What is an Employment Probationary Period?

Employing new staff or placing an existing staff member into a new role can be a risky process. You invest time and money from your business into a person whose capability and character are not always known to you. As such, you want to ensure they are suitable for the job role and the type of person you want to employ before employing them long-term. Therefore, you may decide to put a probation period in place. This means you can place the employee in their new job role under probation to test that they can meet its requirements. This article will explain an employment probationary period and the rules and expectations relating to it. 

What is an Employment Probationary Period?

When an employee starts working for you, you may have a probationary period in place. This allows you to test their ability to perform the job. Many also refer to a probation period as a trial period. 

Whilst it certainly benefits the employer, a probationary employment period can also help your employee decide if the role is suitable for them. Evidence suggests including a probationary period makes it more likely that the employee will be successful in the job.

Employment Rights During a Probationary Period

All statutory legal rights which apply to an employee also apply during their probationary period. This includes: 

• the requirement to make reasonable adjustments if your employee has a disability;
• the right not to be unlawfully discriminated against;
• receiving the national minimum wage;
• statutory sick pay; and
• maternity and paternity leave.

However, there are some exceptions. Notably, you can terminate the contract on shorter notice during the probationary period. You may also detail further contractual rights, which may apply differently during a probationary period than when the probationary has ended. For instance, employee benefits. Nonetheless, your employee’s employment contract must state this.

What is the Length of an Employment Probationary Period?

As a probationary period is not a legal requirement, there are no rules regarding your employee’s probationary period length. However, you should choose a reasonable length of time for your employee’s probationary period. For a new employee, this is usually no more than six months. For a current employee who is changing their role, the probationary period can be three months. You will need to detail the length of your employee’s probationary period within their employment contract.

It is possible to extend your employee’s probationary period in some circumstances. You may require this if you need more time to decide whether the employee is suitable for the role. However, you can only extend your employee’s probationary period where their employment contract states that you can do this.

Expectations of Employment Probationary Periods

The start of your employee’s probationary period is often the beginning of their employment with your business. Therefore, it is good practice to set out the values of your business.

You should set out:

• what you want your employee to achieve in their role, being specific about what they should achieve;
• attendance standards;
• behaviour standards;
• any training requirements;
• how you will address performance issues; and
• when you will hold probationary period review meetings.

Other Key Points

There are other important matters concerning probationary periods, some of which may not be obvious to you or your employees. Below are some of the critical points regarding probationary periods.

• The date your employee begins their employment with you is their first day at work rather than the day after their probationary period ends.
• You should hold reviews with your employee during their probationary period, which could be weekly or monthly, and you should keep written records of these. It is also good practice for you and your employee to sign the records.
• Where you identify performance issues during their probationary period, you must address those immediately rather than waiting until a scheduled review meeting.
• At the final review meeting, you should let your employee know if their probationary period has been successful and where it has, follow this up with a written confirmation.
• Where an employee has not been successful at the end of their probationary employment period, you can either extend the period or terminate their employment contract.
• Where you decide to dismiss your employee at the end of their probationary period, you must do so reasonably. While workers on probation cannot claim for unfair dismissal, they could claim wrongful dismissal or submit discrimination claims.

Key Takeaways

As an employer, including a probationary period of employment can be very useful to allow you to test the suitability of someone before committing them more permanently. While a probationary period is not a legal requirement, there are rules and expectations. Therefore, you should be aware of these to ensure that you act correctly and fairly towards your employees. 

If you need help understanding your employer obligations, our experienced employment lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents for a low monthly fee. So call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.

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