How to Tell an Employee to Look for a Different Job

What to do if the performance improvement plan didn’t work.

It’s a scenario that all leaders experience at some point in their careers: one of your employees is not meeting expectations. You’ve given them feedback, put them on a performance improvement plan (PIP), and laid out what they need to do differently, but they’re just not making progress.

Despite our best intentions, not every employee placed on a PIP will be able to turn it around and excel in the job they’re in. Sometimes it’s a skill issue, and they simply lack the ability to do what you’re asking them to do. Other times, it’s a will issue, and they’re just not motivated to put in the effort required to be successful.

If you’re nearing the end of their PIP and it’s evident that improvement is not happening, it may be time to have another difficult conversation about what comes next.

This is not about unfairly pushing an employee out of the organization. If you have not given the employee a fair chance to improve, then this is not the time for this conversation.

But, if you have given them abundant feedback with specific goals, formally laid out a PIP, and are nearing the end of it, read on for a few tips on how to encourage an employee to look for another job.

Ask, don’t tell

The best leaders know that it pays to ask more questions and give fewer answers in nearly every scenario, including this one. Encourage the employee to open up so you can get a feel for where their head is at by asking a few open-ended questions that demonstrate a genuine interest in their career.

Close your office door, lock your computer, step away from the phone, and tune out the distractions so you can tune into your employee. Ask things like:

• How do you feel like it’s been going since we last talked?
• Do you think the role is a fit for your strengths?
• What parts of this role do you love? What parts do you dread?
• Have you thought about whether there’s some other type of work you’d rather be doing?

When approached from a place of genuine curiosity and in an environment free from distractions, this line of questioning will likely encourage the employee to open up and tell you what’s really on their mind.

If the job is truly not a fit, they’ll arrive at that conclusion on their own. Once they verbalize it to you, this sets the stage for the next part of the conversation.

Offer flexibility

Once your team member has acknowledged that this probably isn’t the right job for them, you can start to explore what their next move might be. You can start by simply asking:

• “Have you started applying for positions outside of the company?”

If the answer is “yes,” show a little interest in their job search by asking:

• “What kind of jobs are you looking at?”
• “What interests you in that kind of work?”

If the job seems better suited to their strengths, then validate their thought process and say so! Anyone who has had their confidence shaken by being put on a PIP could absolutely use a little reassurance as they embark on their next position — especially from their boss.

Offer them the flexibility to pursue those opportunities by letting them know that you can accommodate last-minute PTO requests so that they can attend interviews.

If they’re not looking for jobs yet, you can encourage them to do so by saying something like, “Speaking to you as your friend rather than your boss, you might want to consider doing so. Here’s why…”

This segues into my next point.

Demonstrate benevolence

Remember how important trust is for leadership? If so, you’ll also remember that benevolence is one of the three prerequisites for trust in a team leader. Demonstrating benevolence to your team means showing you have their best interest at heart and that you care about them as people.

Here’s how to do it in the context of this conversation:

“You and I both know that we’re approaching the end of your PIP. If we haven’t seen improvement by [insert date], then any further instance or mistake could end in your termination. I don’t say this to scare you. I say this for the sake of transparency.

What I’d hate to see for you is a situation where you’re employed one day and unemployed the next. I would much rather you find an opportunity that you’re excited to pursue so that you can move forward on your own terms. So, just let me know what you need from me to support you in that.”

This probably goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway for those in the back — If you don’t mean it, don’t say it.

Benevolence requires you to actually care about this person and, if you don’t, you’ll just make things more contentious and adversarial by being disingenuous. My hope is that most of you truly care about your team and want to be an exceptional leader for them so this won’t be a problem.

Remind them of their ‘goodness’

Being told you’re not meeting the expectations for success in a job does not feel good. In fact, I imagine it feels an awful lot like failure. But, just because someone is in a job that’s not a good fit for them does not make them a ‘bad’ person.

Have a little compassion and remind your employee of this, too. There are hundreds of jobs in the world, and just because this one wasn’t a fit doesn’t mean the next one won’t be.

Good people always land on their feet. Remind them that they will, too.

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