PPB November 2019

It’s Time To Ditch The New-Hire Probationary Period by Claudia St. John, SPHR, SHRM-SCP I recently received a call from a client asking what his rights were to fire an employee who was still in her probationary period. It was a good question that I answered with my own question: Why do you have a probationary period in the first place? Typically, a probationary period is an interval after hiring an employee—usually between 30 and 90 days—when an employee is assessed to determine whether he or she can satisfy the requirements of the job. It can also be used to define a time in which the employee is not eligible for certain benefits and/or it can be set on the state’s unemployment base period, neither of which need a defined “probationary 70 | NOVEMBER 2019 | THINK