Conducting a Trial Period for New Hires? Here’s How to Make It Work

Every company wants to recruit top talent, and finding a good fit is essential to the business. After an interview, how can leaders ensure that their new hires will perform well at the company?

One of the most effective strategies you can do is to conduct a trial period for your new hires so you can assess their performance and see if they fit well with the rest of your staff. 

Here, Technical Paradigm, a reliable IT jobs staffing agency, shares several ways you can conduct a trial period that delivers the result you want:

1. Provide Dedicated Mentorship

If you’re going to conduct a trial period for your new hires, you need to ensure that there’s a dedicated mentor who can provide them with the necessary training and feedback. 

Most people think that a trial period for new hires only assesses their technical performance. However, during the trial period, you should also evaluate their soft skills, such as their level of accountability, how well they can collaborate with the other employees, how much initiative they take, and how well they can handle a high-pressure situation.

As the mentor, you can point out these potential problems to the new hires and provide them with feedback on how they can improve on these areas.

2. Be Flexible But Firm

When conducting a trial period for your new hires, you need to be flexible but firm. 

If your new hires cannot work with the rest of the team, you need to let them go. Your goal is to get the best possible talent who will contribute to the growth of your company, which means you need to be able to let go of the ones who don’t fit with the company culture.

Before the trial period, you should clearly understand what you expect from your new hire. If they cannot meet your expectations, you need to let them go.

3. Provide Constant Feedback

The longer the trial period is, the more feedback you need to provide for your new hires.

During the first week, you can provide feedback on their technical skills and how well they can work with the other team members, but you need to move on to how well they can handle different situations and how flexible they are.

If your new hires cannot meet the expectations you have for them, you need to let them know so you won’t be surprised.

4. Be Able To Adapt To The New Hires’ Preferences

During the trial period, you need to be able to adapt to the preferences of your new hires so you can get to know them better and make the necessary adjustments.

For instance, you need to know if they check their emails at 6 pm or 10 am. You also need to see if they like to work in the office or at home.

5. Provide A Clear Timeline

Yes, it’s a trial period, but if your new hire could not meet the expectations you have for them, you need to let them go before they get used to the job.

You can only give a few days, maybe a week, to your new hires to check if they have the skills and the personality to be a good fit for the company. 

Conclusion

A trial period for new hires gives you a chance to assess their performance while they’re still on the job. IT staffing companies have stringent screening processes, but you still want to be sure you’re getting the right people.

If they don’t meet your expectations, you can let them go before they establish a routine and feel at home at the company.

As a leader, you need to let go of the ones who will not be of value to the company.

Are you looking for top talent?

Technical Paradigm offers the best IT staffing solutions for businesses like yours. Contact us today to know more about our roster of talents!