To write a performance improvement plan, put seven parts on paper in order: the concern as dated instances, a standard with a number in it, the evidence that measures it, the support with an owner and a date, the calendar dates, the consequence quoted from your policy, and room for the employee’s response. Each part has one test it must pass before the plan is issued, and all seven fit on two pages. (If you need the background first — what a PIP is and when one is fair — start with what is a performance improvement plan.)
A plan can fail on those two pages before anyone sits down to discuss it. The standard is an adjective (“improve attention to detail”). The support is a promise with no owner (“we will provide additional training”). The check-ins say “regularly” instead of naming a date. Every one of those gaps is invisible when the plan is written and obvious when someone else reads it eight weeks later — which is exactly when it matters.
Below, each part gets its test, and then one plan is filled in completely so you can see what finished looks like. If you would rather not build the scaffolding yourself, the Performance Improvement Plan & Corrective Action Kit works out every check-in date from a start date and a length, and it won’t mark a plan ready to issue until its five readiness checks pass. The method below works either way.
Before you write a PIP
Drafting starts only after the problem has already been discussed informally, the notes of those conversations are dated and on file, and the measure still has not moved — the performance improvement plan glossary entry lists exactly what should exist first, and what to document when an employee underperforms walks through the notes and warnings that come before a plan.
If you have not had that first conversation yet, stop here: how to start a performance conversation walks through it step by step, and how to manage an underperforming employee covers the diagnosis that should come before any formal step. If you are not sure a PIP is the right formal step at all, rather than a written warning, see verbal warning vs written warning vs PIP. Plans generally fit a capability gap, where the output falls short despite real effort; a conduct problem usually belongs under progressive discipline instead.
Everything below assumes those steps are behind you and a plan is the right tool.
The seven parts of a performance improvement plan
Every workable PIP has the same seven parts. The order matters, because each part depends on the one before it: you cannot write a measurable standard until you have stated the concern, and you cannot choose the plan’s length until you know how the standard is measured.
| Part | What it says | The test it must pass |
|---|---|---|
| 1. The concern | What has been happening, as dated instances | Could a stranger verify each instance from records? |
| 2. The standard | What meeting expectations looks like | Does it carry a number, a rate or a date? |
| 3. The evidence | Who measures it, how, and how often | Is “are they meeting it today?” a lookup, not an opinion? |
| 4. The support | What the employer will do to help | Does every item have an owner and a date? |
| 5. The dates | Start, each check-in, and the review | Is every date a calendar date, not “regularly”? |
| 6. The consequence | What happens if the standard is not met | Is it quoted from written policy? |
| 7. The response | The employee’s account and acknowledgment | Is there real space for them to write? |
1. State the concern as dated instances
Write three or more dated instances of the problem and what each one cost, with no adjectives about the person. “Is careless” is a judgment. “On August 12, a freight invoice for $4,180 was paid twice” is a fact the employee can check, dispute or explain.
Leave out anything you cannot date. If a concern exists only as a general impression, it does not belong on the plan yet — go back and observe it.
2. Set a standard with a number, a rate or a date
Write each standard as a behavior with a number, a rate or a deadline attached. Set it at the level a solid performer in the same role already meets, not at a level nobody hits. A plan whose target is higher than the bar you hold everyone else to is not a plan to improve; it is a plan to fail.
This is the part that is easiest to get wrong, so it has its own section below.
3. Name the evidence source for each standard
For every standard, say who measures it, how, and how often. “Error rate, measured by the controller’s review of a 25-invoice sample every Friday” means that on any given day, whether the standard is being met is a lookup. Without this line, every check-in turns into an argument about whether things are “better.”
4. Attach support with an owner and a date
List each piece of support as its own line: what it is, who arranges it, and the date it will be in place. “Additional training will be provided” has no owner and no date, so nobody can tell afterward whether it happened.
Before you finalize this part, ask the employee what is getting in the way. The answer may be a broken tool, constant interruptions or a workload that grew without anyone noticing — things only the person doing the job sees every day.
5. Fix the period and calendar every check-in
Choose the plan’s length from how long the measure takes to show a real change (see how long a PIP should be), then write the actual dates in: the start date, each check-in date, and the review date. Space the check-ins evenly across the plan so no stretch goes unreviewed.
Put those dates in your calendar and the employee’s the day the plan is issued. A check-in that quietly doesn’t happen is how a formal plan turns into an open-ended one.
6. Quote the consequence from your policy
Copy the consequence from your employer’s written policy, word for word, with the section number. Do not paraphrase it and do not invent one. If the wording and the section number are the policy’s, the employee can look them up and see the plan applies the same rule as everyone else’s.
If your business has no written policy covering this, that is worth fixing before you issue a plan, not after.
7. Leave room for the employee’s response
Give the employee real space on the plan to write their own account — whether they agree with the instances, what they think is getting in the way, what support they want. Then make the signature line say what signing means: received and discussed, not agreed.
How to turn a vague expectation into a measurable standard
A measurable standard describes a behavior rather than a trait, carries a number, a rate or a deadline, and can be checked on any given day without asking anyone’s opinion. The fastest way to write one is to take the vague sentence you were about to write and ask: what would I actually see if this were fixed?
| Vague version | Measurable rewrite | Measured by |
|---|---|---|
| Improve attention to detail | No more than 1 error in the 25 invoices sampled each Friday | Controller’s weekly sample |
| Be more responsive to customers | First reply to 95% of support tickets within 4 business hours | Help desk report, weekly |
| Show up on time | Clocked in by the scheduled start time on at least 19 of 20 scheduled shifts | Timekeeping system, per pay period |
| Communicate better with the team | Post the end-of-shift handover note before leaving, every shift | Handover log, checked daily |
| Take more ownership of projects | Status update on each assigned project in the tracker by 5 p.m. every Thursday | Project tracker history |
| Improve sales performance | 12 qualified discovery calls booked per week | CRM activity report, weekly |
Two checks before you keep a rewrite. First, could a solid performer in this role meet it right now? If not, lower it to that level. Second, is it something the person controls? “Close 8 deals a month” depends on the market and the pipeline; “12 qualified discovery calls booked” depends on the person.
If writing these is the part you are stuck on, the free Measurable-Standard Rewriter gives the five tests a standard must pass, twelve worked rewrites and a blank grid — no signup.
A worked example: an eight-week PIP, filled in
A 25-person wholesale distributor has an accounts-payable clerk whose invoice entry has slipped over the summer. Two informal conversations and a written note are already on file. Here is the plan.
Part 1 — The concern
- August 12, 2026: a freight vendor’s invoice for $4,180 was entered and paid twice. Recovering it took three weeks.
- August 26, 2026: three supplier invoices were paid after their due dates, incurring $95 in late fees.
- September 9, 2026: at month-end close, 14 of the 120 invoices entered in August (11.7%) carried the wrong expense code and had to be re-entered.
Parts 2 and 3 — The standards and the evidence
| Measure | Standard | Evidence source | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accuracy | No more than 1 coding or amount error in the 25 invoices sampled each Friday | Controller’s sample log | Weekly |
| On-time payment | Every invoice with payment terms of 30 days or less paid by its due date, with no duplicate payments | Accounts-payable aging report and duplicate-payment report | Every Monday |
Part 4 — The support
| Support | Owner | In place by |
|---|---|---|
| Two-hour refresher on expense coding, using August’s re-entered invoices | Controller | October 7, 2026 |
| Duplicate-payment report added to the accounting system’s weekly run | Operations manager | October 5, 2026 |
| Tuesday and Thursday mornings protected for invoice batches, with no front-desk cover | Office manager | October 5, 2026 |
Part 5 — The dates
| Milestone | Date |
|---|---|
| Plan issued, discussed and started | Monday, October 5, 2026 |
| Check-in 1 | Monday, October 19, 2026 |
| Check-in 2 | Monday, November 2, 2026 |
| Check-in 3 | Monday, November 16, 2026 |
| Review | Monday, November 30, 2026 |
Parts 6 and 7 — The consequence and the response
The consequence line is not reproduced here, because the only correct wording is your own policy’s. In the distributor’s plan it opens by naming the section of its corrective-action policy that governs capability plans, then quotes that section’s consequence sentence word for word, with no paraphrase and nothing added.
The employee’s section is left open. In this example the clerk uses it to point out that the August errors coincided with covering the front desk three mornings a week. That is why the plan protects Tuesday and Thursday mornings for invoice batches.
The signature line says what signing means:
Employee acknowledgment: My signature confirms that I received this plan and discussed it with my manager on October 5, 2026. It does not mean I agree with its contents.
What the check-ins record
At check-in 1, the two Friday samples showed 3 errors and then 2. That’s still above the standard, but falling. Everything was paid on time, and all three support items were in place on their dates. The clerk said the protected mornings were making the biggest difference. At check-in 2, both samples showed 1 error, which meets the standard. That’s the pattern to look for: each record says what the evidence showed against the standard, what support has been delivered, and what the employee said — never just “improving.”
Notice what this example doesn’t contain: a single adjective about the clerk. Every line can be checked by someone who wasn’t in the room.
How long should a performance improvement plan be?
Many employers use 30, 60 or 90 days, and your own policy may set it. Inside that range, choose the length from how long your evidence takes to show a real change. A good rule: the plan should run for at least three full cycles of the measure you use.
- Measured daily or per shift (handover notes, punctuality): 30 days is usually enough to see a pattern.
- Measured weekly (a Friday sample, a weekly report): 6 to 8 weeks gives six to eight readings, enough to tell a trend from one good week.
- Measured monthly (a month-end close, monthly quota): 90 days, because anything shorter gives you one or two readings and a coin flip.
A plan that’s too short can’t show improvement even if it’s happening. One that’s too long leaves a person under formal review for months after the evidence has already answered the question.
How to run the check-ins without moving the target
A check-in compares what the evidence shows with the standard written on the plan, confirms the support was delivered, and records what the employee says. Do those three things, in that order, at every meeting.
- Write up each check-in before the day ends and give the employee a copy, so the record and their memory of the meeting start out matching.
- Record the support you delivered, not just their progress. If the training slipped a week, write that down. It is part of the fair picture, and it may justify an extension.
- Do not change the standard mid-plan. If the standard turns out to be wrong, say so in writing, correct it, and restart the clock from the corrected version.
- Consider pausing if the employee requests an accommodation. In the US, the EEOC’s guidance on applying performance and conduct standards to employees with disabilities (opens in new tab) gives an example in which a federal employee placed on a 60-day PIP requests an accommodation. The supervisor postpones the start of the plan, works through the request, decides an accommodation might help with the performance problems, puts it in place, and then starts the plan. The same guidance says an employee with a disability must meet the same production standards, quantitative or qualitative, as a non-disabled employee in the same job, and that lowering or changing a production standard because the employee cannot meet it due to a disability is not considered a reasonable accommodation — so a pause is for the interactive process, not for rewriting the goal.
Five writing mistakes that sink a PIP on paper
- A standard made of adjectives. “Demonstrate a stronger work ethic” gives the employee nothing to aim at and gives you no way to decide whether they got there.
- Support with no owner. If the plan promised support and nothing on file shows it arrived, the plan reads as one-sided, however true it is that you meant well.
- Check-ins described instead of dated. “Regular check-ins” means none are on a calendar, and the first missed one goes unnoticed.
- A target nobody in the role meets. Compare the standard with what your solid performers actually do before you issue it.
- Timing you haven’t examined. In the US, the EEOC’s 2016 enforcement guidance on retaliation (opens in new tab) lists warnings and negative or lowered evaluations among the adverse actions a retaliation claim can rest on. It also notes that the link to protected activity is often shown by an adverse action happening shortly after it. If the employee has recently complained or raised a concern, get advice before the plan goes out, not after.
Common questions about writing a performance improvement plan
Does the employee have to sign a performance improvement plan?
Whether a signature is required is a question for your own policy, not for the template. What the plan itself should do is make the signature line say exactly what it means — that the employee received the plan and it was discussed with them — so that signing is not read as agreeing with every word. If someone declines to sign, write that down with the date and the name of anyone present, and give them the copy anyway.
How many goals should a PIP have?
Two or three. Every standard needs its own evidence source and gets discussed at every check-in, so a plan with seven goals produces seven conversations per meeting and a review nobody can hold in their head. If there are more than three problems, the ones that cost the most go on the plan and the rest wait.
Can you extend a performance improvement plan?
Yes, once, for a stated reason written on the plan — the support arrived late, the measure needs another cycle to read, or the person is clearly on a trajectory that crosses the line within a few more weeks. An extension with no stated reason reads as a plan that never had an end, and a second extension usually means the standard or the plan was wrong.
Should HR or an employment lawyer review the plan before it is issued?
If you have HR, yes, every time — they will know which policy governs and what it requires. If you do not, the moments that most warrant an outside review are when the employee has recently raised a complaint, disclosed a health condition or requested an accommodation, returned from leave, or when the likely outcome of the plan is dismissal.
Keep the plan and the record behind it in one file
The two pages of a PIP are the easy part. The hard part is the eight weeks of dated notes behind it: the Friday samples, the support that did or didn’t arrive on time, the check-ins held and written up. That record is what someone else reads afterward.
The Performance Improvement Plan & Corrective Action Kit is built around that record. It’s a workbook for Excel and Google Sheets that works out every check-in date from a start date and a number of weeks. It scores each evidence record on how soon after the event it was written down, tracks every support promise to a delivered-on date, and won’t mark a plan ready to issue until its five readiness checks pass — among them that the standard is measurable and the support is named. It comes with the plan, the check-in record and the close-out record as fillable PDFs and editable Word files. It’s a one-time purchase with no per-employee fee.
For the conversation around the plan — the opener, the replies you actually get, and what to say to each — the Manager’s Difficult-Conversations Script Bank scripts it card by card.
Disclaimer: This post is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or HR advice. What a performance process must contain, what notice it requires and what makes a later dismissal lawful depend on your jurisdiction, your employment contracts and your own written policies — consult a qualified employment lawyer or HR professional before issuing a performance improvement plan or acting on its outcome.
