Poor Job Performance: Is it Time for a 90 Day Improvement Plan?

An employee is not meeting your standards, you want to see a turnaround in job performance or make sure you have the right documentation to fire them. Is it time for a 90 day improvement plan? The 90 day improvement plan is a common response to serious performance problems. The concept is simple enough, sit the employee down and tell them what they have to change in the next 90 days in order to keep their job.

I work with employers who use them, I’ve been asked to create them and have seen 90 day improvement plans as part of formal performance appraisals. I think they’re a really dumb idea! Too often employees make a dramatic turnaround for 90 days and then on the 91^st, or 95^th day they mess up again. They get marched into an office and an employer is ready to fire them and faces the frustrating realization that they cleaned up their act for 90 days and did what was expected of them. The situation is compounded when the employee in question has filed a complaint of discrimination in the past so you have to be careful about retaliation or another employee was treated differently.The concept of performance improvement plans is a good one that can work when they are well written and communicated properly. Effective performance improvement plans have 3 parts:

1. A definition of what is expected, the level of performance that is acceptable.
2. Identification of where the employee is not meeting expectations
3. The steps that need to be taken to bring performance to an acceptable level.

Employee input and agreement is important for steps to be taken to improve performance. Don’t write a plan that says the employee must perform or complete a specific task that they don’t have the skill or knowledge to perform.There are no end dates to effective performance improvement plans. You expect the employee to maintain standards for as long as they have the job. When the employee performance improves congratulate them. If performance does not change remind the employee of expectations and make a decision to terminate the employee if necessary. It’s a business decision that cannot always be governed by black and white rules. Be consistent in the way you treat employees and make certain that decisions are made for sound reasons, without an illegal discriminatory basis. Lots of business decisions require good judgment, not just a blind adherence to a number or date.