An employee’s first year on the job is crucial for all involved.
For employer and new hire alike, these first months are a time to find out if the fit is right.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management emphasizes the importance of this trial or probationary period in a recent memo to the heads of executive departments and agencies.
The probationary period offers agencies an “opportunity to assess, on the new job, new hires’ overall fitness and qualification for continued employment, and permit … swift termination when performance or conduct does not meet acceptable standards to deliver on the mission,” wrote OPM Director Kiran Ahuja.
This timeframe is “the final evaluative step in the hiring process of a new employee,” Ahuja continued, “and is an essential and highly effective supervisory tool to evaluate a candidate’s potential to be an asset to the agency before the candidate’s appointment becomes final.”
OPM advises government agencies to periodically remind supervisors and managers about the value of the probationary period, suggesting that notices to supervisors could take place four months before expiration of the probationary period, followed by another reminder one month prior to the period’s expiration, “or any other time intervals the agency determines appropriate,” Ahuja wrote.
The memo recommended that agencies advise supervisors to make an affirmative decision regarding the probationer’s fitness for continued employment or otherwise take appropriate action.
“These reminders are designed to help supervisors take full advantage of the probationary period in order to make informed decisions about whether to retain an individual in the agency’s permanent workforce,” the memo read. “This action also promotes accountability by reminding supervisors of their responsibility to assess the fitness of all probationers and act expeditiously to address any performance or conduct issues.”
Getting HR Involved
OPM also offered a series of tips for supervisors of probationary employees, suggesting that agencies provide this information to all current and future supervisors for use during the probationary period. These tips explain the value of the probationary period, according to OPM, and recommend good management practices for supervisors and managers to follow during this “critical assessment opportunity.” For example:
- Understand why the probationary period is important. The probationary period is the final stage of the hiring process for employees in the competitive service, OPM noted, adding that agencies can in most cases swiftly terminate probationers who have not demonstrated their fitness for continued employment.
- Communication performance and conduct expectations. Employees are bound to have difficulty meeting performance expectations if those expectations are not made clear to them. “Providing clear expectations doesn’t necessarily require you to lay out precisely written, detailed instructions on conduct or every performance component,” according to OPM. “Generally, the question you should ask yourself is, ‘Would a reasonable person understand what was expected?’ ”
- Know new hires’ rights. Most employees serve a probationary period, with limited appeal rights upon termination, when they are first hired into civil service, the memo read. While the termination process for probationers does not typically require giving advanced notice or a right to respond, agencies do need to follow the rules governing how to separate a particular probationer, OPM cautioned. There are exceptions that necessitate additional steps, however. An individual with prior service, for example, may have full statutory procedural rights.
OPM recommends consulting human resource advisors before making decisions in such cases, advising that leadership regularly seeks HR’s counsel on questions about whether the agency has probationers, how to assess them, or the separation process, describing HR as agency leaders’ “partners to make sure [the organization and its staff] are successful.”
02 January 2024
Category
HR News Article
