Extending 90 day probationary period

jenhall

Hello everyone. This is my first post and I am fairly new to HR so I need a little advice. We have an ee who is about to complete his 90 day probationary period. His 60 day eval reflected that he was not performing as well as he should be at that point. The regional manager wants to extend his probationary period another 30 days when he completes his 90 day eval on April 15th. Our policy book only notes that the 90 day probationary period is for evaluation for both the employee and employer and the ee will not accrue benefits during that time. It states that if the ee takes time off in excess of five days the probationary period may be extended. It says nothing about perfomance. Can we legally extend this period and withhold benefits. Any feedback will help.

ray a

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-10-03 AT 12:48PM (CST)[/font][p]If you extend this ee's probationary period by 30 days for further evaluation and decide to keep them, what are you going to tell the next person you terminate at 90 days with no offer of an extension? Are you being discriminatory? Are you setting yourself up for a discrimination charge?

Our policy is, no extension. Period. The manager has 90 days to make a decision and that is ample time. I tell them once they hit 90 days, the employee's status is full-time. If the manager is unhappy with their performance, then they must follow the normal disciplinary process.

PS. Welcome to the forum.

Moria

Our policy is much less rigid then ray a's. We will extend the probationary period an additional 90 days for those marginal employees. Benefits accrue while they are in the introductory period, however they are not eligible to take the benefits until they successfully complete their introductory period.

Each decision to extend is made on an individual basis.

LindaS

Our policy is similar to Moria's. We are a union facility and have a 45 working day probationary period. If, as the 45th days comes close, we feel that we want a little more time to review the employee, we sit down with the union president and discuss it. If they don't agree, the employee is terminated (they ALWAYS agree). The employee is then informed of the decision and are provided a written notice that their probation is being extended. They are not offered benefits until the completion of that time nor are they allowed to join the union. The employees usually aren't very happy but the alternative is termination, and they know this.

Sunny

We are a union plant and have also extended the probationary period by 30 days for marginal performers beyond our 60-working day period. That being said, I don't think it's a good idea. 90 days should be plenty of time for your manager to judge a new hire. Extending probation may gain you a good employee, but it also may give you problems in the future when you don't extend for others. Good luck - let us know how it turns out.

Sunny

Theresa Gegen TX

If the employee is entitled to medical benefits until after 90 days of employment, whether you label it as a probationary period or not probably does not matter. Those types of benefits most likely will have to begin. (You will need to check your ERISA plans for this -- not just your policy manual -- whatever gives the greatest benefits to the employee will control).

The benefit to telling the employee that he or she is still probationary, is that the employee will understand that his/her performance has not been satisfactory. But you are probably better off in terminating now. Otherwise, the employee could hang on for years being barely marginal.

Good Luck!!!

crawfod

We are a non-union city employer and have a 6 month probationary period whereby "an employee may be dismissed at any time, with or without cause, with no rights to appeals or hearings." Vacation and sick leave accruals can only be used with the department head's approval before the six months is up. At least 30 days before the initial 6 months is up the Department Head can request an additional 6 months extension. We require regular written evaluations during these time periods, fairly simple forms but still they have proven to be valuable in communicating improvement needs, etc. After all, we do not want to lose an employee we have spent time and money on in hiring, so we give them every opportunity to succeed. However, we also have dismissed people who quickly prove to be a bad match.
My suggestion would be for your organization to develop a probationary policy that you can live with that will cover extension options.

jenhall

Thank you for all of your advice. We have decided to extended the probationary period for an additional 60 days and let him accrue his sick/personal time during this period. He does not have our health benefits so that does not apply to him. I am also re-writing our policy book to reflect extensions in the future. Thank you guys so much for your input.

LFernandes

We also extend the Probationary Period however, the Manager and HR put together an agressive performance improvement plan which is then given to the employee when they are notified of the Extension. The Improvement plan lists the areas that need improvement as well a recommendation to the employee on how to bring their performance up so they meet standards. I just implemented this process and have found that it has become very beneficial to both the employee and the supervisor. It gives the employee tangible goals to meet and suggestions on how to get there and it gives the supervisor something to measure against.

I have also incorporated the PIP into the annual performance appraisal process when employee's are not meeting standards.

If you're interested in seeing the PIP documents that I put together, let me know. I'd be happy to share them.

LFernandes

Moria

I would like to see them, fax is 970-565-4859, attn Moria or e-mail, [email]mrobinson@crowcanyon.org[/email]. Thanks

crawfod

TO: LFernandes, I too would be interested in your documents. My fax is 615-451-5918 or email [email]crawfod@bellsouth.net[/email]. As a suggestion, if you are willing to share your email address with the forum, it will be easier for you to announce that on the forum and request people email you with their requests so you will only have to "reply" instead of having to check the forum daily. Thanks for your help.

LFernandes

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-15-03 AT 10:14AM (CST)[/font][p]Hi Everyone,

Here is my email address: [email]Laura.Fernandes@collabo.com[/email] in case you're interested in the Performance Improvement Docs.

Laura