Proposals this week will kick off consultation that could see unfair dismissal rights move from a two-year qualifying threshold for employees to just six or nine months service (the maximum time that will probably be allowed for a probation period). This alone is one of the biggest employment law developments in the last 50 years. Managers will need to make decisions on whether someone is 'right for the organisation' a lot quicker - and arguably they don't have the tools to do this!
The folly of annual/half-year appraisals still exists in most organisations: people go into HR careers even now and just pick up and run with this practice because everyone else did who went before them. Managers therefore don't manage performance in a timely way: they do it when the calendar tells them to and HR cajoles them! So, when it comes to new starters they are generally putting things off unless someone is really 'bad'. I see this all the time - rushed probation/permanent employment confirmations even though 'we aren't sure about them' or worse: probation extensions because, well, we aren't sure about them!
Managers just don't have the inclination or the skills to manage performance on a day-to-day basis outside of the odd 121 chat. The dreaded 'objectives' are often terribly worded, are subjective and full of buzzwords, which then leads to conflict when the employee is trying to make a case that they have achieved them and the manager is begging to differ. Back to the law: if you need to decide whether to continue to hire or instead fire at the six month point you are going to need to be really sure as to whether someone is indeed performing or not! Here then is the managers new three-point formula to maximise the chances of getting things right.
- Inductions/onboarding are mainly about getting up to speed. They should, instead be performance focused. After two weeks of settling in, everyone needs proactive, 'familiarisation/self-sufficiency' objectives for the next few months. Focused on understanding that system, knowing and following the procedures for X, being able to do Y without too much 'hand-holding'. A lot of this can easily be measured across and quickly tested towards the end of the probation period.
- Are they performing against 'quick-win' objectives they have been targeted with after the first couple of weeks. These are the things that tell us early-on that this person is already having an impact and delivering some results. It's not about settling in for months and 'observing' - this gives you virtually nil data when it comes to that all-important six month decision mark.
- What's the attitude and behaviour like? Not necessarily something you can target objectives with from the beginning - something you instead are going to see play out across those first few months. What is the real them like outside of those interviews! At the three month stage, identify the red flags if any - have the conversation - turn these into objectives (eg you want to see more of x and less of y). Are these habits they can develop in the way the org wants - or personality traits you can do without?
Objective-setting and managing attitude/behaviour are a massive part of our training here at Lightbulb - because just about everyone struggles with it. A new, different approach is required rather than just repeating the tired acronym SMART ad-nauseum to people and hoping that will do the trick!
We need to reimagine new starter performance: The alternative could be dismissing in haste someone who could have been amazing, or keeping someone who should have been let go!
Check out our Flexible, Painless People Management programme and our 'different approach' Managing Performance/Objective-Setting workshops
