How to handle probation periods

Probation periods

I dislike the term probation, it just has a very negative feel to it.  Often when people have been offered a new role they are bringing a lot of experience with them and the term probation feels quite judgemental.

Now don’t get me wrong we have all had bad hires.  This happens for many reasons, for my own part the worst hire I had was due to lack of clarity around the job description.  I had a limited budget at the time and there was a lot of discussion around what was required in my team.  We had a lot of ongoing recruitment and no-one enjoyed doing it, the problem was it was not a full time job.   There was also demand for training and learning and development.  At the time the training team was focussed on the Operation and training customer service, complaints and quality.  The rest of the business was left to its own devices, there was a focus on development.  However, I did not have the budget for a full time L&D expert, nor the budget for the training if I recruited one.  I ended up recruiting for a hybrid role, which was muddled.  It very quickly became apparent that the new hire was not working out, they didn’t want to do the recruitment side of it, did not fit into the team and their behaviour and attitude was poor.

Now I have to take responsibility for this, conversations were had very quickly and they exited the business roughly a month after joining.  A bad experience for them and us. 

Probation is in place as we start off from a position of wanting to check that the new hire can do the job and  if they don’t work out we can get rid of them quickly. 

In the example above, there was no probation period,  I had done away with it.  Why?  Well, I couldn’t see the point or what purpose it served.  This is what would consistently happen, new employee joins, probation period in place for 6 months, time passes and the probation period would (automatically) be passed and then the manager would be at HR’s door complaining that, they are not doing the job, or their absence is high, or they are late all the time or they have a bad attitude.  Did these problems start as soon as the probation had been passed? 9 times out of 10, no.  These issues had existed at a low level and not been dealt with.  In the majority of cases they worsened after probation had passed, there seemed to be a view from the employee that they were now safe.

At the time, there was a 2 year period in place before employees had employment rights. Meaning that you can dismiss without fear of being taken to a tribunal (provided there is no discrimination).  So as a result I did away with the probation period, lets just assume that from day one new hires will show up and do a good job.   If they don’t, have a conversation, find what is going wrong, see if things can be worked out and if not agree to end the working relationship in a fair and equitable way.

I still believe that is the best way forward.  Sometimes things don’t work out whether it is because the employee is not the right fit, or they are not happy in the company and the role.  If this happens look at what has gone wrong.  Did the advertisement clear lay out what the role was?  Was the screening process robust enough?  Is the recruitment process fit for purpose and do you have a good onboarding process.  Of course it is important to set expectations and set deliverables when new hires join and to meet with them regularly to make sure they are getting on ok.  Address any issues as soon as they arise and have conversations about what is going well and not so well, don’t ignore those small problems otherwise they will escalate.

As we rapidly head towards new starters having employment rights after 6 months, the need for “probation” will be crucial.  Employers will need to be clear on what they expect and how they are going to integrate new starters into the company culture.  Recruit for attitude and behaviours, skills can be taught but if your new employee has a bad attitude you cannot train that out of them.  Attitude will be apparent in how they behave in the recruitment process, how they greet other members of staff when they arrive for interview.  How they present themselves, I am not taking about being suited and booted, rather are clean and presentable.   Are they polite, are they on time, do they phone if something unexpected happens and they are late.  Have they done some basic research and are interested in the company and role.  These small things will give you an insight into their general behaviour. 

When they do start have a robust onboarding period.  Be clear on what you expect them to achieve in the first 6 months.  What are the priorities and key deliverables?  How do they interact with other team members and the broader business?  Are they on time for meetings?  Make sure you get a wide range of feedback on performance and attitude. If you do make a mistake deal with it quickly, it is difficult but better in the long run to not let things drag on.