A performance improvement plan template with a PIP letter that invites rather than charges, a plan with measurable goals, the support you give and review dates, a fortnightly check-in record and the outcome letters, built on the rule every other template misses: poor performance is not misconduct, and ending a worker's service for it is retrenchment.
Eleven formats. Read section 1 before the first meeting.
A PIP letter format that invites, not charges; the plan with measurable goals; a first meeting record, a fortnightly check-in and the employee's written response, so the file shows a fair process rather than a charge sheet and enquiry.
A letter that extends the plan with a reason, and one that closes it as met and says what carries on.
One for a worker, written as the retrenchment notice section 70 requires, with the compensation table and the re-skilling fund line, and one for a manager on the contract. The worker's is built as a lawful retrenchment letter, not a two-line dismissal; both give the reasons from the plan's records.
A one-page guide for the manager running the plan, and a register of every PIP opened, reviewed and closed.
Why performance is not misconduct, who is a worker, the two routes when a plan fails, with a worked example, the four lines a PIP cannot cross, who each rule reaches, eight mistakes, eight points the pack could not settle, and forty citations.
Attendo (formerly Petpooja Payroll) keeps biometric attendance, shifts and leave in one account, so a plan rests on firm dates.
Because a plan that fails has to end somewhere, and the law does not treat an employee who cannot do the job the way it treats one who will not.
Misconduct is conduct. The model standing orders' misconduct list names habitual neglect of work and malingering or slowing down work, and nothing about inability. So a PIP is not a disciplinary step and must not read like one: no charge, no show cause, no enquiry. Dressing a performance exit as misconduct, and then dismissing without an enquiry, can be an unfair labour practice under the IR Code's Second Schedule, fined ₹10,000 to ₹2,00,000.
The first rule of how to write a PIP: the plan has to be measurable, or it proves nothing. The pack's goals table takes the standard, the evidence of where the employee is now, how it will be measured and the support you give, which is what a skill matrix rating already records for the role. Reviewed every two weeks, with the employee's own comments on each record, it is also your answer to 'not in good faith'.
Then the end. For a worker with a year's continuous service, ending employment for performance is retrenchment: one month's notice giving the reasons or wages in lieu, fifteen days' average pay for every completed year or part over six months, a notice to the appropriate Government and fifteen days' wages into the worker re-skilling fund once that Government has notified it, with three months' notice and prior permission in a factory, mine or plantation of 300 workers. For a manager, or a supervisor on wages over ₹18,000 a month, the contract decides. In Tamil Nadu, and in Karnataka where the Act still applies (not a hospital, and not an establishment of ten or more registered under the OSH Code), the shops Act adds a reasonable cause and a month's notice after six months' service, for anyone not in a position of management.
The same pack serves a plant's shop floor, a corporate head office and a hospital's nursing team: the goals change, the routes do not.
Whichever performance improvement plan format you run, the person's status decides what a failed plan costs, and the pack works it out.
| Who | Route | Notice | Money | Permission | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A worker with one year's continuous service | Retrenchment, s.70 | One month, with reasons | 15 days' average pay per year, plus the re-skilling fund | No, a notice to the Government | 08 |
| A worker with one year's service in a factory, mine or plantation of 300 workers | Retrenchment, s.79 | Three months, with reasons | The same compensation | Yes, prior permission | 08 |
| A worker under one year | Contract, or standing orders at 300 | As they say; one month for a permanent worker | Wages within two working days | No | 08 |
| A manager, or a supervisor on wages over ₹18,000 | Contract; shops Act if not management | As the contract says | Notice pay | No | 09 |
| Deliberate slowing down or habitual neglect | Misconduct | Enquiry first | Not this pack | Warning letter pack | none |
Average pay is the average over three complete months, and a part year counts only once it passes six months.
Source: Industrial Relations Code, 2020, s.70(b), s.2(d)Three months' notice and prior permission, deemed granted if no answer comes in sixty days. A State may notify a higher number.
Source: Industrial Relations Code, 2020, s.77(1), s.79(1) and (4)The compensation is due at the time of retrenchment; the wages earned follow within two working days.
Source: Code on Wages, 2019, s.17(2)Inability is on no misconduct list. Charge-sheet language turns a plan into a disciplinary matter that needs an enquiry you did not hold.
A plan with no real support and no real review can be read as a colourable exercise of the employer's rights, an unfair labour practice. Give the support, record each review.
No deduction the Code on Wages does not list, and no fine for a missed target. Paying less than due is fined up to ₹50,000. A no-increment outcome needs a no-increment letter, not a pay cut.
On our reading, a contract's notice clause does not replace section 70. The reasons, the compensation and the Government notice are still owed, or the fine is ₹50,000 to ₹2,00,000, and the re-skilling fund on top, and a tribunal can set the termination aside and order reinstatement.
No discharge, no notice that expires, and no change to her conditions during maternity leave under Chapter VI, which reaches every factory, mine and plantation and any establishment of ten or more. Pause the plan. A breach is up to six months or ₹50,000.
Ask whether an impairment is behind the gap before the plan starts, and offer reasonable accommodation, as your registered equal opportunity policy promises. A probationer gets the same question, inside the six months, or nine if extended, that the probation period rules allow.
A goals table
Eleven formats, each on its rule
Open with a letter that invites, measure against the role's standard, and end on the right route, all logged in one register.
Attendo (formerly Petpooja Payroll) is payroll and attendance software used by 40,000+ businesses across manufacturing, corporate offices, retail, hospitals and education. General guidance, not legal advice. This pack is one of the library of free HR packs, each built from the law rather than from other templates.
Eleven formats, from the PIP letter to the register, with the two routes when a plan fails and forty citations, in Word. Free.
