However, probabtion is not only for newly employed personnel. Some employers can place permanent employees on probation, particularly if their performance is seen as being below the company standards, or if they are not acting in a way which does not reflect the company well. In these cases, employees are given a period of time to either improve their performance or modify their behaviour before more severe measures are taken.
Ultimately, probation allows an employer to fire employees who are either not working to their standards. However, it can also be used to gain a better idea of how your newly hired worker acts in certain situations, and how they can be improved within the business. In these situations, probation is not used to terminate your employees, but instead to make sure they can grow into a employee who will be more useful to the company.
Probation can be a slippery road for comapanies who tend to use it for newly hired employees. If used to terminate employees who are not up to standard, it can give your company a bad reputation for being friendly towards employees who may be taking an entry level position. The alternative to this is to not use probation for new employees at all, and to instead conduct multiple interviews before hiring. With this method, you can stage interviews where candidates have to run through 'mock' scenarios to better test the capabilities of new recruits. On the other hand, if your business is highly demanded and gets a steady supply of new recruits, this may not be an optimal strategy, and probation may be a better choice.
But being on probation does not mean 'about to be fired'. For example, an employer may use probation if the business you conduct demands top tier results from your employees. In this case, probation allows you to find where your workers are weakest, and which workers can not perform to the high standards that are required in your industry. It allows you to evaluate their performance, and redirect them to other parts of your business where they be able to work more efficiently.
To this end, probation is a difficult status to balance between your employees, as it can have severe side effects. New employees who are immediately placed under probation may feel alienated and over stressed. Employees who are placed on probation may not feel they deserve to be under probation, and may seek other employment. This can also seriously effect the morale of your employees as well. So while it does empower you as an employer, that power can deter many workers from considering your business as a sustainable place of employment.
By: Alexander Morrison