p5gal5 - 2:09 pm on Oct 5, 2012 (gmt 0)

How soon after hiring someone would you subject them to the possibility of a written warning?

Of a written warning? I don't know...for us, we usually do at least a 30-60 day ramp-up period. Since a written warning would be the 2nd step, they technically wouldn't get a written until at least 4 months into employment.

It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to go through several months of warnings if it was obvious within three days that they're not going to work out.

This brings up an interesting point - we don't hire anyone directly, we go through a placement agency for (almost all) of our hires, so we "try before you buy" on almost all hourly/picking/packing/production type positions. We are a decent size, but not too big (not enough to constitute an hr person) so the whole hiring/firing/corrective action is a big PITA and done sparingly. We've migrated to the whole temp-to-hire placement model (the agencies will administer lots of tests - dexterity, typing, software skills, whatever you need) and they might cost a buck or two apiece for each employee you specify is up to snuff and that you'd like to interview.

It's pretty much an "employer's market" right now and we are getting surprisingly qualified and competent candidates through placement and temp agencies. We usually do 3 months before we decide if we are a right fit for each other (them for us, us for them). It's a higher rate of pay since the agency gets a percent, but much easier to let people go if they are simply not working. We've had people who seemed GREAT at first, but once they settled in after a month or so, simply weren't a good fit. We like to see how people behave past the "honeymoon phase", and going through a temp agency allows us to do that.

I talked to an owner of a 10m internet company who used nothing but temps. Permanently. Once they've gone past the 90 days, we bring them on, do benefits and all that good stuff, but he did not want any employees - had been burned in the past and didn't want anything to do with hr-type stuff. Even his president(!) of several years had a phd and was still an agency employee.