Jason Thistlethwaite
1.8 KiB
During a probationary period an employee's performance, attendance, and conduct are monitored more closely. Infractions and unwanted behavior may be taken more seriously, and can skip the normal escalation process even for otherwise minor actions or behaviors.
A probationary period is normally used when hiring a new person, who is typically subject to a probationary period for 90 days after being hired. A probationary period can also be used as part of corrective action.
How does a probationary period affect an employee?
While subject to probation an employee should expect the following:
- Use of PTO is not permitted;
- Any kind of absense or attendance concern may be more carefully scrutinized;
- Overtime and schedule adjustments will probably not be allowed;
- Any infraction could lead to immediate termination;
- Failing to show up for a scheduled shift without appropriate notice may be treated like the employee voluntarily quit.
When a probationary period may be used as part of corrective action.
A probationary period might be used along with Retraining, Reassignment, or a Suspensions#Disciplinary Suspension. This should be done when it's needed to reinforce that further unwanted behavior or actions won't be tolerated, even if they are not related to the original problem that lead to corrective action.
It may be tempting for managers to use a probationary period in tandem with a Personal Improvement Plan, but this is not generally recommended as it tends to be a waste of time. The reason being that PIP's are best used to resolve situations where an otherwise great employee is unpromotable because of some behavior we hope to correct. Using a PIP with an employee who is likely to break other rules is probably a waste of time since we should be focusing on replacing them anyway.