Performance Improvement Plan Template

Managing a team is more than having them meet project deadlines. There are job expectations and some of the team will need help meeting those responsibilities. Good managers help their teams reach their goals by using a performance improvement plan template, which supports their development. Download this free employee improvement plan template for Word to enhance team performance.

What Is a Performance Improvement Plan?

A performance plan template, also called an employee improvement plan, is designed to help those struggling to meet job expectations. It’s a structured approach to help them develop and enhance their performance in a specific role. Management or the HR department typically initiates it and can be seen as a last-ditch effort to guide an employee toward success before making a serious decision about their continued employment.

However, the goal isn’t to fire the employee but rather to foster a supportive environment where they can gain clarity on expectations in terms of the business processes they’re responsible for and receive the necessary resources to improve. This can include training, coaching or mentorship to address specific skills or behaviors that need improvement.

Though a performance improvement plan template can be used as a disciplinary tool, it isn’t strictly punitive. The employee improvement plan template can be seen as an opportunity for growth and development. It helps the employee, team member and organization align on performance goals and expectations. When successful, it leads to positive outcomes, such as improved performance and job satisfaction.

ProjectManager's performance improvement plan template — *Free performance improvement plan template for Word*

Why Use a Performance Improvement Plan Template?

A performance improvement plan template is beneficial for several reasons. For one, it’s a structured means of support, providing a formalized approach to help employees improve their performance by offering clear guidance and expectations.

Outlining specific areas needing improvement provides clarity for the team members and helps them understand what is required of them to meet job standards. A documented record of performance issues and steps to address them is critical to a good HR process.

The employee improvement plan template also provides accountability for the employee and management. It develops the employee’s professional growth by identifying skill gaps and providing resources or training to help them succeed. This is done on a timeline with regular check-ins to ensure progress is proceeding as planned.

When successful, it improves the employee’s skills and job satisfaction and, from management’s point of view, helps with employee retention and reduces turnover, which is expensive and time-consuming when training new hires for the vacant position. However, the template sets the stage. Project management software ensures that the plan is executed properly.

ProjectManager is award-winning project and portfolio management software with Gantt charts to plan, manage and track employee progress as they work toward bridging the gap between where they are and where they should be professionally. Managers can create the action plan on Gantt charts, set milestones to indicate goals and track their progress after setting a baseline. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

Gantt chart in ProjectManager — ProjectManager’s Gantt charts create action plans shared with employees to improve performance. Learn more

When Should You Use a Performance Improvement Plan Template?

Use the performance improvement plan template when an employee or team member isn’t meeting job expectations. This shouldn’t be the first time addressing their performance, however. It’s applied after previous feedback and support have failed to improve the situation. Below are some key situations to consider when using an employee improvement plan template.

Consistent underperformance
Specific behavior issues, such as missed deadlines or poor communication
Lack of improvement
Formal documentation of performance issues as part of an HR process
To provide clear structured goals and a timeline for improvement
Legal protection to safeguard the organization in case of future disputes regarding performance or termination

Who Should Use a Performance Improvement Plan Template?

Performance improvement plans are used by those responsible for employees or team members. That list can include the following.

Managers and supervisors
Project managers
HR professionals
Team leads
Coaches or mentors
Senior leadership

How to Use This Performance Improvement Plan Template

Whoever uses the employee improvement plan template should first download it to find a fully customizable template they can edit to fit their organization’s performance plan protocol. Our template lays out the basics, which are as follows.

The top of the template has the administrative information: date, employee name, job title, department and phone/email. There are also fields for the manager or supervisor who is doing the performance review and their name, job title, department and phone/email contact. Several sections follow.

Purpose of the Performance Improvement Plan

This section describes the reason for the performance plan.

Performance Issues

Next, the issues that brought about the need for an improvement plan are outlined. These should be specific examples highlighting where the employee didn’t meet performance goals and what those goals were.

Performance Improvement Goals

Outline the employee goals here. Be sure to use SMART goals when coming up with this list. SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.

Action Plan and Company Expectations

At this point, define the action plan that the employee needs to follow to improve their performance and reach the goals set by management. The goals that management wants the employee to achieve should also be well-defined and listed here.

Support and Resources

Here, describe the tools, training or other resources that will be provided to the employee to help them improve their performance.

Improvement Timeline

The performance improvement isn’t open-ended. There is a deadline. Define the timeline in which the goals in this section. There will be milestones in which progress will be reviewed, meetings held and other relevant events posted.

Evaluation Criteria

Managers should define the criteria, metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that will be used to measure the employee’s improvement in their performance.

Consequences of Not Meeting Goals

This is where the manager should state the consequences of not achieving the goals. Make sure that all involved parties clearly understand these consequences.

Final Assessment

When the timeline deadline is met, the manager or supervisor will conduct a final evaluation to determine if the performance improvement plan goals were met.

The performance improvement plan template ends with a signature and date line for both the employee and manager or supervisor to sign after both parties discuss and understand the plan.

Related Performance Improvement Templates

To help implement that employee improvement plan template, the following are other free templates available on our site for immediate download. They are just a few of the over 100 free project management templates for Excel and Word that address every aspect of managing a project and team, across multiple industries. They’re a great resource to take advantage of.

SMART Goals Template

Part of the performance improvement process is defining goals that the employee needs to achieve to bring their work up to what is expected of them. This free SMART goals template for Word helps define those goals so that they’re specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound.

Action Plan Template

This free action plan template for Excel can be used to outline the work an employee needs to do to get back on track. The free template has everything needed to create an effective plan, from list tasks, their priorities and their status. There are also start and end dates to align with the timetable established in the performance review.

Gantt Chart Template

Another way to create a plan is with this free Gantt chart template for Excel. The Gantt chart is a visual representation of the plan. The free template has a spreadsheet on one side to list all the tasks, including their start and end dates. As this is filled out, the other side automatically populates a timeline that shows the entire plan in one place.

How ProjectManager Implements Performance Improvement

As helpful as templates are, they are not the most efficient means by which to plan, manage and track an employee’s performance improvement plan. These static documents require someone to fill them out. They’re also not collaborative. Managers can use templates to track employee progress, but only after the data is updated manually. Who has time for that? For managers and employees to meet expectations, they need to use project management software. ProjectManager is award-winning project and portfolio management software that automatically updates in real time for a more effective means of managing one or many employees’ progress.

Use Multiple Project Views

Managers can create the action plan that employees need to follow to improve their performance, but that tool is not appropriate for them to use when executing the plan. A Gantt chart has too many bells and whistles, such as linking dependencies and filtering for the critical path, which employees don’t need. But when a plan is created on the Gantt chart, it’s automatically shared across all project views. That means an employee can use the visual workflow of a kanban board, the robust to-do list of the task view or the monthly overview of a calendar view to manage their work.

Track Multiple Employee Performance Plans

Our software has portfolio management features that allow managers and supervisors to monitor several employee performance plan templates at once. They can create a roadmap, which is like a Gantt chart that captures multiple plans on one timeline, to develop unique action plans for each employee and track them in real time. There are portfolio dashboards that provide a high-level overview of time, workload and more displayed on easy-to-read graphs and charts. The color-coded workload chart ensures that tasks are evenly distributed to make sure the work gets done on time.