You work at City Hospital, a public, 500-bed hospital located in Minneapolis. You are the manager of the human resource department, and you have held that position for three years. The hospital has hundreds of employees. You personally know only a small percentage of them. Patrick Thomas (accounting supervisor) recently gave a performance appraisal to one employee (Jessica Rawls), and it was not good. He highlighted that she was late with 5 percent of her weekly reports and had an error rate that was 2.5 percent higher than the rest of the department. He also noted that Jessica had not fully learned the new accounting software.

You were told by Patrick's immediate supervisor, Maria Grant, that it bothers Patrick that Jessica has not obtained her CPA designation yet. Maria also told you that Patrick wanted Jessica to receive a written warning, but that Maria suggested a PIP instead.

You and Maria are not 100 percent comfortable with the idea of giving Jessica a PIP. You and Maria question why Patrick did not raise the possibility of a PIP during his recent meeting with Jessica to review her performance. You have doubts about Patrick's motives, but per hospital policy, Patrick is entitled to request that Jessica be issued a PIP due to low performance.

Maria has convinced you that giving Jessica a PIP will be the only way to keep Patrick happy. Maria relies on Patrick and her other accounting supervisor, so she will do everything in her power to keep him happy.

Based on further conversations with Maria, here is everything you have learned. Jessica has been working at City Hospital for 18 months. This is her first job after completing a Master of Accountancy degree at Metro State University. Jessica is taking the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) examination in stages and has already completed two sections. So far, she has passed one section and failed one section. Previously Jessica was employed part-time as an accountant in her uncle's small accounting firm.

Jessica got along really well with her previous boss. She was given work she could easily handle, even though her official job description could have required her to perform additional (and unfamiliar) tasks. Patrick is not as easy going and passes out assignments based on a system he developed while working at a large accounting firm in a previous job. Jessica has indicated she is having a hard time learning the new accounting software that was recently installed by the hospital. Jessica is quite upset about being put on a PIP.

2. Do you believe a PIP is appropriate for Jessica? Why or why not?
4. Do you believe a PIP would be legally defensible? Or do you think Patrick's treatment of Jessica is discriminatory? Explain your answer.
6. Based on the steps for creating a performance improvement plan outlined in theEffective Communication and Creating PIPslecture, what could HR or management have done differently to improve their approach to the situation?