If your hiring process works, what is probation for?
Back in my hiring days, signing the contract with a newly hired member of my team was just the final step in my decision-making process. The probation period was more or less a formality, not another reason for the new person to prove something to me.
It may sound overconfident but hear me out. By the time I made an offer I had run a structured process. Same questions in the same order, scored against pre-agreed criteria, with multiple people scoring and giving feedback. The decision was not based on my intuition, talent in #hiring or luck. There was a method that could be trusted and replicated.
Which raises the obvious question. If the process was that good, what was probation for?
Part of the answer is that no process is perfect. When Sackett and colleagues went back over the selection evidence in 2022, structured interviews held up better than anything else we use in predicting #performance. The unstructured version, where you judge on "vibes" or chemistry, was the weakest approach and where mistakes happened.
The other part is what we overlook in an employer-driven market. Article 7:676 of Dutch labour law lets either party end the contract during probation, same day, no notice, no reason given. Your new #hire has the same door you have, and is evaluating you as much as you are them. They spend those weeks checking whether the #job resembles the one you described. If you oversold the scope, or the state of the team, this is when they find out.
How probation gets misused by managers
They expect top performance immediately and compare new hires against established team members. In my experience, reaching full productivity takes months and depends heavily on how good the onboarding was.
They monitor the wrong signals: enthusiasm, eagerness, high energy. It makes intuitive sense, but Boswell and colleagues found satisfaction with a new job spikes right after the 6-week honeymoon phase.
They use it to correct a hiring mistake. Anyone can make mistakes, and part of leading is owning them. But using probation as a backdoor escape from bad hiring is unethical.
As a leader, this is how you approach probation
Evaluate the right signals. Whether their questions to you are proactive and insightful and they tell you something is going wrong and what they think can be done about it. It's not performance yet, it's potential.
Ask your new hire for feedback, and keep your promises. If something has shifted the scope since the #interview, own it and discuss it openly instead of hoping they will not notice or will not mind.
Forget the probation period even exists. If you trust your hiring method and your own leadership, trust the decision you already made and give this person what they need to succeed.
🌟Sparking Leadership # 56: a weekly series on human-centered sustainable #leadership. Reach out if you're stuck in your #career and need a change or follow for more sparkling content. In the meantime, lead with spark! ✨️
