A PIP is a structured plan for someone who is genuinely underperforming, separate from your regular review cycle schedule.
Creating one: only Admin or HR can create a PIP, enforced both in the interface and on the server, so a Manager can't start one directly even by calling the underlying action. Give it a title, description, the specific performance issues driving it, a start and end date, and how often you'll check in.
What the employee sees: the employee has to acknowledge the PIP before it's considered active, and they can add their own self-reflection alongside the manager's assessment, so it isn't a document written about them in isolation.
During the plan: a PIP can include specific measurable goals with target dates, and scheduled check-ins where the manager records progress (on track, at risk, behind, or exceeding) along with feedback. You can optionally turn on HR oversight for extra visibility from HR without changing who owns the plan day to day.
Managers' role: Managers can view and run check-ins on their team's PIPs, but editing or deleting the plan itself, and marking it complete, stays with Admin/HR.
How it ends: one of three outcomes gets recorded: improved, needs extension, or terminated. There's no automatic action when a PIP's end date passes with no outcome recorded yet, someone needs to close it out manually.