Many companies have a 90 day “probationary period” for new hires. At the end of this, the manager is supposed to do a sit-down evaluation with the new employee. It’s such a standard thing that we often don’t think about it, but we should. It’s actually an area which can cause your business big troubles if you don’t do it right. Here’s the right way to conduct a 90-day performance appraisal.
Stop Saying “Probationary Period.”
This is not just a language thing–it’s a legal thing. In the United States (with the exception of Montana) all employees are at-will unless they have a contract (such as a union). You do not want to do anything to jeopardize the at-will status. So, stop referring to the first 90 days as a probationary period because it implies that the rules change at day 91. If you can be fired without notice on day 75, does the end of the probationary period mean something’s changed and now you can only be fired for cause? You don’t want to get in the legal battle over that. Just say, “We’re going to do a review at 90 days.”
To keep reading, click here: The Right Way to Conduct a 90-Day Performance Review
Here, it is a probationary period, but it lasts 6 months, then Civil Service protection kicks in.
But we’re government, and things work differently.
That is a great idea of doing a review, but is it really done is the question. If this was done, there would be better teamwork and better performance by the employee. This is such a simple task to do, especially if the new employee is given a list of reguired job expectations at start, which is reviewed at end of “probationary period”.
What does happenis that the new employee patterns the performance of the other employees around them, plus it is assumed no training is needed by management. By the time the probationary period is over, the employee has assumed patterns good or bad as the other employees. Probationary period has come to mean the time period, where no benefits are available. End of it means, you are considered fully hired and all paperwork certifies employee as active. Ever notice that employees start to switch availablity and reliablity after this point, mainly because they feel they can’t get fired.
I was glad to see that statment in article about there is very few places they can’t fire you because most employment is at will. That means they (employers) can come in and fire, with no notice.