The new hire isn’t working out. How do I dismiss during probation?

The answer Just Ask, HR gives

Concise Charlie — Direct, no fluff — the bottom line first.

Bottom line: under current law you can dismiss relatively simply during probation — but "relatively simply" is not "carelessly", and the exceptions are where all the danger lives.

What's true: with under two years' service, ordinary unfair dismissal rights haven't accrued, so a straightforward "not meeting the standard" dismissal doesn't need the full multi-warning process. What's dangerously false: that service length protects you from everything. These claims need no qualifying service at all:

• Discrimination — if the dismissal connects to any protected characteristic (pregnancy discovered in month three is the classic tribunal case);
• Whistleblowing — dismissal after they raised safety, legal or financial concerns;
• Asserting a statutory right — asking for their holiday, payslips, NMW.

So before acting, check honestly: is the performance file real, and does the timing tell any other story? If they raised a concern last week and you're dismissing this week, stop and take advice.

Clean execution:

• Hold a short meeting — tell them the concerns, hear them out, then decide. Not the full ACAS multi-stage process, but a tribunal (on a discrimination claim) will ask what process existed; 30 minutes of fairness is cheap insurance. Follow your own probation policy if you have one.
• Give the contractual notice — commonly one week in probation; statutory minimum is one week after one month's service. Check the contract; pay in lieu if it allows.
• Confirm in writing: dismissal during probation for failure to meet the required standard, notice arrangements, accrued holiday paid.
• Don't let probation expire by accident — dismissing "in probation" after the six months lapsed, under a contract with post-probation enhanced process, hands them a breach claim. Diary the end date; act inside it.

Direction of travel: the Employment Rights Act reforms will make unfair dismissal a day-one right (with a lighter-touch statutory probation process expected). Build the habit of documented, fair probation dismissals now — the era of "under two years, no risk" is ending.