How to Put Someone on a PIP (Scripts)

How to put someone on a PIP is a conversation most managers dress up as “a bit of structure.” The employee hears “you are being fired slowly.” Both can be true if you fudge the words.

Say that this is a written performance improvement plan. Name the measures you have already talked about. Put a first review in the diary before you stand up. Then stop talking. Kindness is clarity plus a real chance — not a maybe you will unsay in email.

Updated September 2026.

The live version is how to put someone on a PIP. The conversation after a failed plan is how to fire someone. Both run on the Real Talk Studio platform.

Say that it is a PIP

If you cannot say “performance improvement plan” in an empty room, you are not ready to say it to them. “A bit more support” is how they discover the stakes in a letter a week later.

Open with the decision: you are putting them on a written plan for a named window. This is a real chance. It is not a leaving conversation today. Then the measures. Then the first Friday.

Acas expects a fair process and a chance to improve. It does not expect you to hide the name of the process.

Write the measures before you book the room

If you invent the plan while they are crying, you will write either nothing or a novel. Three measures, a window, a review rhythm, the support you will actually give. Show it to HR before you show it to them.

A PIP is for a pattern you have already named in ordinary feedback. It is not a way to start being honest. If this is the first time they are hearing the examples, say that, own the delay, and still write the plan.

The third turn is “so you are firing me”

They will hear only the threat. Hold both truths: you are not ending employment today, and the measures are real. If they will not sign, note it and still send the document. A signature helps. It is not the process.

The clumsy version from coaching scenario examples is dressing it up. The skilled version is the words, the measures, the date.

If the plan fails, that is a different meeting

Do not mix a PIP opening with a termination. If the measures are not met, you need a separate, short, witnessed conversation. Practise that on how to fire someone so you do not ramble the first sentence when it is real.

Neither meeting belongs in a workshop where a colleague plays the devastated employee as entertainment.

Practise the opening before you need it

Try the PIP conversation

The related 1-1s sit in feedback role play scenarios and the workplace library.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

01How do you put someone on a PIP without it sounding like a firing?

Name it as a written plan with measures and dates, and say you are not making a leaving decision today. Softening the name is how they only hear the threat.

02Should they sign the PIP?

Useful, not magic. If they refuse, note the refusal and still run the plan and the reviews.

03What if they say this is the first they have heard of any of it?

Own the late feedback. Do not drop the plan to soothe the surprise. The examples still stand.

04When does a PIP become a dismissal conversation?

When the measures are not met after a real window, or when policy says it must. Practise that meeting separately. Do not improvise it inside the opening.