The government has announced it is to go ahead with auto enrolment into pension schemes for all staff (earning more than £7500) from 2012. Recruits must be enrolled in a scheme no later than three months after joining. In many cases this will be halfway through a six-month probationary period. There is no technical linkage between the two events but there is potential embarrassment of inviting a someone into a pension scheme and then three months later firing them for not being up to the job. So perhaps it is time to think about probationary periods in general.
I have never been entirely happy about probationary periods. It gives the recruit a period of risk and uncertainty; especially those who gave up a long-standing job to join. This can be followed by an inappropriate level of relaxation once probation is ‘passed’. From the employer side, less than professional managers can be tempted to take risks with recruitment knowing they have a get-out-of-jail card if they make a mistake. During the period itself the existence of a decision date that seems months away in the future can lead to sloppy management practice in terms of training and feedback. Even with the legal security of a probationary period it isn’t easy to have to tell someone they are not to be made permanent if that is the first they have heard that they are not up to the job.
So why not do away with a formal probationary period? Many companies do; especially at more senior levels were the ‘contradiction’ of persuading, say, a department head to join you from a competitor and then telling them it will take you six months to decide if they are good enough to stay is particularly perverse. If you are really worried, why not insert a clause in the contract stating the Company is serious about employee performance and will always give staff a clear picture of how their performance is viewed, what is expected of them and that such assessment and feedback will be on a regular and frequent basis during the first year of employment. Oh yes, and do put in place a procedure to make it happen.
