Good employee resigned after probation extended

[simplel]

I am a manager in a team. We have a team of 100 staff and about 20 managers. We also have an HR team.

One of our employees joined 7 months ago. They had a bit of a patchy start but once they’d settled in they’ve been excellent. They are well liked in the team and always keen to get stuck in with team events.

At their mid probation, one manager took a dislike to them on a point which has since been disproven. But because this negative feedback was in their review at month 3, HR overruled all the other good feedback from managers and insisted we extend the employee’s probation to 9 months long.

I’m told by HR that the employee was devastated but promised to continue showing they could perform at the level needed.

A month later, employee has handed in their notice and is leaving for a competitor. We need the (wo)manpower in the team and I’m gutted they’ll be going. If you were this person, what could we do to make you stay?

How can a team of 100 people have 20 managers? That’s not possible.

Do you mean the whole company is 100 people? Even so, why there would be 20 managers isn’t clear.

Is this some sort of call centre or something where people need a lot of supervision?

I wouldn't stay either. Why should they? Your management is crap.

Good employee resigned after manager targeted them and they knew they wouldn't never have a reasonable employment period in the company but no one did fuck all about it so they left

Just a shame it took them a month to sort out a role with a hopefully better company.

Can't even image all managers being positive, one being unreasonably negative on a point in error, and HR siding with the negative arsehole. What a shit place to work.

There’s been another thread on this from the employee’s point of view

Once an employee has made their mind up to leave, they usually have very good reasons (awful management, poor work environment etc) for doing so and nigh on impossible to get them to stay.

Yep, I'd have gone. The person wasn't valued.

1. A full apology from the git manager and HR
2. A large salary increase
3. probation ended obvs

These would be my non-negotiables

You don't want to keep them. They'll never feel settled and happy now.

Can you please send a link?

As your employee was in a six month probationary period, I assume this is a senior level role. It takes a good six months to learn new systems, processes, and people. And at that level there’s an expectation to make improvements and efficiencies. You can’t expect a new employee to be performing at 100% whilst learning the ropes. Her productivity will be half that of someone who has been in your team for 5 years who works on autopilot. She should have had the bad review struck from the record, you’ve let a good employee go, and potentially knocked her confidence. A probationary period is two-way and she has rightly decided this is not a nurturing environment. You need some serious lessons learnt with HR after this.

I'd let them go and try their luck somewhere else. I am about to start a new job and it's taking so long to get started it really knocking my confidence.

They must feel quite deflated and it does knock your confidence back getting a bad review especially at the off. I'd never be loyal to a employer again. It's a two way street respect, and I don't really blame them.

Ha! This happened to me. Started as a temp, was offered a more permanent role, proved my worth during my probationary period but then had it extended by several months because I came back from lunch 10 mins late on one single occasion (I was eating lunch in a group with other coworkers). It was a clear power play by one of the managers, my colleagues had warned me about her but as a temp I had been unaffected by office politics so didn't see what they meant until it happened to me. When it did, nothing my line manager could say would change my mind and I left as soon as my notice period was up.
I think there's nothing you can say to make them stay. They were shafted. Once trust is breached by an employer, it's unlikely to come back. If you don't want this to happen again, replace bad managers who use their position to throw their weight around for an ego trip with decent ones who inspire trust and loyalty.

If it were me, a meaningful promotion and pay rise might convince me to stay. But, to be honest, I hope I would have the sense to move on. It was deeply unfair and sounds like a bureaucratic nightmare to have had to deal with and I don't see how you can show them that's changed (because it doesn't sound like it has), so staying is probably a poor move.

They had a lucky escape. Your workplace sounds horrendous. They would have been stupid to stay.

Nothing worse than poor mgmt. I wouldn't look back.

Pretty good clue then that this is someone playing the fool. Again.

We need the (wo)manpower in the team and I’m gutted they’ll be going. If you were this person, what could we do to make you stay?

If I were that woman, there is NOTHING that could get me to stay

HR have been useless in weeding out the vindictive (?)/incorrect feedback before it stained her record, her probation extended as a result and her managers, the people who were supposed to 'have her back' were useless

The future is bleak in a company like that

The company is run by a bunch of bullies/arseholes. Hopefully the employee has found somewhere better to work

This! She knows her worth & won't stand for stupid games. Good for her. (Otherwise throw a shed load of money at her & see if that makes a difference).

Good luck to the exiting probationer. Where you find no loyalty give no loyalty.

They sound great

Stop jerking them around. 7 months probation! They want a full time contract. Can’t anyone in your organisation make a decision - how much effing info do you need!? Clearly the person leaving is far more capable or making smart and TIMELY decisions and did the right thing. The problem with bloated flaccid organisations working off inherited work practices, processes and procedures that are beyond question is that they are not fast enough on their feet to survive - there’s no human intelligence left in the system - it’s all been processed out. If I was you I’d follow them out - maybe even try and get a job working with them.

The employee did absolutely the right thing. I agree that once the point had been disproven, the extended probation should have been challenged immediately and withdrawn. That would have shown the employee she could trust her employers to act correctly. As it is, she can't trust them. She was right to leave.

I was thinking that. It does seem high.

I wouldn’t want to stay in those circumstances, OP. I think the best you can do is start some sort of report or investigation into how this was allowed to happen (bullying, response failures) to make sure it never happens again.