Probation Periods Are Causing You Problems
Let’s talk about probation periods.
Once upon a time, in a company far far away, someone said that there should be a three-month period at the beginning of someone’s employment when the notice period is only a week. You know, in case they’re really bad.
No one knows what type of company they ran. How big it was. Or why three months.
But this is now just what we pass down. From employer to employee. And then when the employee starts a business they pass it on themselves.
Crazy how you’ll adopt a big company HR policy like probation periods without thinking, but you’ll reject other useful things big companies do like “business development.”
I did probation periods too. We all did. It’s just the rules of the game.
The rules could do with a bit more detail too. Like what to do during the probation period.
We agency founders generally employ the following method at first:
Get to three months, realise it’s time to decide about probation, and then have to make a decision on the spot.
Everyone chips in their opinion, trying to work out if the person is actually bad or if it’s just been a rough three months.
Most of the time they’re waved through even if they’re not quite right, and they stick around for years and hold you back.
Every now and again, they don’t make it through probation and you don’t use the week’s notice, of course. Because who on earth dismisses someone with just a week’s notice, even if they’re allowed. The whole thing is a huge and horrible surprise for them and for you as founder, one of the bad days of running your business.
And then you get to find out from the reaction of everyone else in the business whether this was the right decision.
Three Months Is No Good
A decision date which gets set and forgotten. That date is just made up. Someone said three months once.
The existence of that date means that no decisions are made before it, and by three months people are on client work, halfway through designs, exhibiting promising and worrying behaviour. They’ve formed bonds within the team.
Why are we waiting three months to decide if someone’s a good hire?
Because every day that the wrong hire is in your company is a day of damage. And every day you aren’t confident they’re ready for client work is an extra day of uncertainty for you.
ASAP is the target. Not three months.
Three months is, at best, some kind of backstop in case you’ve forgotten to make a decision. A final chance. Not a plan.
What if we started again here? What if we knew what decision we should make and could make it earlier than three months?
What to Do Instead
The 1-2-1 Onboarding Framework. Stop writing your 30-60-90 plans. Give it 4 weeks.
Week 1: Welcome them, get them set up, and brief them on a two-week assignment that mirrors real client work.
Week 2-3: They complete the assignment. It’s designed with three levels, a detailed brief they must follow, a loose prompt that tests how they create something new, and an open request that lets them show initiative. They work with your team. You’re available, checking in, observing where they shine and where they might need support.
Week 4: You sit down together. Run back through what they did. Point out what they did really well. Identify areas where they might need support. Decide if they’re ready for client work or need more support in specific areas first.
In a worst-case scenario you realise that it’s not going to work and you are making a hard decision.
What is this? Dear Heartless Agency Founder?
Well, ok, I agree. But knowing this after 4 weeks means you can outline what needs to improve and give them a chance to work on it. People are human and new jobs are stressful. If you have found a weakness you can isolate it and work with them on it.
Second chances are allowed. In fact, they’re easier to give when you have specific evidence about what needs to improve.
The difference is:
- The decision happens in week 4, not week 12
- You have evidence to point to (for you and them)
And this isn’t all about finding bad hires, it’s about setting them up for success. You learn where they shine, where they need help, and what support to give them before their first client meeting.