Page 14 - DRG HR HANDBOOK- Nikita Pillay
P. 14
PROBATIONARY
PERIOD
he purpose of a probationary period is to provide Evaluate his performance by making sure that he is
support and training to a new employee at given proper instruction on his tasks and how they
Tcommencement of employment, and to evaluate need to be done.
an employee’s work performance over a reasonable,
Give him sufficient training to be able to perform
mutually agreed-upon period of time during which the
his duties.
employer can ascertain the employee’s suitability for the
Provide ongoing guidance to help him meet
position in which he/she had been appointed. Probation
the standards.
is dealt with in the Labour Relations Act (LRA) under the
‘Code of Good Practice – Dismissal’, Schedule 8. Counsel him on poor performance and try solving
the problems together and come to a joint agreement
A probationary employee is one who has a conditional
on how to move forward.
employment contract (written or unwritten). That is,
the continuation of the contract is conditional on Work with him to identify the reasons for poor
whether the employee’s work performance during the performance.
probationary period shows whether he is able to carry
Develop a plan of action with him to fix the problems.
out the work properly. While this describes the purpose
Give him reasonable time to improve his performance
of the probationary period it does not mean that the
and be realistic about the time he can improve in.
employer has a free licence to fire the employee if the
employer believes performance to be unsatisfactory. Only consider dismissal if all reasonable ways of
getting him to improve have been exhausted.
The employer is allowed to extend the employee’s
probation period to further assess the employee’s Give him a chance to present a case in his defence
performance. This might occur, for example, where the before he is dismissed.
employee shows promise but has made some errors
Probation can be a very useful tool for the employer
or the opportunity for evaluation has been reduced
but should only be used after the employer has set
during the initial probation period.
in place structure, to support a process to help a
However, before extending the probation period it is staff member understand the requirements and
good practice for the employer to give the employee expectations of the role.
the opportunity to make representations as regards the
The process includes:
proposed extension.
Designing a probationary policy and procedure
The employer that places an employee on
Having these policies filtered through the organisation
probation has several legal obligations
Setting realistic performance standards
including:
Clarify and communicate the Designing measures for monitoring and evaluating
14 performance standards to the employee. work performance
