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?

I could not work for a company whose HR department will take the unfounded words of one manager against the grain.

That one manager needs to get a full formal investigation into their actions.

They made the right decision by the sounds of things. Why stay when you are putting so much effort in and getting shit from people..

Once your company had showed such pettiness i think the writing was on the wall....If you treat staff unfairly it will affect how they see the company .
This employee was lied about and punished even when the lie was exposed,no one did anything to resolve that mistreatment so you lost a great employee.
Even if you apologised, admitted a mistake was made in the way she was treated and that you were too weak willed to stand up for her, i dont think it would reverse what you allowed to happen to her.
Would you ever trust an employer who treated you insuch an appalling way ?
I wouldn't.

Yeah this. Terrible management.

Surely HR is advice but it is up to the manager to make the decision? That’s how it works in my place of work anyway. Plenty of people have gone down appeals route for warnings etc, and managers will insist that HR told them to give a warning but HR shut that straight down and say ultimately it’s the managers decision, they can’t hide behind HR. But I’ve only ever worked in one sector so may be wrong

If you were this person, what could we do to make you stay?

Immediate permanency and £50k pay rise would do the trick.

Good on them, I’d do the same. It’s too late I’m afraid, they won’t stay now, all you can do is try and learn from this and don’t let it happen again.

what could we do to make you stay?

Absolutely fuck all. You (and by You I mean the company) screwed it up early on. Good for the employee that they treated you the same way you treated them. My daughter is just starting the interview process, after uni, and is worried that what happens if she takes a job on knowing there is a chance she might get a better opportunity afterwards - how should she deal with that as she’d feel bad leaving so soon. I’ve made it clear to her that companies these days rarely give any kind of thought or loyalty to employees so no need to worry about giving it back. She got one knock back so far (for a frankly shit minimum wage job, but she’s got to earn something, and it’s easier to get a job when you have already got one) that basically said - don’t even bother asking us for feedback on why you didn’t get the job, we don’t give a shit. It’s par for the course these days. You reap what you sow in employment. I run my own business now but I have been in the position of interviewing and employing (and subsequently managing) many people and within the last twenty years, so not some utopian past. I wouldn’t have dreamt of treating people the way companies treat people now. And I wouldn’t in future either.

Yeah...if that happened to me, I'd tell you where to shove it.

Good for them. They have self respect and weren't prepared to stay somewhere they were treated unfairly. Will there be any repercussions for the manager whose poor behaviour caused them to leave?

Nothing. Your workplace sounds toxic and I understand 100% why someone would leave

I'm a bit stuck on how a managers dislike somehow made it in to HR records. There must have been some sort of formal complaint, not just a bit of a whinge.

I think the way HR acted has demonstrated that noone was happy to take her side. Did she know about the supposed issue before her probation was extended? She obviously feels blindsided and her trust is broken.

I don't think anything can make her stay.

My probation period has never been extended (I’m nearly retired and have had lots of jobs) if it ever had been I wouldn’t hang around either I’m afraid. Too proud I am.

Not one thing. She's an excellent employee that you valued and needed and who was treated very unfairly by an asshole manager, backed up by HR.
Why would she want to work for you?

I'm not sure anything could make me stay. However, firing that one manager to show you disapproved of their actions and so I wouldn't have to work with them would be a good start. As well as permanancy and a pay rise. Anything short of that, bye. Good for them.

Yep.

The individual departure isn't really the issue.

Management rarely know who the great performers are until it's too late, their co-workers do however. Most people get angrier about injustice to others than to themselves because it's easier to see things in context when you're not personally involved.

Expect more good people to walk - while HR go further and further into fantasyland to show that your retention is in line with norms (at other crap workplaces).

I worked in a very large, very toxic workplace - eventually the business resorted to disguising itself in job ads because its reputation was so bad.

You can try ending her probation and a good raise as in 15% at least but even then I think she is probably right to leave .

Pay rise and end of probation

Nothing.

Extending probation sent the message that their work for 6 months wasn't good enough, and that despite regular catchups, coaching and feedback, they have failed to meet your minimum required standards. Extending it by 3 months is a lot!

As a management team, you need to regroup and do better with induction and probation for new starters.

But this employee has decided they were unsupported and it's not the workplace for them. I expect they will thrive elsewhere.

Nothing whatsoever. You could make all the promises in the world, and you wouldn’t be believed or trusted - nor would HR be trusted to have the employees back ever again. I would have been job hunting immediately. I wish your ex employee all the best!

100 staff and 20 managers?
Too many cocks spoil the breath...
I'm not surprised they left.

It's been my experience that companies with a high proportion of managers to staff tend to be trouble. Because it's usually due to higher ups keeping departments artificially short-staffed while having an inflated opinion of management's importance.

20 managers to 100 staff plus the fact a manager's dislike of an employee was enough for HR to extend their probation period makes me think your workplace is one of those types.

Let them go.

Hopefully your competition is a better employer because honestly, your company does not sound like somewhere I'd want to work.

Why are you still working at this place?