Work Trials vs. Probation Periods

👋 Welcome to Elite Team Tactics, where we round up the best tactical advice from the world's elite to give you a competitive edge.

✍️ Coming up in today’s edition:

1. One quick win: An ancient reciprocity practice to boost team chemistry

2. One proven system: Work trials vs probation periods

3. One million-dollar question: How to run your own culture audit

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1. A 100-YEAR-OLD APPROACH TO TEAM DEVELOPMENT FROM THE NEW GUINEA ISLANDERS

65% of workers say they feel less connected to their coworkers.

So here is a one-time, face-to-face or virtual exercise to create better bonds within your team 👇

Create your own “Reciprocity Ring”.

It was inspired by the Kula Ring - a form of ritualised gift exchange used by New Guinea’s Tobriand Islanders in the 1900s.

Cultural anthropologist, Bronislaw Malinowski, studied the astonishing impact of this ceremonial process of exchanging shell necklaces and armbands after journeys across dangerous waterways.

Participation in the ring makes it easy for people to share a tip or make a call that has a real benefit to others.

Here is how you could set it up easily with your team👇

• Gather no more than 20 people

• Ask each person to share a small request (personal or professional - but it must take no longer than 5 minutes to complete)

• Every person commits to completing at least one request for someone else during the following week

Some example requests I’ve heard when doing this previously:

• How do you hyperlink website links into my Word documents?

• What is the best place to gym and shower near the office?

• Is there a way to meal prep for all lunches on a Sunday evening?

N.B. Recent studies have highlighted that men will more easily ask for help in comparison to women who are more likely to suffer “generosity burnout”.

So make sure all participants (men and women) make and answer requests in the session.

📧 Try it and reply to this email with how you get on.

2. A NEW SYSTEM TO PREVENT VOLUNTARY TURNOVER

Voluntary attrition is an industry-wide problem that costs over £1 trillion every single year.

• 38% of employees quit within the first year of a job

• 50% have left by year two

Losing an employee costs 6-9 months of their salary on average.

For a £100k senior hire, this could cost £50k - £75k just to replace them.

So I looked into what some of the best companies in the world are doing to solve this problem…

Google, Zappos, Buffer, Whole Foods Market, Basecamp and many more companies have successfully implemented work trials in their hiring processes. 

Candidates are brought in for a paid trial period during which they can demonstrate their abilities, work ethic and compatibility with the company culture.

Why this approach is becoming more popular?

• Maintains high standards - performance and culturally

• Immediate and realistic glimpse into a candidate's capabilities

• Reduces the risk and cost associated with making the wrong hire

If you are looking to test this process without going all in, we have started paying people their hourly rate when they pass a certain stage of the interview process. The second half requires more of their time to produce work for a task and trial days in the offices.

Paying them for their time means that if the candidate is not successful, they still leave feeling appreciated.

3. HAVE YOU “AUDITED” YOUR CULTURE?

The value of a strong culture is undeniable:

• Increased employee retention

• High customer satisfaction

• Enhanced company reputation

The list goes on. But how often do you evaluate your culture?

In the same way that we get annual health checks, here are the questions the best teams in the world ask in their annual culture check:

1. Outside of revenue, what do we want to accomplish?

2. What is your #1 reason for working here?

3. Describe our culture in 3 words…

4. What is so foundational about our culture that we should never change it?

5. How are we different from our competition?

6. Share a story from your team that wouldn’t happen in another company?

7. What is 1x thing you’d change about our culture?

8. What big issue hasn’t been covered in this survey that should be for us to understand our culture better?

📧 Reply to this email with “culture audit” to get the full Culture Audit System.

MY FAVOURITE FINDS 🔗

For your productivity:

• The energy calendar: taking back control of your diary (Link)

• How to turn your 40-hour work week into a 20-hour week (Link)

For your team:

• 10x best company culture books for startup founders (Link)

• McKinsey’s 5x bold moves to quickly transform your culture (Link)

For your health:

• LA Lakers performance scientist: 9x must-take supplements (Link)

• Tactics to train your brain to be more optimistic (Link)

See you next week 👋T