Trial Period

According to the employment contract, the first three months at VSHN are the trial period. An extension due to illness or accident is possible.

During the Trial Period

During the trial period, the new VSHNeer is introduced to their new tasks in a targeted manner, following a written introductory program. They’re given all the information about their area of responsibility, team colleagues, organization and objectives of the Team, etc. The new VSHNeer is then introduced to their new tasks following a written introductory program. During this time, the new VSHNeer will also gain a deeper insight into the company’s philosophy and culture, history, products and services.

Periodic Review Talks

During these three months, a short review will take place every two weeks, organized by the Mentor. It’s important to find out if the employee has received all the information about VSHN, and do short assessments of the work done so far.

Information about VSHN

  • What does VSHN do?

  • What are the different Teams doing?

  • How to work with Jira and how to create tasks?

  • How to do attendance tracking in Odoo?

  • How to do worklogs?

  • When are all the regular meetings held, and what meetings are available?

  • Where to find the best food in town?

  • Where to find things in the VSHN office?

  • General company processes.

  • PeopleOps, whom to contact.

  • Corporate clubs (for example DnD, "beering," concerts).

  • Training opportunities (point out that it must be demanded by the new employee).

  • Organisation chart.

  • Organisational information/processes.

  • Products and services.

  • Safety regulations/emergency.

All these topics are collected in onboarding knowledge building checklists, which are created from wiki templates here.
Assessment of the work

  • How’s everything working so far?

  • How’s the work progress and workload checked?

  • Is the introductory program implemented according to plan?

  • Are necessary changes implemented?

  • Are the working results correct?

  • Is the job description still correct?

  • Are the main tasks and goals clearly defined?

  • Does work meet expectations?

  • Is further training necessary?

  • Does the new VSHNeer feel comfortable?

  • How’s the workplace and climate?

  • Are there any wishes, suggestions or potential for improvement?

End of the Trial Period

Two weeks before the trial period ends the Mentor plans a final meeting with the new VSHNeer and a Team member that worked closely with them. In this meeting the trial period report is written together with the new employee. The report template is attached to the new employee ticket. In this report the general satisfaction, expertise, work performance, personal behavior and team integration is assessed. Furthermore it’s discussed whether the employee actually wants to stay with VSHN or not, and if there are any target agreements to define regarding further education, work performance improvements, or similar.

It’s important that all parties prepare seriously for this interview. Not least because it’s probably one of the last opportunities to terminate the employment relationship with a shortened notice period.

Decision

The trial period report is sent to PeopleOps. Also the Team of the new employee or anyone else at VSHN can send a written recommendation to PeopleOps whether they want to keep the new employee or not and why. Remember that we should stick to the Conflict resolution process though, mainly talk with the person and the team first.

Should the outcome be that we don’t want to keep the new employee, then PeopleOps will write a recommendation based on the collected information for the next Management meeting. The Management takes the final decision, considering all available inputs.

Positive Decision

In this case everything continues as planned. If there were target agreements or future review meetings defined, PeopleOps makes sure this is controlled and done at the defined time.

The team might have a lunch, share a few beers or an apéro together with the new employee to celebrate the end of the trial period!

Negative Decision

Should the decision be negative for the employee, a meeting is scheduled to inform them, usually with PeopleOps or Management.

Should the employee want to leave VSHN during or at the end of the probation period, the Mentor, Team members or someone from Management should clarify the reasons in an informal setting.

In any case the internal off-boarding process will be triggered.