Some managers feel that going through additional hiring processes is worse than simply keeping struggling employees and hoping for the best. Image: tomertu/Shutterstock.com
The Partnership for Public Service has suggested follow-up steps to OPM’s recent guidance to agencies on making fuller use of the probationary period for a newly hired federal employee, saying improving the use of that period “is a low-hanging fruit for holding agencies and federal employees accountable for performance and encouraging emerging best practices in skills-based hiring.”
During the (generally) one year period after federal employees are hired, agencies evaluate them and may fire them without the legal protections that apply to employees who successfully complete the period. However, studies over the years from MSPB and others have concluded that agencies under-use it and sometimes simply overlook it.
“Unfortunately, despite being a long-standing assessment tool in the hiring toolbox, few agencies and supervisors use the probationary period to its full potential, allowing deadlines to pass and probationary employees to gain permanent status on autopilot,” says a blog posting by the Partnership.
“Some hiring managers worry about being unfairly dinged for a new hire that doesn’t work out. Others believe that the trouble of creating new vacancies and going through additional hiring processes is worse than simply keeping struggling employees in their position and hoping for the best,” it says.
In a memo last December, OPM told agencies to make “full use” of the probationary period, including giving supervisors a notice at four months and then again at one month before an employee’s period is to end, and telling them to “make an affirmative decision regarding the probationer’s fitness for continued employment or otherwise take appropriate action.”
To go beyond that, the posting says, “One possibility would be encouraging agencies to incorporate the central elements of this guidance into supervisor performance plans, which would hold supervisors accountable for following probationary period best practices.”
“OPM should also encourage agencies to collect and monitor data on the reminders sent to supervisors about probationary period expirations and the follow-up actions taken by supervisors of probationary employees as a result,” it says.
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