this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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I currently work at a business that uses a similar method to the probationary period, and I hate it. It’s definitely one of those things that sounds good on paper, but in practice I would love to move away from.
We use a proprietary system in my field, and train a couple of members of each department to be able to submit stuff into it (think Concur / NetSuite). It takes about three months to become proficient enough that I don’t have some form of issue with everything you submit. This means I can spend months training someone, just for them to be let go and the next person roll in.
Training people is expensive in both cash for the business and the time of those around them. Hiring correctly once would make my life a lot easier.
I agree that training people is expensive - I'm just not convinced that any other system than the probationary one works. That is to say, there's sufficient cases of people getting past whatever screening plan the companies have and yet cannot do the job. Depending on the company, once you're permanent, it can be very hard and every expensive to fire you - especially in some countries.
I'm not suggesting that you should take anyone off the street and give them a probationary period. I'm saying if your position needs a skills assessment, I don't think there's a functional one other than a few months of actually doing the job. Too many other systems are easily gamed, or are easily set up to fail people inappropriately too.
You're definitely supported by an enormous amount of evidence in this.
In my current job, we have a small group of employees with specialties in sciences, medical, hazardous materials, IT, threat/plume modeling, and running daily activities. They go to so much training in their first two years, they're gone all the time, and then they are still almost worthless for another year due to lack of real-world knowledge they couldn't get from these special schools.
When we hire the wrong people, it's a huge problem in costs, lost time, and then it makes finding replacements that much harder and shorts the organization longer as well.
Finding the right people who are a good fit is hard.