing from behind a curtain. There should be very little in it that surprises the employee.

It should explain what the performance concern is, what improvement looks like, how improvement will be measured, what support will be provided, when progress will be reviewed and what may happen if sufficient improvement isn't achieved.

Specific beats vague every time.

“Improve communication” is not particularly helpful.

“Provide the weekly client update by 3pm every Friday, covering progress, risks and next actions” is considerably better.

And the purpose should genuinely be improvement. Not punishment. Not going through the motions. And certainly not producing paperwork to make a decision you've already made look more respectable.

Most importantly, make sure your process is clear, what the timescales, requirements, triggers and steps are. Everyone involved needs to understand these things or it’s going nowhere.

HR shouldn't manage performance for managers

This is another trap.

A manager has a performance issue - HR joins the meeting - HR explains the concerns - HR explains the objectives - HR explains the review process - HR sends the notes.

Meanwhile the manager sits quietly looking relieved.

We've seen versions of this rather more often than we'd like.

Well not on my watch! HR should absolutely help. Of course. We can coach the manager, challenge their thinking, make sure the approach is fair. We can help structure objectives, identify risk, make sure support and adjustments have been properly considered and ramp up the help when things become formal.

But the employee works for their manager and the performance conversation needs to belong to them.

Otherwise, we've solved today's problem by making the manager even less confident about dealing with tomorrow's.

Digital People HR says…

Let's make performance management boring again.

Not something that begins when somebody is failing. Not something employees fear.

And definitely not an annual ritual involving forms nobody particularly wants to complete.

Just part of how people are managed.

Underperforming? Let's help you become a solid performer.

Doing a solid job? Let's work out how you become brilliant.

Already brilliant? Let's make sure you're still learning, challenged and getting even better.

·      Clear expectations.

·      Regular conversations.

·      Useful feedback.

·      Proper support.

·      No surprises.

It's not particularly innovative. It's good management 101.

Organisations that make this normal spend far less time dealing with performance problems when they've become enormous. Five minutes of useful feedback on Tuesday is considerably easier than a three-month formal process in November.

And we'd much rather help businesses build managers who can do the former.

Want to make performance management improve performance?

Whether you need to deal with an existing performance issue, give managers more confidence having honest conversations, or rethink a performance process that's become rather more complicated than anyone intended, get in touch with Digital People HR.

We'll help you build an approach that improves performance rather than simply documenting when it hasn't happened.

Preferably without creating seventeen forms.