Employment Rights Act 2025: What Changes For Probation Periods

Employment Rights Act 2025: why probation periods are more important than ever

From 1 January 2027, your employees will be able to claim unfair dismissal after just six months in the job, not two years. That’s one of the headline changes under the Employment Rights Act 2025, and it puts real weight on how you run probation periods.

The Act itself says nothing specific about probation. But once the qualifying period drops this far, probation becomes your main safety net. Getting it right, from day one, matters more than it ever has.

The six-month change you need to know about

Right now, employees need two years’ service before they can bring an unfair dismissal claim. From 1 January 2027, that drops to six months.

It’s a big jump. Many employers have relied on the two-year threshold to manage new starters informally. That approach won’t work once the window shrinks this much.

Why this puts more weight on probation

With protection kicking in so much sooner, you have far less time to work out whether someone is right for the role, and less room for an informal, undocumented approach.

A clear, well-run probation process gives you a fair, evidenced way to make that call, and it protects your business if a decision is ever challenged.

Getting probation right from day one

A good probation process starts the moment someone joins, not when a problem appears. Three things make the biggest difference.

Train your managers

Your managers will carry this process day to day. Give them training on handling performance and conduct issues, or, at the very least, a clear brief on what’s expected of them during a new employee’s first months.

Set expectations early

Agree performance expectations with new employees from the outset, and hold regular review meetings to track progress. An accurate, up-to-date job description helps too. It gives you a clear benchmark to measure performance against.

Record concerns as they happen

Raise and record any concerns about performance or conduct promptly. If you ever need to end someone’s employment, a documented history will put you in a far stronger position.

Is it time to shorten your probation periods?

If your contracts currently set probation at six months or more, it’s worth a rethink. Some roles genuinely need that long, so a blanket rule isn’t right for everyone. But a ‘one size fits all’ approach is no longer good enough.

For most roles, a three or four-month probation period, with the option for you to extend it once (ideally by no more than a month), gives you enough time to make a confident decision before the six-month unfair dismissal threshold applies.

Check your probation clause covers the essentials

Well-drafted probation clauses save you problems later. Make sure yours sets out:

What changes once probation ends?

You can still dismiss an employee after probation. But once someone passes the six-month mark, you lose the option of a shorter, more informal process that’s sometimes available below the unfair dismissal threshold.

That’s exactly why the decision you make during probation, and how well you’ve documented it, carries so much more weight under the new rules.

Keep your contracts under regular review

The Employment Rights Act 2025 is reshaping how probation needs to work. Reviewing your contracts and key terms regularly, and updating them as the law changes, keeps your business both compliant and protected.

Want hands-on guidance to put this into practice? Join us on 29 September for Probationary Periods: Pitfalls and Practical Tips, a seminar covering contract wording, manager training and how to run effective probation reviews.