There’s something oddly passive about how most companies handle probation. Despite being the first true test of a new hire’s suitability, it’s often treated as an afterthought. For many, it begins with promise, continues with vague check-ins, and ends with either a rubber-stamped extension or a quiet pass into permanent employment.
But scratch the surface, and a more serious pattern emerges. When probation isn’t used as the structured trial it’s meant to be, poor decisions settle into the business. And once they do, they’re significantly harder to undo.
At a utilities company in Yorkshire, internal data from 2022 showed that 27% of exits within 18 months involved employees who had flagged performance or integration issues within the first three months. HR had collected this feedback informally. Line managers hadn’t acted. By the time a decision was made, reputational damage had been done — both internally and in client relationships.
Probation isn’t an administrative milestone. It’s a strategic lever.
In many cases, the problem isn’t malice or neglect — it’s ambiguity. Companies outline goals in job descriptions but fail to translate those into practical milestones for the probation window. Managers are left to “see how it goes” without a clear sense of what to monitor, and new employees receive polite praise but no directional input.
There’s also discomfort. Feedback is avoided in favour of optimism. Challenging conversations get delayed. Sometimes, managers prefer to “wait it out” and hope improvement arrives by default. This is common in organisations with weak middle management infrastructure, where capability varies widely and probation oversight is thin.
Some businesses attempt to resolve this with formality — rigid evaluation frameworks, scoring grids, multiple sign-offs. While structure helps, it only works if applied with judgement and supported by proper dialogue. Otherwise, it becomes just another form to complete at month six.
Performance concerns in probation aren’t always about capability. Sometimes, they’re about interpretation — someone misunderstanding expectations, misjudging tone, or applying past habits to a new environment.
Handled early, these things are fixable. Left unspoken, they calcify.
In professional services, there’s a particular risk. A candidate who seems promising — polished CV, good references, strong early impressions — might struggle with client dynamics, or internal politics. These issues may be quietly noted by peers or partners, but if they’re not documented or raised with the individual directly, the chance to realign is lost.
It’s not just about preventing poor hires from progressing. It’s about giving capable people a fair chance to improve, with the right information in front of them.
Some firms are starting to get it right. A logistics company based in the West Midlands introduced a ‘reverse review’ system during probation. New starters are encouraged to assess their manager and onboarding experience in writing, alongside their formal performance check-in. It creates an opening for two-way critique, and provides early indicators of cultural or process gaps the business needs to fix.
Elsewhere, we’ve seen international companies assign peer mentors for the first 60 days — not to monitor, but to translate informal expectations. This helps bridge the gap between what’s said in induction and what actually happens on the ground.
Probation can also be used to diagnose hiring process flaws. If repeated issues emerge around a particular role, function, or location, it’s not always the candidate that needs attention — it may be the job definition itself.
One of the reasons probation is so under-utilised is that the consequences of misuse don’t show up on any balance sheet. There’s no line for underwhelming new hires who just about meet the mark, or for the productivity drag caused by poor alignment between manager and recruit.
But over time, it accumulates. Marginal hires become systemic friction. Teams learn not to expect much from new colleagues. Managers adapt by lowering expectations.
And the business suffers not because of one bad hire — but because of a hundred small hesitations to act.
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