In Defense of the Trial Service Period

Often times new e-zines come from a problem presented to me either through the arbitration process or one of my other professional activities. This e-zine is the second in a series of three related to the trial services period. During this past week I ran into a familiar problem dealing with the trial services period. In this case, the employer has a 90 day trial services period and a practice of dismissing an unsuccessful employee on the 89^th day of employment; perfectly acceptable practice per the last e-zine. As a matter of policy, no reasons are given for the dismissal other than the statement that the employee has not successfully completed the trial services period. Problem! In this case, the employee was deaf; a fact that constitutes a disability under the ADA. The plot thickens, the employer, during the prior two years, has only dismissed two employees during the trial services period; the instant employee and one prior. The prior employee was also deaf. Now we are in trouble.

While the courts have long recognized, as was discussed last month, that an employee can be dismissed without cause during a bona fide trial services period, the courts have never found that a trial services period protects the employer against the requirements of the ADA. The case is still pending as an EEOC complaint but my guess is that the employer is in trouble on this one.

While the ADA does not protect employees who fail to carry out the essential tenets of their job, the employer has a major burden to both demonstrate that it does not have an inappropriate pattern of unlawful discrimination and that the decision to dismiss the employee on the 89^th day was based solely on permissible reasons. For the purposes of this e-zine, I want to emphasize that the requirements of specific statutes will always trump your personnel policies – including the portion on Trial Service. You must always meet the minimum requirements of law in the way that you apply your policy.

The important point of this month’s e-zine, however, is not to focus on the legal issues concerning the trial services period, but rather to look at the possibilities. The trial services period should be all about performance. True, one dimension of the issue of performance concerns whether an employee can demonstrate the ability to perform at an acceptable level. But, when focus is attached exclusively to the right of dismissal, it misses the potentialities of the trial services period.

While the unfettered right of dismissal is an important element in a trial services period, it cannot be allowed to overshadow the more significant element which is the use of the trial services period to light a fire in new employees. If what the employer seeks is high performing employees, constant reminders that the new employee “may not make it” hardly seems to be an incendiary practice. Rather than dismissal, the focus during trial service periods should be on practices that help insure a long-term commitment to high performance. Three thoughts come to mind to help build this practice.

First, in the book First Break All the Rules, the authors cite extensive research that indicates the strong correlation between high performance and a relationship between the employee and the immediate supervisor. I do not think these research results are surprising as it makes logical sense that we all work better in an environment of positive social regard. If an employee trusts, respects and/or appreciates his or her immediate supervisor, obviously the employee will be more open to direction and coaching. The trial services period is clearly the time to establish those qualities in the relationship. What I am suggesting is that attention to relationship is as important, in the long run, as attention to work performance.

Second, the trial services period is an ideal time to bring the employee into alignment with the culture. While a more extended discussion of the process by which alignment can be achieved is a good subject for a future e-zine, I want to make two quick observations at this point. First, employees learn about culture through the modeling efforts by supervisors and fellow employees. Thus alignment can only be achieved through the involvement of team members. However, there is a double advantage to the employer of including team members in the process of creating alignment. Not only will the group process help bring new employees into alignment; it will also reaffirm to existing employees the importance of the culture.

Third, completing the trial services period has to mean something. One of my favorite definitions of happiness is “happiness is the successful completion of a worthy goal.” When a pilot successfully completes training, he or she receives wings to memorialize that feat. Having personally gone through that process, I have a clear memory about the feeling of accomplishment. In my view, that feeling of accomplishment is needed by the employee to fuel commitment and a high level of future performance. The employer needs to do something to show that passing from trial services to regular employment is a significant event.

Finally, you probably have guessed from reading this e-zine that the question of how to most successfully structure and implement a trial service period is my current, top research interest. I am convinced that the trial service period is the most effective time for the employer to head off performance problems by focusing on procedures that can help insure performance successes. The new employee is generally the most open to responding to these efforts. I am currently working with a couple of clients to completely redesign their whole approach to the trial services period. If any of you are interested in the specifics of what we are doing, please let me know.

Next month we will complete the three month e-zine series on trial service periods.

Quote:

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson