How to Run a Probation Review Meeting: Template and Guide

A probation review meeting is a formal one-to-one meeting between a manager and a new employee, held during or at the end of their probationary period. Its purpose is to assess the employee's performance against agreed objectives, provide structured feedback, and confirm the next steps in their employment. Probation review meetings are not a legal requirement in the UK, but they are widely recommended as best practice.

For large organisations, the stakes around probation reviews are rising. The Employment Rights Act 2025 will extend unfair dismissal protection to employees from their first day of employment, with a statutory probationary period of nine months expected to come into force in 2027. This makes structured, documented probation reviews increasingly important for employers who want to demonstrate procedural fairness.
 
Most probation reviews take place at the three-month or six-month mark, with longer periods typically reserved for senior or more complex roles. Some organisations also hold interim check-ins at the one-month stage, particularly for roles with a steep learning curve.

There is no statutory notice period for a probation review meeting in the UK. However, ACAS recommends that managers share the meeting agenda and any relevant information with the employee in advance, so they have adequate time to prepare.
 
For large organisations, a minimum of five working days' notice is considered good practice. This gives the employee time to review their job description, reflect on their progress, and prepare any questions or concerns they want to raise. It also allows the manager to gather feedback from relevant colleagues before the meeting takes place.
 
Where a probation review meeting may result in dismissal, additional considerations apply. ACAS is clear that employees have the right to request accompaniment to any meeting that could result in dismissal. In those cases, giving sufficient notice is not just good practice; it is essential to a fair process.
 
For large organisations managing probation reviews at scale, HR software can automate meeting invitations, agenda sharing, and reminder notifications, reducing the risk of meetings being scheduled without adequate notice or preparation time.

Preparation

Preparation is important for both the employer and the employee. The employee should be invited to review their job description and employment contract. They should also prepare any concerns and issues they want to discuss in the probation meeting. As an employer, you should prepare a review of both tangible and non-tangible KPIs to discuss. Being prepared with a probation review template will allow the meeting to flow and set expectations for the employee attending the meeting.

Accompaniment

Whilst accompaniment is usually associated with disciplinary or grievance procedures, it is best practice to offer employees the option to bring a colleague or trade union representative to any meeting that could result in dismissal. ACAS is explicit on this point: employees have the right to request accompaniment where the outcome of a meeting could be termination of employment.

Review

The review portion of the meeting and your template should follow a structure similar to the following: objectives and performance evaluation, achievements, and improvements. These steps will allow you to assess the positives and if needed, highlight areas of improvement. It will also lead to the next step of the review meeting template.

Outcome and Action Plan

This section will be a discussion of the outcomes of the review. The employee will receive confirmation that their probation period is either completed, extended, or their employment is terminated. In the case of completion or extension, it is always advisable to put an action plan in place for the next steps. Providing your employee with a strong action plan focused on their career development is integral to fostering a positive environment and growth mindset.

Contact

The final step in the probation review template is to provide your employee with details of people to contact, in case they want to raise any questions or concerns. In the case of completed probation, this may just be their direct line manager. In the case of extended probation or termination of employment, an HR contact may be useful.

As an employer, it’s important to foster a safe and welcoming environment, and that extends to the probation meeting. In larger businesses, probation meetings may involve input from more team members. Sharing the agenda in advance and encouraging cross-departmental feedback can provide a more holistic view of the employee’s performance.

The first step is to prepare a detailed agenda, which will cover the whole meeting. Share this agenda with your employee so they can be prepared with their questions and answers. An open communication channel is an essential part of a healthy working relationship. The probation review questions you ask should be open-ended and the conversation should be of a two-way nature.

Take a look at our article for 10 questions managers could ask in a probation review meeting. Your employee should feel comfortable discussing their experiences of the company so far openly.

What are some questions to ask in a probation review?

Some of the open-ended questions you could include in your probation review meeting template include the following: 

• What are you enjoying about the role so far? 
• How would you like to grow within your team and role? 
• What concerns do you have about the role? 
• Are there any training or development opportunities you’d like to pursue? 

At the end of the probationary period, there are three possible outcomes. Whichever applies, the outcome should be communicated clearly in the meeting and confirmed in writing afterwards.

1. Passing probation: Confirm the outcome positively and in writing. Use the meeting to set goals for the next phase and discuss development opportunities.
2. Extending the probationary period: Appropriate where the employee shows potential but has not yet met expectations. Confirm the extension in writing with clear reasons, revised objectives, and a defined timeline. A Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) with measurable goals and a review date is good practice. Extensions should only be used where the employment contract includes a clause permitting them.
3. Dismissal: Where expectations have not been met and extension is not appropriate, dismissal must still follow a fair process. ACAS recommends documenting concerns throughout the probationary period, holding a formal meeting, giving the employee an opportunity to respond, and providing the correct notice period. The statutory minimum after one month's service is one week. Employees also have the right to request accompaniment to any meeting that could result in dismissal.

In all cases, the outcome should never come as a surprise.

Looking ahead, the Employment Rights Act 2025 will extend day-one unfair dismissal protection, with a statutory probationary period expected from 2027. Large employers should review their probation processes now to ensure dismissal decisions are properly documented and defensible.

General best practice for a successful probation review is to create a positive and supportive environment and focus on the employee’s career development. Ultimately, you want your employee to ask questions freely and go away from the meeting with a strong sense of their place and impact within the company.   

Creating a positive and supportive environment  

Creating a positive and supportive environment in a probation meeting is crucial to extracting the most feedback from your employees. The dialogue needs to be of a two-way nature and collaborative. 

Facilitate this by actively listening to your employees and asking open-ended questions. With open-ended questions, the employee feels that they can offer richer responses and you, in turn, gain a deeper understanding of their point of view. This open channel of communication can lead to improved employee wellbeing; employees will be more likely to raise concerns about the support they require. All of these benefits feed into better mental and physical wellbeing; take a look at our Guide to Workplace Wellbeing. Wellbeing is a crucial point across industries; according to the Times, ill health costs employers nearly £30 billion. 

When you create a positive and supportive environment, constructive feedback is likely to be well received, and the focus can shift towards career development on the back of that feedback. 

“Back in my HR advisory days, where managers are treating people exactly the same through something like a probation process… one person loving all the attention, regular meetings and detail, and another person feeling like they’re not trusted… So you’ve got the manager doing exactly the same thing, two different people, it’s two different styles, two different outcomes.” 

Kieran Glackin, HR Director at Madano in Episode 8: Supercharge talent & drive performance, Do the Best Work of Your Life series 

Kieran highlights the importance of adapting your approach to suit the individual, creating a more positive environment. A probation review that feels supportive to one employee might feel micromanaging to another. Personalisation is key to building trust and engagement. Watch the full episode to explore how personalised processes and AI insights can transform your approach to performance management. 

In large organisations, personalisation at scale can be achieved through talent management software that offers AI-driven insights.

These tools help managers tailor feedback and development plans while maintaining consistency across teams. 

Focusing on their career development  

Dedicating time in your probation review template to focusing on the career development of your employees is integral to nurturing internal talent. Losing talent is a consistent problem in many industries and a lot of those issues can be attributed to a lack of investment in development. The 2025 LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report found that organisations that prioritise career development outpace others on key indicators of business success. However, Only 36% of organisations fall into the career development champions category with robust programs that yield business results. 

Another 31% have career development programs with limited adoption, and 33% have no initiatives or are just getting started.  

Therefore, focusing on an employee development plan can be an effective strategy to boost retention. Our Guide on Employee Development Plans lays out their benefits.

For organisations with operational or frontline teams where retention challenges are particularly acute, our retention strategies guide explores how structured career pathways and regular check-ins beyond probation can reduce early-tenure turnover.

A 2025 study by Admiral Insurance found that 88% of Gen Z employees prioritise finding a stable employer, with 57% believing it's more beneficial to develop a career with one company. They value supportive environments and clear career progression pathways, indicating that opportunities for growth and development are crucial for retention. 

For large businesses, career development planning should be integrated into succession planning and internal mobility strategies. Probation reviews offer a key opportunity to identify high-potential talent and align their growth with organisational goals. 

There are advantages to career development plans, beyond upskilling and retention: 

1. Greater workforce productivity and effectiveness 
2. Increased efficiency and revenues 
3. Improved internal talent mobility 
4. Reduced costs in recruiting, onboarding and training external candidates 
5. Improved talent attraction and retention rates 
6. Reduced employee churn 
7. Higher staff satisfaction, fulfilment, purpose and engagement 
8. An enhanced company culture 
9. Greater visibility of succession planning 
10. Improved compliance 

Constructive addressing of performance issues 

Providing constructive feedback on performance issues is essential irrespective of the result of a probation period. However, you need to do it in a positive manner and be helpful, rather than discouraging. Champlain College notes in their article that Constructive feedback  is designed to promote growth by focusing on specific actions or behaviours and offering actionable suggestions. 

• Establish trust 
• Balance positive and negative 
• Observe, don’t interpret 
• Be specific 
• Don’t make it personal 

To support managers in delivering constructive feedback consistently and effectively, performance management software like Performance Appraisals software, as part of a wider Access PeopleXD Evo suite solution, can be invaluable. It helps structure conversations around growth, track progress against goals, and ensure feedback is documented and actionable. With built-in templates and analytics, managers can build trust, balance feedback, and focus on specific behaviours, without making it personal. 

Following up post-meeting 

It is always crucial to follow up on the probation meeting and you can set up a section in your probation review template to cover that. Email the notes from the meeting to your employees and allow them to review them. Based on the action plan you’ve put in place, you should also start to affect some of the changes discussed.

For example, if an employee requests a training course specific to their role, source the available dates for that course promptly. Actions like this will demonstrate to employees that they are valued, and their career development is important to the company ethos. Ultimately, small steps like this will improve the company's reputation and make you an employer of choice. 

A successful probation review meeting is one of the first steps on a pathway to success for your employees. When you foster a positive and open environment, you can develop action plans that help your employees grow and ultimately deliver more value to your business.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found that upskilling is the most popular solution to hard-to-fill vacancies, with 52% of businesses choosing this avenue. Probation reviews are one of the earliest and most effective opportunities to identify where that investment is needed.

For large organisations, the goal is not just to run good individual probation reviews. It is to build a consistent, scalable process that every manager can follow, every new employee can trust, and every HR team can audit.

Key takeaways:

• Probation review meetings are not a legal requirement in the UK, but they are best practice and increasingly important in light of the Employment Rights Act 2025
• Give at least five working days' notice and share the agenda in advance
• Structure every meeting around the same five elements: preparation, accompaniment, the review, outcome and action plan, and documentation
• Ask open-ended questions across performance, career development, and wellbeing
• Confirm all outcomes in writing, regardless of whether the employee passes, has their probation extended, or is dismissed
• Use a standardised template to maintain consistency across departments and locations