“Everyone deserves a second chance.” On that note, let’s begin by saying that employees are no exception and they also need an opportunity to correct their mistakes. For this purpose, organizations implement a stage of “probation period” in the employee lifecycle. During this span, the freshly recruited employees are kept on a trial to observe their learning capabilities and development pace.
Until the supervisors are satisfied with the performance of the newbies, they are not confirmed as permanent employees of the organization.
In the initial days, the work generally feels like a cakewalk, keeping in mind the inexperience and lack of adaptability of the freshers. But, after this predefined time is over, even the new recruits are expected to overcome every hurdle and reach a specified level of performance. Failing to attain the desired parameters after completing 3-6 months in a company, the probation period could be exceeded. This scenario is known as Probation Extension. Now, these unproductive employees are given notice and some more time to upgrade their show, otherwise they have the worst case chance of getting their employment terminated.
Let’s now walk through the common reasons behind sending a probation extension letter to a candidate and giving him/ her the ultimatum:
Unmet Targets
After completing 3-6 months in an organization, if an employee is unable to learn the assigned operations and yield the required output, he/ she is considered unfit for the profile. In target-based jobs, the inability to achieve the preset targets within the stipulated time frame can lead to the extension of probation period. In this stretch, if the employee meets the targets successfully, he is retained, else an action is taken.
Performance Improvement
Employers seem to be wasting their finances, time and other resources if the employees are not performing well and are unable to produce the due results. Therefore, after a defined number of weeks to adapt to the workflow, if the new joiners are still not able to deliver the desired numbers, their probationary term is extended. If there is no uplift in the performance even after this period, the employee has a risk of being exempted from the job.
Upskilling Purposes
Now, after failing to impress the supervisors with their performance in the beginning, the new recruits are provided with training and upskilling sessions for a particular time. This is called probation extension for scaling up the skills of the employees.
Irregularity/ Unpunctuality
Besides adhering to the KPIs and succeeding in augmenting the business, if an employee breaks the Time Attendance Policy of the organization, he/ she has a slight chance of a delayed confirmation. If a person frequently takes a lot of leaves than normal or if he/ she doesn’t complete the required number of hours inside the office premises, he can be put on probation extension and strict action is taken after a warning or two.
Bad Conduct and Minor Offences
This one is a critical cause of giving probation extension letter to the newbies. All other expectations from a newly hired employee can be fulfilled, but if a person fails at complying with the rules and regulations of a company, there is a straight termination of employment. In this case, the person guilty of misconduct or making an offence is given one warning to correct the mistake and directly expelled from the organization on repetition of the same.
