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My coworker and I are both web developers who graduated from a 12-month internship program in December 2017. The contract which we signed at the end of the program stated that we were to undergo another six months of probation. Before the new contract was signed, a meeting was arranged with the line manager where our roles were outlined, and a verbal statement of our salaries being raised at the end of the probation period depending on our performance. This was also supplemented by the provision of paid online courses which we were to complete to improve our credibility. However, when the time came for the supposed probation period to end, there was no word on any performance review, and we had sent a reminder to the line manager that our evaluation period was coming to the end of the six months. We were also never provided with the course material during this time, despite multiple reminders given to the line manager's personal assistant.

Two days after the reminder was sent, we received an invitation from the line manager for another meeting. In the meeting we were only given a verbal notification about the changing of our job titles. Two weeks after this meeting, we received an email from the line manager's PA, asking us how the meeting went. We responded by stating what happened. The PA then replied saying that we must keep on prompting HR for a progress update in the aftermath of the meeting, or else the promises made in the meeting would never bear fruit.

We then sent a reminder to HR about the meeting, and within a day, they responded stating that they 'will be working on it'. It has now been over three weeks since this email was sent. What do we do about reminding them without seeming too overly needy?

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What do we do about reminding them without seeming too overly needy?

I don't think you have to worry about seeming needy -- this is important for your job and career, and should have already been done.

Often things like this (medium-to-low priority for them) will get put on hold until they are forced into completing the task, so you'll need to be polite but persistent. Don't threaten to go to anyone's supervisor.

Gradually escalate this issue as needed. First, send a friendly follow-up email (using the previous email thread) and ask for an estimated date of completion. If they give you a reasonable estimate, reply by saying you will follow up on that date. If they don't give you a date, reply and say you'll follow up by X date (a few days to a week).

If you don't get a response, call them or stop by in person (if possible) to follow up. Again say that you'll check back by X date, depending on their response.

If HR still hasn't completed their work after another follow-up, escalate to the next level -- check with your immediate supervisor as to the best course of action. It could be your supervisor will be able to champion your case.

Whatever happens, avoid getting angry. Avoid sending emails to the HR Director, and follow the chain of command. Sometimes the machine just moves slowly and there's nothing you can do about it.

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    Is there anything that can be done regarding the salary raise ? The salary was supposed to be raised after 6 months and from what I've understood, this raise never happened. Would mentioning it speed the process or would it be negative ?
    – UsernameNotFound
    Commented Jul 25, 2018 at 16:31
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    @UsernameNotFound I would mention it, and ask if you get the raise retroactively. There's no reason you should get paid less because someone else didn't do their job.
    – mcknz
    Commented Jul 25, 2018 at 18:47
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Depending on your location, it is not uncommon for bureaucratic process to take its time in large, scattered company.

IMHO, you got the best lesson ever in how it works.

So for any issue / subject / perk / change you would need to create a paper-trail as soon as you are able to and follow up on it in order to speed up the result bearing

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