If you have a great team, letting in the wrong person can destroy it. If you hire the wrong person there can be bad personalities that spread rumors and cause fights. You may be hiring a poor performer that slows everyone down, or you may hire people who aren't happy in their position and end up infecting the rest with a bad attitude.
To avoid this, you have to hire well. And hiring well, starts with the probationary contract This question from one of our readers, and it goes:
"Attorney do you have tips on how to draft a probationary contract? Are there ways to make it easier and less prone to errors and faster to make? And what should I look out for?”
If you can relate to this? Stick around. We have three tips for you. Stay tuned.
This video was brought to you by "How to draft a probationary contract" an online workshop that teaches owners, managers, and supervisors how to create the most important contract during recruitment.
This course covers the key features and clauses you need to include as well as tips and best practices to make your life as a recruiting officer easier. Draft your next probationary contract in minutes. Go to info.legalguide.ph/probationary to learn more.
Welcome to Legal Guide Philippines, where we simplify the law to help YOU make better choices. And in this video, we will be talking about three tips when making probationary contracts.
Prepare the job description so you have a guide when making the Probationary Contract
So let's get into it. The first tip is: prepare the job description so you have a guide. So the tip here is before you even get started with the probationary contract, have the job description finalized. Why? Essentially when you're doing a probationary contract. You're asking a person to say yes to a certain set of responsibilities, correct?
Correct. Now, how can you make them say yes if you're unclear about what the position and the responsibilities are? That's where the job description and possibly, the salary package comes in. So before I start drafting a probationary contract, I finalize the job description.
It can be used as a Standard
And what's nice about this is that the job description serves a dual purpose. What's the purpose of the purpose attorney? The purpose is it also serves your standards for regularization if you don't have those separately.
So the probationary contract basically says, "Mr. or Ms. Employee, for now, you're on a trial period. But if you're able to pass this set of requirements or standards for regularization after six months or after a certain period, we'll consider you as a regular employee.
So if you don't want to write a separate sheet for standards of regularization, the job description can serve the same purpose. Now, another thing which I advise is if you have a clear job description, you have a clear probationary contract…
If the employee is not qualified or deep down, they feel “I'm not a good fit for this,” it gives them the opportunity to say no because when they see it, "Ok, so this is what I'm expected to do.
This is what they're gonna ask me to be in charge of." If it doesn't fit, then right there and then that's an opportunity for them to opt-out. Does it happen? Like, "Eh, di nalang, hindi ko kaya ito."
Much more often than you may think. Really? It does. Ako, I pretend eh, "Di kaya ko yan!" Then after a week. Wala na. No, I never did that.
So it happens, guys. And for me, it's a nice mechanism to weed out so they "self-disqualify" themselves. Instead of you having to terminate, or counsel them out, it saves you time and work. That's a great tip attorney.
Attach instead of writing things inline in the Probationary Contract
Now I think you like the second tip better. So the second thing is, "Attach instead of writing inline". What do I mean?, OK, so you have a probationary contract And for most people, what they do, they cram everything inside.
Yes. So the name, the address, the position, the job description, the job requirements, the benefits salary package, everything is there. And what I've seen is, the more that you have to put in a document, the higher the chance for clerical errors. Oh, absolutely.
Haven't you ever encountered issuing a document and then when you see it, the client says there's something wrong with it. And then when you look at it, there is information from another transaction. That is "the curse of the cut and paste"
Yes. And I think that is what can happen very easily if you try to cram everything inside.
Identify Standard and Variable Provisions
So my tip is, try to identify what are the standard provisions. When I see standard these are the things in the probationary contract, which will be there regardless of the position of the person who will be signing it. So it's common for everyone.
If it's common for everyone to keep it there. For anything variable... Variable, meaning it changes depending on the position. The salary, the job description, the responsibility, perks, the benefits… You treat it as an annex.
And then you, instead of putting it here, attach it. I like that. I think I'll use that. Two advantages. Number one: less prone to error. If ever there's an error, it will be on the annex. It's easier to change. Because of this one, you'll be sticking with the standard. Second advantage: faster to make. Faster? Yes.
Because this is a template and now you have another template. So whenever you need to make changes, you just change one of the two. I like it. So is it that nice you get regardless of how many people you have to hire, super easy to make the contract using that template. Thank you, attorney, that was cool. Yes and finally
Get the dates and the status right
Tip number three: get the dates and the status right. What's the date and the status? The date for the start of the probationary period and the employment status. Why? the main purpose of a probationary contract is to inform the employee that you are now under trial.
Basically, you're probationary. Now the probationary period has a certain limitation. It's only good for six months, generally speaking. Now, it's very important for you to identify when the start of that six-month period is. And usually, that's found in the probationary contract.
So if ever you issue a probationary contract with either the wrong date or no date, that kind of nullifies the reason for the whole exercise because you're there to document the start of it. So that you can say to the employee in the middle, "Hey you're still probationary at this point."
What if you don’t set a date?
What happens if you don't do that, Attorney? What if you don't set the date? There may be a dispute as to where it started. Do you know where it factors in? Where it becomes crucial?
Towards the end of the six-month period? If you miss it by a single day or if you allow a probationary employee to go to work on the sixth month and one day or plus one, if they are considered by law to be regular by that time.
OK, so it's that heavy. So if you screw up the starting date then and it turns out you don't want this employee, you won't be able to terminate them as a probationary employee, you will have to terminate as a regular employee.
And that is a little bit more complicated than it needs to be I like the phrasing attorney. Yes, it's very politically correct. Now, let's talk about the status. You have to be explicit on the probationary contract that it's probationary.
What if you don’t put the status in the Probationary Contract?
If you miss out on putting the word probationary, the contract may be construed as a regular employment contract. So it has to be clear. All caps. Yes. Bold, underlined, italicized, whatever you want, as long as it's there.
Again, you're trying to assert that the employee is under a special status in this case, he is a probationary employee. And to be able to claim that, it has to be cleared in the "probationary" contract. So, again, going with tip number three, the date and the status, it has to be clear on the contract Thank you, Attorney.
To Summarize
So just to recap, Attorney Erwin talked about three things or three tips in writing a probationary contract. The first one is that the job description should be... You should prepare that first even before having your probationary contract. It will serve as a guide. It will serve as your guide, it can serve as your standards as well. However which way you want to do it.
The second is that you can attach the variables to the variable provisions, make it an attachment to your contract. The variable provisions, usually it's the job description the salary package, the benefits package, the perks. Right. And so you have the main contract which doesn't change more or less on one hand. And then you have your variable contract which is an attachment to it as an annex.
And the third one is that you have to make sure that your starting date is right and the status is right. The status here is that the employee or this contract, a probationary contract, the employee's a probationary employee. You got that exactly.
Additional Resources
Now, if you need help in drafting a probationary contract, our course, "How to draft a probationary contract" will be a big help for you just go to info.legalguide.ph/probationary for more information.
If you like this video, please give us a like and subscribe. It lets us know that we were able to help you. And of course, it encourages us to make even more videos. Now, what's your biggest learning from this? Let us know in the comments below and let's talk about it.
One last thing. The team, including the new applicants, relies on you to protect and guide them. Let's make sure your new hire gets a good impression with the first document they sign with you. By starting off on the right foot, you model how it is to work, and you empower them to contribute to your team sooner.
So wasn't that simple? Now go make better choices!
