Dear Chitwan Chhabra,
For a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) an organisation need not have an exclusive policy. PIP is a part of the Policy on Performance Appraisal. Roughly a paragraph on PIP will include:
a) What are the criteria to place the employee under PIP?
b) Who will communicate with the employee? Will there be a standard format? If yes, then attach it as an appendix to the policy.
c) What will be the duration of the PIP? What will be the role of the reporting manager to elevate the performance of the employee during the PIP? What records the manager is expected to maintain to show that he/she took efforts to elevate the performance of the employee?
d) What happens on completion of PIP? How to decide whether the situation merits an extension of PIP? How to decide whether the situation does not merit an extension of PIP but merits the termination of the employment?
e) Who will maintain the records about the termination arising out of failure to improve performance during PIP? Who will assess whether it was a recruitment failure?
I hope the above points are sufficient.
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar