The probation period does its job only if it ends in a real decision. A working review has four ingredients:
- The day-one criteria on the table. The review evaluates against what was agreed at the start — three to five concrete expectations — not against impressions formed last week.
- Evidence from the ramp. Notes from the 30/60/90 check-ins and the manager's 1-on-1s, so the conversation is a summary, not a surprise.
- An explicit outcome. Confirm, extend with named changes and a new date, or part ways. An extension without "what must change" is a deferred no.
- A date someone owns. The most common failure is the probation that quietly lapses — the person gets confirmed by calendar, not by decision.
For an IT services company the stakes are concrete: a confirmed hire goes onto billable projects and in front of clients, so the review date is the last cheap exit for both sides. Notice rules during and after probation differ by country — one more reason the decision needs a date rather than a drift.
In Helia, probation end is computed from the hire date plus the company default (or a per-employee override), a reminder pings the manager — HR chain as fallback — seven days before the date, and the 1-on-1 library includes a 90-day check-in template for the conversation itself.