Performance Improvement Plan

[DSharp]

Hello all - bit of a long winded question - 100 bonus points if you can make it all the way through!

I work in a sales role (I have been in role for seven years) - and whilst there has always been a sales target it’s historically considered to have been more of a guide instead of a “must achieve” - all sales colleagues earn commission on everything sold & invoiced (not subject to a minimum target achievement etc)


Last year was the first year where a minimum target figure was required and even then this change was delivered informally by my line manager in a telephone call - he basically advised that as long as we achieve 80% and above then this was considered to be an acceptable performance.

The top sales performers were recognised during an awards ceremony however there wasn’t any sort of league table published so we don’t know the actual positions of each member of the sales force or what their performance against targets were.

I do know that one my colleagues only got to around 60% to target however she wasn’t put on a performance improvement plan (PIP).

This year the company has lowered the “acceptable performance threshold “ to 75% of target.

I have several questions that I’m hoping somebody can help with please

1. If the target is 100% - are they allowed to arbitrarily choose “an acceptable performance” level that is below 100%?

• If 10 people failed to achieve 100% then shouldn’t they all either be put on a PIP or none of them should?
• Is it fair or consistent that last year the acceptable performance threshold was 80% however some colleagues who didn‘t achieve this were not put on a PIP but thIs year the company has lowered the acceptable threshold to 75% and has now indicated that they will put people on a PIP if they don’t reach this figure?
• What about those that achieved 85% of last years target (when the threshold was 80%) but who have had a bad year this year - is it fair that they will be put on a PIP when those that fell short last year were not?
• Is the company allowed to change what they deem an acceptable level performance year to year? Surely the acceptable level should be 100% as this is the target and anything below this is technically missing target which means that anyone who misses target should be subject to a PIP as otherwise the company is not being consistent in their approach?

2: What is time period to be assessed for a target?

• We have a monthly, quarterly and annual target
• You could miss a month but still hit the quarter
• You could miss two or even three quarters and then win a large deal which would hit the year’s target
• We have a sales revenue target (how much business has been written) and a delivery target (how much of the sold business has actually been invoiced)
• We only get paid for deliveries/invoiced business - can it be argued that this is the more important target?
• There’s an old saying in sales that “sales is vanity, invoicing is sanity”

Appreciate the above is a rather long question - as always any and all help is greatly appreciated

Thank you

[ULA]

What will govern any sales commission plan will be what is set out in the scheme details. Unless it is stated as being contractual and they very rarely are, most allow for management discretion and the ability to vary the scheme.

What needs to happen is that consistency is applied for the criteria of the scheme that is in operation at that time. If the scheme is changed so in this case the level of acceptable performance is lowered before a PIP is put in place then that needs to be applied to everyone who does not reach that level.

Typically targets are monitored monthly, quarterly and then at the end of the year. It will depend on the details of the scheme as to when payments against target are paid.

My view is that some of the questions you have set out in your post should be addressed to your manager or HR.