Somewhere in the country this week, an HR manager is rewriting a probation policy. Nine months is becoming four. Reviews that used to be a diary entry and a nice chat are becoming documented, evidenced and scheduled. This is not tidiness for its own sake. It's the direct consequence of a legal change landing on 1 January 2027, and it will reshape what your first six months in a new job feel like.
If you're job hunting between now and then, you need to understand this. Not because the law is complicated (it isn't), but because employers are already changing their behaviour, and most candidates haven't noticed.
What actually changes in January
From 1 January 2027, the qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal drops from two years to six months. The statutory cap on compensation for unfair dismissal goes too, which means uncapped exposure for employers who get a dismissal wrong.
Anyone who already has six months' continuous service on 1 January 2027 gains protection on day one of that change. In practice, that covers everybody who started before roughly 1 July 2026.
The original plan was for unfair dismissal to be a day-one right. That was watered down after defeats in the House of Lords, so six months is the compromise. It's still a substantial shift from where we've been since 2012.
Why your probation just got shorter
Here's the bit that affects you directly. Employment lawyers are advising clients to run probation periods of three to four months, extendable by no more than one month, rather than the six or nine months that used to be standard.
The reason is a quirk in the rules. Statutory minimum notice of one week can be added to your service when calculating whether you qualify, so an employer who acts at five and a half months may find they've walked straight into a claim anyway. Firms including Mishcon de Reya have been telling employers to make the keep-or-cut decision by month five at the latest.
So the four-month probation is becoming the norm, and it will be a real assessment rather than a formality. Expect written objectives, monthly reviews and an actual paper trail. That cuts both ways: more scrutiny, but also far more clarity about what "good" looks like than most new starters have ever been given.
The hiring market this lands in
None of this is happening in a buoyant market. ONS figures published on 18 August 2026 put UK vacancies at 707,000 for May to July, the lowest reading since late 2014 and below pre-pandemic levels. There were 2.5 unemployed people per vacancy in the second quarter, a ratio that has been stuck at that level for a year. Unemployment sat at 4.9% and payrolled employees were down 94,000 on the year, at 30.3 million.
Pay is the consolation. According to the House of Commons Library's labour market briefing, wages rose 4.1% including bonuses in the three months to June 2026, comfortably ahead of inflation.
The CIPD's latest Labour Market Outlook describes a market that has, in its senior economist's words, "largely stopped moving". Hiring is weak, but redundancies haven't spiked. Low-hire, low-fire. Which is precisely the environment where getting the first six months right matters more than usual, because there isn't a queue of alternative offers behind you.
Employers are pricing in the risk, and some are flinching
The CIPD's winter survey of more than 2,000 employers found 37% planned to reduce permanent recruitment because of one or more of the Employment Rights Act reforms. Three quarters expected the Act to raise employment costs. Its public policy lead warned the measures risked acting as "a further handbrake on job creation and recruitment".
Take that seriously, but not fatalistically. Employers say a lot of things to surveys about legislation they haven't lived through yet. What you should watch is the practical response, which is showing up in three ways.
- More fixed-term and interim contracts, where the end date does the work that probation used to
- Heavier use of agency and umbrella arrangements for roles that would previously have been permanent
- Slower, more evidence-hungry recruitment processes, with extra stages and more reference-checking
That last point matters for how you apply. If a hiring manager is going to be held to a much tighter timetable on whether you work out, they will front-load the scrutiny. Our guide to what employers actually check before they hire you is worth a read before your next offer stage.
Who wins from this
Job movers, mostly. Under the old rules, leaving a job where you'd built up two years of protection meant resetting the clock and spending 24 months exposed. Now that reset lasts six months. If you've been sitting tight in a role you dislike because moving felt risky, the maths has changed materially in your favour.
Career changers gain too, though with an asterisk. The shorter qualifying period reduces your downside if the switch goes wrong, but a nervous employer will want harder evidence that you can do the work before they take you on. That's an argument for building demonstrable proof rather than relying on enthusiasm; we've covered how to show you can do a job you've never done in detail.
The losers are candidates who look like a risk on paper and rely on a sympathetic manager giving them a long runway. Those runways are being shortened.
What to ask before you sign
Three questions, asked politely at offer stage, will tell you almost everything about how an employer is handling this.
- How long is the probation period, and can it be extended?
- What's the notice period during probation, and after it?
- How is performance reviewed in the first six months, and by whom?
An employer with a clear answer has done the work. An employer who is vague about probation length in late 2026 either hasn't updated its contracts or doesn't intend to manage the process properly, and neither is a good sign.
Check the contract type carefully as well. A fixed-term contract that ends at month five is not the same job as a permanent one, whatever the advert said, and it's a legitimate thing to query.
Surviving the first four months
Treat probation as a project with a deliverable. Get your objectives in writing in week one, even if you have to draft them yourself and email them to your manager for agreement. Ask for a check-in every four weeks and keep your own record of what you delivered against each objective.
This is not paranoia, it's the same discipline that wins bids. If a decision about you gets made at month four, you want that decision made by someone reading evidence, not someone recalling a vague impression.
And if the worst happens and the role ends, know your position. Notice pay, accrued holiday and any contractual entitlements still apply, and our guide to how redundancy works in the UK covers what you're owed and when.
The practical move for autumn
If you're weighing up a move, starting before roughly the end of June 2026 was the sweet spot for immediate protection in January. That ship has sailed. What's left is a market where employers are cautious, probation is compressed and the reward for a well-evidenced first quarter is a job you keep.
Put a reminder in your calendar for week ten of any new role. Write down what you've delivered, send it to your manager unprompted and ask directly whether anything needs to change. Most people wait to be told. Being the person who asks first is the cheapest insurance available.
Sources
- Labour market overview, UK: August 2026, Office for National Statistics
- Vacancies and jobs in the UK: August 2026, Office for National Statistics
- UK labour market statistics, House of Commons Library
- Employment Rights Act risks being a handbrake on hiring, CIPD Labour Market Outlook
- UK hiring stuck in 'low-hire, low-fire' cycle, CIPD research warns, People Management
- Unfair dismissal rights from six months, Mishcon de Reya