Hi Aimee,

We use our HRIS (BreatheHR) to record probation dates - it then sends a reminder to the line manager (and me) 7 days in advance. To make doubly sure we don’t miss it, one of the items on our induction workflow reminds me to put the new employee’s probation date in the line manager’s diary, attaching the probation meeting goals and questions.

Caveat to this ‘system’ being that we are a company of circa 50 people, with relatively low staff turnover, so this might not work for a much larger organisation.

On the other hand, why bother?

You can have any probation period you want - up to 2 years in fact before any legal precedent kicks in.

AS you may know, a probationary period means nothing in employment law terms. Just more paperwork to complete.

(Just saying.......)

In reply to David Perry:

I understand that a probationary period carries no significance in the context of employment law, but I imagine it's better to have one than not: as a way of making it easier to bring someone's employment to a close if things aren't working out. I see it as a trial period that has it's own structure and criteria to be met and one which can smooth the path to termination - if needed. Another benefit of having a probationary period is that passing it is likely to give employees a feelgood factor that can boost productivity. We issue the employee with a letter and certificate when they've passed it.

Hi All,
In the company I work for (over 500 employees and growing), we use our performance management system to run end of probation reviews. Managers automatically receive reminders to complete the reviews, but they rarely do or they don't do it on time. We always need to chase. Every employee also receives a formal letter to confirm they have passed their probation. This is a very time-consuming process. I would be interested to know how your processes look?

Hi Aimee,

I solved the problem by removing probation periods altogether. They didn't really fit in with our culture and felt a bit like we were saying to someone 'come and join us' 'You are fab but we want to just make sure and have an easy way out if we got it wrong!' 'We like you but we are watching you in case you do anything wrong'.
I did some research and we hadn't dismissed anyone due to the failing of probation for over 5 years. So not high risk at all, takes away an admin process that no one likes and serves very little purpose and engages our new starters from the very beginning.

What we now have is a settling in period and the managers have regular check ins (which exist anyway). We have also moved all benefits to Day 1 as well. So no waiting to see if you are good enough to get the benefits that everyone else enjoys.

I appreciate it may not work for everyone and I have had to quieten my HR Brain which can tip back into that 'must have a process, must have rules, must think everyone is going to break a rule therefore we must have a rule in case that happens'

I can tell you it is liberating to work from the perspective of our employees are grown ups and mostly if we treat them that way then they behave that way. When your managers get it as well, then their world changes for the better as well.

Apologies for the ramblings! Hope some of it helps!

Rachel

Great thoughts. I love it because if we believe our performance management system is changing appriasals to be a continous feedback, probation should not exist because, everyone should be given a chance for frequent check-ins.

Depending on the amount of staff you have of course, I find that the tasks/to-do list function on Microsoft outlook is quite helpful for me to set reminders on when staff have probations, inductions or need to be offboarded!