How to Make a Performance Improvement Action Plan
It is the duty and responsibility of managers to make sure that their employees are able to perform in the way that the company expects them to. They have to make sure the employee performance is at an all-time high so that the company will be able to reach its goals. However, there are those employees who prove to be a bit of a problem as they may be underperforming in terms of the manager’s or the company’s standards. So, when that happens, managers usually develop a performance improvement action plan that will help ensure that these employees will develop into the people that the company needs them to be. This article is going to focus on how you can make an improvement simple action plan that can help you do just that.
Steps for developing your performance improvement action plan
This type of action plan is one of the best ways for you to figure out what you need to do and what your employees need to follow if they want to improve their overall performance within the company. The main purpose of this plan is to address any and every problem that an employee is facing that could potentially be impeding his or her work performance. Also, it is really important that you come up with a performance improvement action plan before any kind of disciplinary action is taken against an employee so that you can offer the employee the chance to improve.
So, here are the necessary steps that will help you create a performance improvement plan that both you and your employees will be able to benefit from.
1. Document the problems your employees are facing
Before you create an action plan for improving an employee’s performance, the first thing you will have to do is to find proof that he or she is underperforming on the job. Use the information that is objective, factual, and detailed whenever you are documenting the problems your employees are facing in terms of performance. It is best that you use a consistent format in terms of documenting employee performance to ensure that you are able to assess all of your employees in a fair manner. You may also like performance action plan templates.
2. Talk to your employees about your concern
You should set up a one-on-one meeting with the employees you believe are having performance issues. You need to share with these employees your observations regarding their performance so that they will be able to understand your point of view and so that they will acknowledge that they are facing these problems. Use your documentation to provide as much specific information as you possibly can. You should not take any of your personal feelings against the employee into account during the meeting. Focus on being objective and do not use any language that is either disrespectful or discriminatory so that the employees you are holding a meeting with will not feel attacked. You may also like corrective action plan templates.
3. Highlight the ways your employee’s current behavior deviates from the expected behavior
If you have an employee that has become a problem in the workplace, then you need to let him or she knows as soon as possible. Not only that, you want the employee to fully understand what he or she is doing wrong and why this is a problem. So, whether the employee has committed a specific policy infraction, is not keeping up with the work quota, or simply not meeting the expectations of the company, you have to be clear when you are discussing it with him or her. You have to focus on the outcome of the employee’s behavior rather than his or her personality so that the employee will see just how his or her behavior is affecting the job or the entire workplace as a whole. You may also see performance development plan.
4. Establish specific and measurable improvement goals for your employee
Now that you have been able to identify the problems, the next thing that you have to do is to find a way for both you and the employee to work around them. You have to develop smart goals that will help your employee to improve in the workplace. So, these goals have to be defined clearly and should include numbers that will be measured at a later date to see how the employee is progressing. You should avoid any generalization or wording that could interpret goals in a different way. Basically, you should be directly on what you want your employee to achieve. Do not make it confusing so that the employee knows what is expected out of him or her. You may also like strategic action plans.
5. Include a detailed list of available resources
Any resources that your employees have access to will have to be listed down and explained. This shows that you have provided your employees with the support that they need and it will also give them the idea of the tools that they can utilize in order to help them improve their performance. You just have to make sure that the employees are aware of the tools that they have and that you are able to help them learn how they are supposed to use them in the appropriate manner. You may also like action plan templates.
6. Create a timeline for when these performance goals must be met
The reason why you need a timeline is so that you and the employee will have a schedule that can help determine how the improvement should progress and when the employee is expected to meet his or her performance goals. This will keep the employee on track in achieving these goals and it will also help ensure that the employee is constantly reminded of just how far along he or she is in the improvement action plan. You may also like project action plan templates.
7. Identify the metric that will be used to measure the employee’s progress
To avoid any confusion on the part of the employee, you have to be as specific as possible about how you are going to evaluate his or her performance. The different goals that you have set out for the employee will need to have different methods of measurement. For example, if you think that the employee needs to improve his or her attendance, then you will have to keep track of how often the employee goes to work. You may also like business action plans.
8. State the intended consequences following the completion of the performance improvement action plan
Be sure that you are able to state what actions you are going to take should the goals of the action plan be met or unmet by the employee. You want to make sure that the employees who are under the action plan are fully aware as to what is going to happen to them, regardless of whether or not they were able to achieve their goals. This way, they will know what it is they should expect moving forward. So, if an employee has been doing exceptionally well and has met all of the target goals, then you may reward the employee by allowing him or her to remain in the company. However, if the employee has not shown signs of improvement and is possibly even worse off than when he or she first started out, then you can either re-train or terminate the employee.
9. Review the performance improvement plan with the employee
It is very important that you go through the performance plan thoroughly with the employee so that the two of you will be able to fully understand its contents as well as feel comfortable with the terms of the plan. What this plan can be used as is legal evidence that the two parties have made an agreement regarding what the employee has to do in order to improve in the workplace, lest he or she would meet specific consequences pertaining to his or her progress toward improvement. You may also see simple action plan templates.
10. Observe your employee and document the progress
Now that you are done with telling your employee what you expect, you must then observe if the performance improvement plan is going to have any effect. Use the metrics that you have established to measure the employee’s progress toward meeting with the desired goals and document everything as thoroughly as possible. This will provide you with objective evidence of the employee’s progress and it will help you when you have to provide feedback regarding how the employee is currently doing.
11. Conduct regular meetings with the employee to discuss the progress
You want to make sure that you show those employees who are on an improvement action plan that you are taking this seriously and that you are constantly observing them. Make sure to hold meetings that are typically on a weekly, bi-weekly, or even a monthly period. This will hold the employee accountable for improving his or her performance and it can help the employee stay motivated in achieving the goals that he or she needs to meet. The main point of conducting these meetings is to tell the employee how far he or she is from achieving these goals and to ensure that the employee reaches success. You may also like action plan in a word.
12. Assess the effectiveness of the performance improvement action plan
After carefully observing everything that the employee has done, you have to decide if there is a reasonable amount of growth or if the performance improvement action plan has not been of much help to the employee. If the plan is not working, then you have to look into whether or not the shortcomings were the result of the plan or the employee. This will help you figure out what you need to do to ensure that the employee is able to improve in due time. If the problem comes from the improvement plan, then you will need to make the necessary alterations so that it can help the employee who is having problems. You may also like word action plan templates.
13. Take action
If you see that the performance action plan has been able to help your employee improve, then you have to provide him or her with positive feedback. And, if you think that it is applicable, then you should reward the employee in whatever way that you have outlined in the plan (i.e. giving him or her a promotion or a salary raise). However, if the plan does not succeed in improving the employee’s performance, and you see that there are no problems with the plan after a thorough review, then take the necessary disciplinary actions that you have stated in the plan to proceed in the best interests of your company.
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