PIPs Done Right: A Compliance-First Approach to Managing Performance Issues

Every People leader and most people managers have a PIP story that makes their stomach churn. The manager who waited way too long, vague performance goals no one can measure, the "surprise" complaint the day before termination. Most of us have or will have been there.

Here's the thing: a well-built Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) doesn't have to be a punishment or "just" a paper trail. It's a culture tool — a way to tell the truth directly, set fair expectations, move faster toward clarity, and drive real resolutions and action. When done right, it protects your company legally and operationally, your culture, your integrity, and the team member(s) in question.

Join executive coach Leila Bulling Towne and long-time Chief People Officer Cris Barrett as they offer tips, tricks, and tools to help you manage tough performance issues with decency, precision, and zero drama — aligning humanity, speed, culture-enhancement, and compliance so PIPs actually work.

Stop Building PIPs That Don't Work

• The small documentation gaps that turn solid decisions into legal risks
• What "measurable" goals really look like and how to fix vague ones
• The timing factor: why momentum and clarity matter more than perfection

Get Managers Doing Their Part

• How to make accountability everyone's job, not just HR's
• Scripts for hard conversations that don't sound robotic or defensive
• What to say when a manager tries to quit the process ("Can't we just move faster to term?")

Endings Without Anxiety

• The pre-termination checks that keep you compliant and calm
• Spotting high-risk behavior (last-minute leave, protected-class signals) early and responding right
• What the final conversation should sound like and what to leave unsaid

The Separation Checklist: What You Can't Afford to Miss

• Final pay, PTO and sick time accruals, tax implications, and benefits offboarding—what's required and where some differences lie 
• Access, security, immigration compliance, recordkeeping, and the documentation that protects you long after the employee is gone
• WARN Act basics: when mass layoffs trigger mandatory notice obligations

(Tip: This applies to both voluntary and involuntary separations because clean exits matter either way!)

You'll Walk Away With:

• A PIP process and framework that works in real life and not just on paper
• Conversation language you can teach and scale across your org at all levels
• The confidence to move from fear to fairness and shared success in performance decisions — fully compliant, fully protected