The research which surveyed both employees and managers nationwide found poor performance is the most common reason employers cite for failing new employees (62 percent). Absence is also a common reason for failing a probation, accounting for half (50 percent) of all failures, and bad time-keeping accounted for four in ten failures (38 percent). Surprisingly, personality clashes are common too: over one in ten managers (12 percent) cite falling out as cause to give someone the heave-ho. The research also found only one in five businesses (21 percent) never extend a candidate’s probation period suggesting there is flexibility in probations.

The research also found: For many of us probations are a time of anxiety. Almost half of us feel insecure (49 percent) during a probation and four in ten (38 percent) of us feel worried; One in five of us (22 percent) put more effort into a job during a probation than we would once the job is secured; According to 71 percent of employers, there are employees who fail the probation period at their companies. At 60 percent of companies, the failure rate is up to ten percent of new employees.

According to Alex Fleming, Managing Director at Spring Personnel: “As more people are findings roles in the current economy, you still need to be thinking about your performance when you start the job. Getting a job may be the easy bit – the real challenge is passing your probation.  Likewise, companies need to be very thorough in their interview process as this number of people not passing probation can be costly and impacts the existing team who have spent time inducting new people. It is in both the employer’s and the employee’s interest that the probationary period is a successful one so we always advise companies take a variety of measures, including training, appraisals, shadowing and progress reports. And whilst some personality clashes between managers and staff are inevitable, happily the vast majority of employees (72 percent) felt their last probation period to be a positive experience.”