Facing a PIP? How Preparation leads to better Outcomes

What happens when an employer realises you know your rights and your value? 

There's a line in a recent testimonial from a Klar client that's stayed with me. She'd been placed on a PIP unexpectedly, we worked together ahead of her meeting, went through the process, talked about what to expect and what to ask for. She went in prepared. And afterwards, she told me her employer had seemed surprised at how ready she was.

“My outcome has been successful and I felt my employer was surprised at how well prepared I was during the meeting. I can't recommend Liv and Klar enough.” 

This detail says a lot because there's an assumption in a lot of these processes that the employee will show up uncertain, reactive, maybe a little rattled. That the employer holds all the cards because they've done this before and you haven't and that the meeting will go the way they've planned it to go. This is why I offer performance support specifically for this.

When you show up knowing your rights, asking the right questions, requesting the support you're entitled to, that assumption falls apart, and this can even be visible in the room. 

I don't say that to make it adversarial, because it doesn't have to be, but a PIP meeting doesn't have to be you versus them. Walking in underprepared when the other side has had time to plan puts you at a real disadvantage, and that's worth being honest about.

Being prepared doesn't mean being combative, but knowing what the targets actually mean and whether they're measurable. It means understanding what support you can ask for. It means knowing whether the process has been followed correctly, and what it means if it hasn't. It means being able to engage with the conversation rather than just absorb it.

You don’t have to be aggressive or combative to change the dynamic by holding them just as accountable as they are holding you.

My client described feeling confident going in, which she hadn't expected to feel. She also said the outcome was successful, and I don't think those two things are unrelated.

If you've been placed on a PIP and your first instinct is that this is already decided, I understand why it feels that way. It still matters how you show up in that meeting room and you don't have to figure out how to do that on your own.

A free discovery call is a good place to start, and you can book on here I also have a toolkit on how to manage the PIP process here.