Hi,
I was hoping for some opinions and best practices from inside your own organisations.
When I came into the business I currently work in as a standalone HR Executive, I noticed that there was a standard probation period of 6 months for new employees but then a probation period of 3 months if someone changes roles at any point throughout their employment.
I was slightly confused as the benefit of having a probation period if an employee changes roles as to the action that can be taken if the individual doesn't perform within that time, especially if the employee has a tenure of over 24 months. Surely, we cannot simply end their probation if they're not successful as we'd be opening ourselves up to potential unfair dismissal claims and we would instead follow a performance management process.
Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated as to whether you have a similar working in your organisation or whether like me, the point of this is questionable.
Thanks in advance, Sam
Replies
Hi Sam
For our internal staff who change roles, we don't have a probationary anymore, we used to and it just didn't go down well with our employees. We were asked continuously, What happens if I don't succeed?, can i go back to my previous role? etc and it made us change our way of thinking.
We now have a trial period for all internal moves, we ensure though that we have promoted and offered the correct candidate into the role in the first place, we heavily invest in our staff and I am pleased to say that all employees who change departments are successful. On the occasions where they have asked themselves to move back, if we have been able to we have helped them to go back to previous roles or move onto something else.
Amy
We have had this and if there is a need to trial the position we would put a probationary in with the employee going back to the previous role if unsuccessful. This of course means the role cant be back filled so wouldn't work in all scenarios
Sam
Hi Sam
We don't have probation periods for staff who have changed roles, we just ask managers to complete an interim review so they can set new objectives and expectations. I agree with Debbie, it would then be the capability route if there was an issue
Tracey
Hi Sam,
I've had a quick look at some others practices, and one interesting perspective is that once an employee changes their role within the business, they don't have to go through a probation period, but if they do not meat the standard required for that role, they will be taken through the capability procedure.
We don't ask for probation periods to be completed for staff moving roles in our company and I would suggest we would follow the above principle.
Hope that helps.
Debbie Firth