Probationary Employment Periods

I'm struggling to come to grips with the angst that many are portraying in relation to the Government's introduction of a 90 day probationary for employees in businesses with less than 20 staff.

Surely, if you're any good at your job (and have any degree of judgement over prospective employers), there isn't going to be an issue.

In 99.9% of cases the probationary period will come and go and everyone will carry on, the world will not come to a grinding halt, and everyone will live in harmony.

To put the shoe on the other foot, an employee can, at any time and for no reason whatsoever, resign their employment - why shouldn't an employer be given the same courtesy for only 90 days?

In my many years in business I've made the wrong call in relation to hiring an employee. If they are incompetent you can work through performance management and eventually get rid of them (if they don't sink your business first), but the hardest one is where you have someone who can do the job OK but doesn't fit well with you and/or the team. They can sit there doing their job to a reasonable standard while everyone else around them festers and then leaves. Much better for both sides to nip it in the bud early I say.