Probationary Period: The Strategic Leader’s Approach to Candidate Selection and Training
The chief executive officer (CEO) pounded the table and through clenched teeth threatened “We must get our revenue up if we are going to meet shareholders’ Q1 expectations.”
The chief information officer (CIO) intercepted the CEO’s charge with an equally convincing demand: “We absolutely must beef up cybersecurity. Emerging technology is top priority. We can’t compete without it.”
The chief operating officer (COO) redirected the executive team’s attention to pending orders and customer expectations. “If we don’t meet our client’s current orders, it won’t matter if we have an IT team at all.”
The senior vice president responsible for logistics interjected, “It’s going to cost if you want it delivered on time!”
The chief financial officer (CFO) countered “But our costs are through the roof!”
Often silent in this type of exchange is the chief human resource officer (CHRO) calling for the development and retention of a skilled workforce. There is no rallying cry to hire work candidates who are learning-agile and ready to perform and grow into these critical roles. Often, the humans who are tasked with these complicated outcomes are the last to be informed of the strategic goals. The humans are the last to be trained and developed to meet the organization’s immediate needs let alone short-term and long-term initiatives.
It is not unusual for those low on the organization chart to feel that the C-level leaders are completely disconnected from the tactical actions required to meet those shareholders’ first quarter (Q1) expectations. The front-line employees and their direct leaders, however, are often the critical players in the execution of all the strategic initiatives implemented by the C-level, top and mid-level leaders.
In the truly successful companies, the ones who have decade over decade of sustained growth and outperform others in their industry, leaders understand the link between frontline workers and the successful attainment of the organization’s goals. Perhaps the most important notion to take away from this chapter is that successful leaders and their organizations recognize the human factor and work to avoid using terms such as employees when referencing humans. For the purpose of reinforcing this concept, this chapter uses the expression newly hired humans as a means to highlight the important of this approach.
Top leaders, middle leaders, and front-line leaders typically dance to the same drum. Create the mousetrap faster, cheaper, and better. Squeezes are implemented at every turn. If only they’d step back to see the one constant that is often unaddressed is the workforce, the one constant responsible for going faster, cutting costs, and building a better mousetrap. In other words, the asset that is the least tapped for potential is the workforce. That constant is the humans, the workers themselves.
Whether the labor supply is abundant or whether it is tight, one thing remains. Employers need employees to manufacture things like mousetraps. They need employees in service industries that supply raw materials for mousetraps, transport mousetraps, finance mousetraps, and regulate mousetraps. And employers need nurses and medical professionals to keep well those employees and to heal them when they aren’t. Employers need banking staff to work the teller lines and to provide banking help like mortgage lending. Employers need logistics workers in warehouses and drivers to move the cargo from one place to another.
It is safe to say that the orderly symbiosis of developed nations depends upon leaders and a whole many more followers to go about the work that collectively enables the nations to operate. Every single step of the way, employees are needed to support the strategic short- and long-term goals of the leaders and their organizations.
The organization’s leaders are bestowed with the ability to plan their workforce and are supported in that endeavor by various supporting leaders such as human resource professionals. The attitudes of the C-level leaders, high and mid-level leaders, as well as front line leaders directly influence the organization’s culture. Probationary periods are effective and legal means used to fill openings with the most qualified candidates based upon observed merit via demonstrating essential skills, knowledge, and abilities. A robust probationary period is a critical practice that increases a good fit between newcomers and the organization increasing efficiency and producing greater return on investment. Those organizations whose leaders forego entry-point training programs are likely to experience a disconnect between the workers output and the requirements of the role resulting in sustained mediocrity and eventually cease to exist. This chapter walks the reader through the development of the probationary period, case studies, and best practices.
This chapter features the process of adding workers to an organization’s value, incorporating a stratified learning and evaluation component in the introductory period of the workers. It includes a look at the evolution of applicant selection and orientation programs. This chapter chronicles the evolution of the modern probationary work period, its role in employee development, and the return on investment it brings to the organization. This chapter includes the components of robust probationary periods and a peak at some best practices.
Ultimately, it is the role of the organization’s leaders across all levels to provide a work environment that trains and retains its workers so that the organization lives up to its mission of onboarding employees. As you’ll see, the symbiotic relationship between leaders and followers can be mutually beneficial or terribly misaligned. The impetus is on leaders to choose the one that is best for their organizations.