It is not common, but "a year to value" is not rare either. Some projects (SW/HW interfaces; many multidisciplinary efforts, like biomedical software) take a while to fully get into.

I am not talking about someone not doing anything useful -- that should come quickly. But it may take several months or a year for them to start creating more value than their salary+benefits+other costs. And as long as the new hire shows progress to this I am perfectly OK if the process takes a year. My 2c.