The Employment Rights Act 2025 is the biggest change to UK employment law in a generation. From 1 January 2027, day-one rights apply to every worker from the moment they start, the qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims disappears, and the Fair Work Agency gains enforcement powers that carry real financial consequences.
Most UK employers are not ready. Many do not yet understand what ERA 2025 actually requires. The ones who get ahead of it now will avoid the legal risk, the tribunal costs, and the reputational damage that the unprepared will face in early 2027.
This is a practical 20-point checklist covering everything an employer needs to do between now and January 2027. It is not a legal opinion, and nothing in this guide should be treated as legal advice. What it is, is a working document you can use as a starting point to protect your business.
You can download the full PDF version at the end of this article.
What is the Employment Rights Act 2025?
ERA 2025 is a set of reforms aimed at strengthening worker protections in the UK. The headline changes include:
- Day-one rights. Workers are entitled to statutory protections from day one of employment, including unfair dismissal protection, paternity leave, parental leave, and flexible working requests. The previous two-year qualifying period for unfair dismissal is abolished.
- New SSP rules (effective 6 April 2026). Statutory Sick Pay applies from day one with no waiting period, no lower earnings threshold, and a new calculation (the lower of the standard weekly rate or 80% of average weekly earnings).
- Fair Work Agency enforcement. A new government body with powers to investigate employers, issue fines, and enforce compliance with workplace standards.
- Probation protections. Even during probation, the new day-one rights apply. Employers who dismiss during probation without a documented, fair process face the same legal exposure as any other dismissal.
- Linked periods and absence rules. Absences within 56 days now link under the 2026 rules, affecting SSP entitlement calculations.
The biggest commercial risk for employers is not the law itself. It is the gap between the law and most employers' current hiring and probation processes. Existing processes were designed around the old rules. They will not hold up to ERA 2025 scrutiny.
Why this checklist matters
From January 2027 every hire becomes a potential legal exposure. Every probation failure becomes a potential unfair dismissal claim with no compensation cap. Every absence becomes a potential SSP dispute.
The employers who survive ERA 2025 without financial damage will be the ones who:
- Document their hiring process with objective evidence
- Handle probation reviews systematically, not ad hoc
- Have clear, auditable decision trails for every hire and every dismissal
- Understand SSP, family leave, and day-one rights well enough to apply them correctly
This checklist covers all four.
The 20-Point ERA 2025 Employer Compliance Checklist
Section 1: Your Hiring Process (points 1 to 6)
1. Document every hiring decision with objective evidence.
Every hire from January 2027 onwards needs a defensible paper trail. Gut-feel hiring does not survive a tribunal. Your documentation should show what you assessed, how you scored it, and why you chose this candidate over others. Keep records for at least six years.
2. Remove bias from assessment.
Day-one rights include full protection under the Equality Act 2010. That means your assessment cannot disadvantage candidates based on protected characteristics. Any scoring that penalises spelling, grammar, or cultural expression is a legal risk. Use structured, evidence-based assessment that scores behaviour and judgement, not presentation style.
3. Use structured interviews, not free-form conversations.
Free-form interviews are the number one source of unconscious bias. They are also impossible to defend when challenged. Every interview should use the same questions, scored against the same criteria, with written notes retained for six years minimum.
4. Test candidates against the actual job, not a proxy.
A defensible hiring process tests candidates against the specific situations they will face in the role. Generic personality tests and standardised psychometric assessments are increasingly challenged as not fit for purpose. Real-work scenarios drawn from the actual job description are harder to contest.
5. Document why each unsuccessful candidate was rejected.
If a rejected candidate challenges your decision (and under ERA 2025 more will), you need to show what they scored, what the hired candidate scored, and why the decision was objectively fair. "They did not feel like a fit" is not a defensible reason.
6. Give every rejected candidate the option of development feedback.
Not a legal requirement, but a strong mitigation. Candidates who receive constructive feedback are significantly less likely to pursue legal action. It also builds your employer brand.
Section 2: Your Probation Process (points 7 to 11)
7. Replace informal probation with a documented 90-day plan.
The old approach (give them three months, see how it goes, decide at the end) is a legal time bomb under ERA 2025. Dismissing during probation without a documented, structured review process is unfair dismissal. Every new hire needs a written 90-day plan with clear objectives, regular check-ins, and documented feedback.
8. Use SMART objectives from day one.
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound. Generic objectives like "settle in and learn the role" do not survive scrutiny. Every objective must be specific enough that both employer and employee know exactly what success looks like.
9. Run structured check-ins at weeks 1, 4, 8, and 12.
Document each check-in with a written record. What was discussed, what was agreed, what support was offered. If a probation fails at week 10 and there is no documented evidence of earlier concerns being raised and addressed, you cannot defend the dismissal.
10. Use the SBI feedback framework for any performance concerns.
Situation, Behaviour, Impact. Vague feedback like "you need to improve your communication" is not defensible. Specific feedback like "In the client meeting on Tuesday, when the client raised the budget question, you deferred to the manager rather than answering directly, which left the client uncertain about your seniority" is.
11. If a probation fails, generate a full evidence pack.
Every probation dismissal from January 2027 should come with a complete evidence pack: the original assessment, all check-in records, all feedback given, all support offered, and the final decision reasoning. This is your defence against an unfair dismissal claim.
Section 3: Day-One Rights (points 12 to 15)
12. Update your contracts and offer letters to reflect day-one rights.
Every offer letter and contract of employment should explicitly acknowledge the day-one rights that now apply. Paternity leave, parental leave, flexible working requests, unfair dismissal protection. Your legal team should review and update every template.
13. Train your line managers on day-one rights.
The biggest risk is not you, it is your managers making informal decisions that breach the new rules. A manager telling a new hire "we don't do flexible working in their first six months" is a legal risk. Every line manager needs a written briefing on what day-one rights actually mean in practice.
14. Review your paternity and parental leave policies.
Both apply from day one under ERA 2025. If your policies currently require a qualifying period, they need updating. This is one of the most commonly missed items.
15. Document your flexible working request process.
Flexible working requests can now be made from day one. You need a documented process for handling them, including who decides, how the decision is reasoned, and how it is communicated. Refusing a request without documented business justification is a legal risk.
Section 4: SSP and Absence Management (points 16 to 18)
16. Understand the new SSP rules for 6 April 2026.
From April 2026 SSP applies from day one with no waiting period and no lower earnings threshold. The calculation changes to the lower of the standard weekly rate or 80% of average weekly earnings. Payroll systems built around the old rules will miscalculate SSP from day one if not updated.
17. Track linked absence periods correctly.
Absences within 56 days now link under the 2026 rules and count towards the 28-week maximum. If you are not tracking this correctly you will either overpay or underpay SSP, and both are compliance risks.
18. Keep SSP records for three years minimum.
HMRC requires SSP records to be kept for three years. This includes the absence record, the SSP calculation record, and any SSP1 forms issued. Paper records in a filing cabinet are not enough. You need a documented, searchable system.
Section 5: Fair Work Agency and Enforcement (points 19 to 20)
19. Prepare a Fair Work Agency compliance pack for every new hire.
If the Fair Work Agency investigates your business, they will want to see evidence of a fair, documented, objective hiring process for every role. A compliance pack per hire is the cleanest way to be audit-ready. Include the assessment, the scoring, the interview notes, the offer letter, and the onboarding documentation.
20. Treat every hire as if it might be challenged.
This is the mindset shift. Under ERA 2025 every hire is a potential legal case. Every probation failure is a potential tribunal claim with no compensation cap. The employers who act as if every decision might be challenged are the ones who will not have to defend one.
Why most UK employers will fail this checklist
Most businesses will not do this work. They will assume the old rules still apply, or that their HR team has it covered, or that the Fair Work Agency will not come for them. Some of them will be right. Most will not.
The cost of getting ERA 2025 wrong is not theoretical. An unfair dismissal claim with no compensation cap can run to six figures. Fair Work Agency fines can be significant. The reputational damage of a public tribunal case can cost far more than the legal fees.
The cost of getting it right is mostly time. Most of the 20 items on this checklist are process changes, not capital investments. The employers who treat ERA 2025 as an opportunity to professionalise their hiring and probation processes will come out stronger on the other side.
How PRODICTA helps
PRODICTA is built for ERA 2025. The platform automates most of the documentation, scoring, and evidence tracking that the checklist above requires.
Every assessment generates an ERA 2025 Compliance Certificate documenting the scoring methodology, date, and fairness standards applied. Every probation comes with a built-in 90-day coaching plan with SMART objectives, structured check-ins, and the SBI feedback framework. Every dismissal can generate a full evidence pack combining the original assessment, all check-ins, all redline alerts, and the final decision reasoning.
SSP tracking, linked period visualisation, Fair Work Agency compliance packs, holiday pay retention. It is all built in.
If you want to see how PRODICTA works, book a demo at prodicta.co.uk or try the free hiring risk audit to see what risks are already built into one of your current job descriptions.
Download the full PDF checklist
The PDF version includes all 20 checklist items in a single-page format you can print and share with your leadership team, plus additional notes on documentation retention periods, sample probation review templates, and a glossary of key ERA 2025 terms.
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