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Probation Reviews

An end-to-end probation experience — continuous visibility from day one, structured feedback throughout, and an evidence-backed formal review at the end.

Overview​

When a new hire is added to Branco, they enter the probation pipeline automatically. Their manager, the management chain, and any administrator (including HR) can see them and the rest of the probation cohort at a glance — no surprises at review time.

Throughout probation, Branco quietly collects signal: bi-weekly self check-ins from the employee, ongoing manager prompts, and peer feedback woven into the team's normal weekly rhythm. By the time the formal review triggers, the manager has weeks of structured evidence to draw on — and the review itself is pre-populated from it.

Why it matters

Probation reviews shouldn't rely on memory or a last-minute scramble. Branco turns the entire probation period into ongoing, visible evidence — and an evidence-backed conversation at the end.

The probation pipeline​

Every new hire is added to the probation pipeline automatically. The pipeline is visible to the employee's manager, the management chain, and any administrator. HR teams can be added as administrators to give them full visibility into the cohort.

The pipeline has two sections:

  • In probation — employees in their probation window, awaiting formal review trigger.
  • In formal review — employees whose formal review has triggered.

Probation pipeline section in Formal Reviews, showing a new hire with On track and Healthy badges, probation end date, and trigger date.

Each pipeline entry shows the employee's name, manager, probation end date, formal review trigger date, and two status indicators:

  • On track / Behind on check-ins — whether enough self check-ins and peer/manager feedback have been collected so far.
  • Healthy / At Risk — whether the feedback collected is positive overall, or surfacing concerns.

Clicking an entry opens a detail view with the full probation window, performance trend, self check-in history, and weekly peer feedback pacing.

Pipeline detail view showing Signals, Probation Window dates, Performance So Far, Self-feedback trend, and Peer feedback pacing.

How it works​

1 — New hire enters the pipeline​

When a new hire is added in your HRIS (e.g. BambooHR), Branco reads their probation end date and adds them to the pipeline. If no probation end date is set, Branco falls back to a configurable duration after the hire date (default 90 days).

The formal review trigger date is calculated automatically:

Trigger Date = Probation End Date − Review Window (default 25 days)

2 — Continuous feedback through the probation period​

Three feedback streams run in parallel during the probation period:

  • Employee self check-ins — Bi-weekly Slack prompts ask the employee three questions: how clear their role expectations are, how they'd rate themselves so far, and an open text box for anything they want their manager to know. Two are simple button responses; one is open text.
  • Manager prompts — The manager receives standard Branco feedback prompts about the employee, covering skills, competencies, goals, and action items.
  • Peer feedback — Team members and assigned peer reviewers are asked about the employee as part of their normal weekly Branco prompts.

Bi-weekly probation check-in delivered as a Slack message, with Yes / Somewhat / Not yet button responses.

All three streams feed the pipeline status indicators and the eventual formal review.

3 — Formal review triggers​

On the calculated trigger date, the employee moves from In probation to In formal review in the pipeline. The manager is notified and the formal review is created.

4 — Employee completes a self-review (optional)​

If self-reviews are enabled in settings (default On), the employee is prompted to complete a final self-evaluation. Responses are pre-populated from their bi-weekly check-ins and are fully editable before submission.

If self-reviews are disabled, the workflow proceeds directly to the manager review.

Employee Self-Evaluation interface with three questions and pre-populated open-text responses from prior bi-weekly cycles.

5 — Manager completes the review​

The manager's review is automatically pre-populated from peer feedback and manager feedback collected throughout probation. The manager edits any field, adds their perspective, sets an overall performance rating (0–125), optionally adjusts the employee's level, and records the outcome:

  • Pass — the employee passes probation and normal Branco activity continues uninterrupted.
  • Fail — the outcome is recorded and next steps are handled outside of Branco.

The review is composed of configurable sections, all of which can be turned on or off in settings:

  • Intro & Psychological Safety
  • Strengths & Achievements
  • Development Areas
  • Open Questions
  • Career Goals & Aspirations
  • Next Steps & Goals
  • Positive Closing

See Probation Settings for the full section reference.

Manager's Review interface with Strengths, Development Areas, Next Steps, performance rating slider, and Pass / Fail outcome.

6 — Manager delivers the review​

The manager has the review conversation with the employee, then marks the review as delivered in Branco.

7 — Employee acknowledges the review​

If acknowledgement is required (default On), the employee confirms they have received and discussed the review. This is the final step and completes the probation workflow.

If acknowledgement is disabled, the workflow closes once the manager marks the review delivered.

What happens after

If the employee passes, all normal Branco activity continues — nothing changes on their end.

What to expect​

From your side, the probation experience is mostly lightweight Slack prompts:

  • Bi-weekly check-ins via Slack — three quick questions about how things are going. Two are buttons; one is an open text box.
  • Normal feedback prompts continue as usual throughout the period.
  • A final self-review (if enabled by your administrator) — pre-populated from your bi-weekly check-ins, fully editable before submission.
  • A review conversation with your manager, followed by a quick acknowledgement step in Branco (if your administrator has acknowledgement enabled).
note

If your administrator has self-reviews enabled, you won't be able to skip it — the manager review can't proceed until you've submitted.