Is Your Probation Process Actually Protecting You? A Checklist for SME Employers

For a lot of SMEs, the probation process is a single line in the contract and a date in the diary. That has been enough to get by, because employees needed two years of service before they could claim unfair dismissal. From 1 January 2027 the qualifying period drops to six months, and a probation process that lives only on paper becomes a real liability. 

This is a checklist you can run against your own process today. Work through it and you will know, by the end, whether your probation process is doing its job or simply decorating your contracts. 

What a probation period actually does 

A probation period is a contractual arrangement between you and a new employee. It sets a window in which both sides confirm the role is right. What it does not do is override statutory employment rights. 

That distinction is the whole point. A six-month probation does not pause the unfair dismissal clock, and it never has. The probation period itself is not the protection. The protection is the process you run inside it: how you set expectations, how you check progress, and how you make and record the final decision. 

The 1 January 2027 change makes that process matter more. Once the qualifying period for unfair dismissal falls from two years to six months, the margin most employers relied on disappears. The way you manage someone's first few months is what stands in its place. 

What a proper probation process looks like now 

Four things make a probation process that holds up. 

A defined period, three months for most roles. Long enough to see how someone performs, short enough to leave you a safe margin before the six-month qualifying point arrives. A vague "six-month probation" leaves almost no room to act safely, which is the opposite of what most employers think it does. 

A clear notice provision. One week is the statutory minimum notice for an employee with between one month and two years' service, and a one-week probation notice clause is valid because it meets that floor. Watch the trap here. If you dismiss someone close to the six-month line, that week of notice can be added to their service and push them into qualifying. A three-month probation keeps you well clear of it. 

Documented check-ins, monthly. Not remembered. Not reconstructed afterwards when a problem appears. Written down as you go, with dates and specifics. A short note after each catch-up is enough. 

A decision at the end, confirmed in writing. Every probation should close with one of three outcomes, and each one is put in writing: passed, extended, or not passed. The decision that causes most trouble is the fourth one nobody intends to make, where probation quietly rolls into permanent employment because no one got round to confirming anything. 

The probation process checklist 

Run your current process against each line. Tick the ones you can honestly say you do. 

The basics 

• Probation length is defined in writing in the contract or offer letter 
• The period is three months, not a vague six 
• The notice period during probation is stated, and meets at least the one-week statutory minimum 
• The contract allows you to extend probation if you need to 

During probation 

• You hold a check-in at least once a month 
• Each check-in is documented, with the date, what was discussed, and any concerns raised 
• Performance concerns are raised with the employee at the time, not stored up for the end 
• Any support you offered, such as training, shadowing or extra supervision, is recorded 
• The employee knows where they stand at each stage, with no surprises waiting at the end 

The decision 

• You confirm the outcome in writing before the period ends 
• The outcome is one of three: passed, extended, or not passed 
• If extended, the new end date and the reasons are set out in writing 
• If not passed, the reasons and the correct notice are given 
• Probation never rolls into permanent employment by default because the deadline slipped 

If you ticked every box, your process is protecting you. If you left gaps, those gaps are exactly where the risk sits. 



Where most SME processes fall down 

The real picture in a lot of small businesses looks rather different from the checklist above. A few patterns come up again and again. 

The vague six-month period. It feels generous and safe. In practice it leaves no buffer before unfair dismissal protection kicks in, and it puts off the assessment that should be happening from month one. 

Nothing in writing. The manager has a sense of how the new starter is doing, but there is no record of it. When a decision needs defending later, a feeling is not evidence. Contemporary notes are. 

The silent roll-over. The probation end date passes, nobody books the review, and the employee becomes permanent by accident. From that point you have lost the window probation was meant to give you. 

Dismissing too close to the line. Letting someone go in week 25 of a six-month qualifying period, without accounting for the notice that gets added on, can hand them the very service they needed to bring a claim. 

Treating probation as the protection itself. This is the root of the other four. The probation clause is not what keeps you safe. The active management of it is. 

Why this matters more from 2027 

It is worth being precise about the change, because the dates do the work. 

From 1 January 2027, the qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal falls from two years to six months, and the cap on compensation for those claims is removed. Anyone who already has six months' service on that date is protected immediately, which means anyone you hire on or before 1 July 2026 is inside the new rules from day one of 2027. 

The two-year safety net that quietly forgave a loose probation process is going. What replaces it is the discipline of running probation properly: short period, clear notice, monthly records, a decision in writing. None of that is difficult. It simply has to actually happen. 

A probation process protects you only as far as you run it, and the 1 January 2027 change raises the cost of running it loosely. 

Not sure if yours is watertight? Book a Power Hour with us and we will go through it with you line by line, tell you where it stands, and show you exactly what to tighten before it matters. Book your Power Hour.