Thirteen UK HR systems set against the ERA 2025 timeline, with the SSP, holiday and probation records each one keeps.

For a UK HR team this winter, the date to circle is 1st January 2027. For dismissals on or after that date, the qualifying period for an unfair dismissal claim falls to six months, and the cap on compensatory awards goes with it. The probation review that slipped, the extension letter nobody sent, the absence logged against the wrong policy: that is the file a tribunal will read.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 has arrived in stages, so the best HR software for Employment Rights Act compliance is the system that already holds the earlier records in order (the statutory sick pay change of April 2026, the paternity and unpaid parental leave change of the same month, six years of holiday pay history) and can take the 2027 changes without a spreadsheet growing beside it.

Thirteen platforms follow, all sold to UK employers. For each one, the entry sets out what its own pages document on SSP and absence, family leave, probation, holiday records, right to work and HMRC payroll, what it costs where a price is published, and the one gap to plan for. Every date comes from gov.uk, led by the Employment Rights Act timeline update of 22 October 2026, and none of the vendors claims its software makes an employer compliant with the Act.

Best HR software for Employment Rights Act compliance, compared

Six of the thirteen publish no price at all, and only two name the Act anywhere in a product.

Prices and G2 figures are as read on 26th October 2026.

Employment Rights Act 2025 timeline

The Act received Royal Assent in December 2025 and its measures commence in phases. The government's timeline update of 22 October 2026 is the version to work from; an older web copy of the July 2025 roadmap, republished on 14 October 2026 for accessibility, still shows superseded dates. The government adds that all future dates remain subject to parliamentary processes and may change.

Employment Rights Act changes in force by the end of October 2026

The payroll change of April 2026 was the SSP one: no waiting period and no Lower Earnings Limit, so the sickness record and the pay run have to agree from the first day an employee is off, including for staff who earned too little to qualify before. The family-leave change that month covers paternity leave and unpaid parental leave only.

Employment Rights Act changes scheduled for 2027

The 1st January 2027 row changes how HR teams work day to day, because probation becomes a dated process with evidence attached. The 6 April 2027 row is HMRC's and it is phased: cars, fuel, vans and medical benefits in the 2027/28 tax year, most other benefits from April 2028, loans and accommodation undated.

1. HiBob

Bob is HiBob's all-in-one HR platform, with the employee record at the centre and hiring, performance, compensation, engagement, workforce planning and payroll (built in for the UK and US) as parts of it, so a company switches modules on instead of buying separate review, survey and payroll tools.

HiBob positions Bob for companies from 50 employees through mid-sized and multinational groups, larger organisations run it too, and HR, managers and employees work in one interface none of them needs training for, so the manager who logs a sick day and the HR lead who audits it a year later see the same record.

For the Act, the module to look at is Time Off, included in Bob Core. HR defines leave and sickness policies for a location, a department or a named group of employees, and HiBob says the module works out holiday accrual, maternity leave and statutory sick pay. Approved absence syncs into the native, HMRC-recognised UK payroll with nobody re-keying it, which is the record-keeping the Act's phases will test: absence, pay and pension in one place.

Analytics and reporting sit in Core as well, so an HR director can pull absence, pay and headcount by site, and engagement surveys, recognition and feedback tools run on the same record through the Talent Suite. Employees outside the UK sit on the same record, paid in their own currencies, with the interface language set per user and leave rules following their jurisdiction. Native payroll exists for two countries, the UK and the US, and other countries connect through Payroll Hub integrations (ADP and Xero among them) or an EOR partner, Oyster among them. HiBob's own figures are 5,500+ customers and a footprint of 170+ countries, and G2 listed Bob at 4.5/5 from 2,711 reviews as of 26th October 2026. GDPR-aligned, with customer data hosted in the EU.

Pricing

HiBob sells on quotation: a per-head figure built up from Bob Core plus whichever modules the company switches on, and no list price appears anywhere on its site.

Compliance coverage

●      Holiday accrual, maternity leave and SSP calculated in Time Off

●      Approved absence synced to native UK payroll: RTI (FPS), tax code sync, minimum wage alerts, pension auto-enrolment

●      History retained for every payroll adjustment; P11D and P60 reporting

Budget for the module set: Bob Core comes first and Time & Attendance, payroll and the talent modules are priced on top, so the budget has to cover the module set you configure, from the first conversation.

2. Employment Hero

Employment Hero's UK customers, in its own phrase, have "10 or 2,000 employees", and it sells them HR tiers and payroll tiers as separate lines. The payroll is native: FPS and EPS filings reach HMRC in real time, and Managed Payroll adds managed HMRC reporting, RTI and pension enrolment.

Of the thirteen platforms here, its pricing page itemises the most Act-relevant records by name, and the Probation Report, which lists who is on probation and when their review falls due, is the one an HR team will lean on once dismissals from 1st January 2027 fall under the six-month qualifying period.

The advisory add-on (HR and Employment Law Advisory) is £7 for each employee per month, never less than £70 a month. Paperless onboarding is in HR Essentials, performance and learning management arrive with HR Engage, and HR Elite holds the rest: compensation management, workforce planning, goals and 360 reviews. G2 had Employment Hero at 4.4/5 from 4,360 reviews (26th October 2026), on a listing that covers the global product.

Pricing

Anyone signing from 1st November 2026 pays £6 (HR Essentials) or £9 (HR Engage) per employee per month, with HR Elite and Unlimited quoted; payroll comes as Free Payroll at £0, Core Payroll at £4 (floor £40 a month) or Managed Payroll at £14 (floor £140 a month). Ten users is the smallest subscription, and contracts signed before that date stay on the old rates.

Compliance coverage

●      SSP, SMP, SPP and SAP as statutory leave categories

●      Holiday pay on the 52-week average method

●      Probation Report with upcoming review dates

●      Work Eligibility Report: right-to-work status, with document expiry dates

●      FPS and EPS to HMRC in real-time

Mind the tiering: goals, 360s, planning and compensation tools are HR Elite only, on a quote, and the 10-user and monthly payroll minimums rule out the smallest teams.

3. Personio

Personio is a German built suite built around four pillars (Core HR, Talent, Payroll, Employee Finance); it names a range of 10 to 10,000 staff, runs native payroll only for Germany and keeps customer data in the EU (Frankfurt is one of the locations).

For a UK employer the payroll product is preparation: it assembles the payroll data and hands it on, either as a one-click send to Xero, a Sage 50 export or a file for the accountant, with no HMRC or RTI submission claim on the English pages.

The pay run that applies the April 2026 SSP rules therefore happens in the connected payroll, with Personio holding the absence and time-tracking records that feed it. Apps is Personio's word for the paid extras on top of Core, and performance, recruiting, surveys and compensation management all fall under it. G2 had Personio at 4.4/5 across 1,088 reviews at the 26 October 2026 count.

Pricing

Nothing in sterling: the entry price is €7.60 a month for each employee, you buy either plan (Core or CorePro) through a demo, annual contracts carry a 12-month floor and there is a single setup fee sized to the company.

Compliance coverage

●      Absence Management and Time Tracking in Core HR

●      On and offboarding in Core HR

●      Payroll data exports, with a Xero integration and a Sage 50 export

●      No statutory pay calculation, probation tracking or right-to-work record described

UK payroll is the thing to plan around: Personio stops at the export, and whichever payroll takes the file (Xero, Sage 50 or another) makes the HMRC submissions.

4. Access PeopleHR

The Access Group sells Access PeopleHR to UK employers in four HR tiers, Starter up to Elite+, with payroll as a separate product line (Payroll SaaS or Payroll Managed) or bundled into Full Suite plans. The HR tiers on their own don't include payroll.

Its Employment Rights Act compliance module, the only Act-branded module in this group, is a training library: 22 courses, carrying RoSPA assurance and CPD certification, that draw on the customer's existing HR data, priced at £2 per employee per month, with content Access says updates when legislation changes and a launch in PeopleHR in early 2026. It teaches staff and managers about the Act; the record-keeping sits in the HR tiers and payroll products it is added to. Several Evo AI features need an advanced user licence or carry variable usage costs. G2 had Access PeopleHR at 4.0/5 on 487 reviews, checked 26th October 2026.

Pricing

HR Software runs £4 (Starter), £6.25 (Core), £9.25 (Pro) and £11 (Elite+) per employee per month; Payroll SaaS from £3 and Payroll Managed from £5; the three Full Suite bundles are £7.75, £10.75 or £12.50. The training module adds £2 per employee per month, and Access states no employee limit.

Compliance coverage

●      Employee onboarding from the Core HR tier

●      Payroll SaaS with HMRC compliance and pension enrolment; Payroll Managed with HMRC submission handled by Access

●      A 22-course Employment Rights Act training library, including right-to-work and family-leave policy courses

●      No Act-specific workflow, SSP rule set or probation report described beyond the course library

One caution: the Act-branded module is training content, so the records themselves depend on which HR tier and payroll product you buy alongside it.

5. BrightHR

BrightHR, part of Peninsula Group, bundles its HR software with an employment law service. Of the three tiers priced online, the lowest is core HR software and the highest is full HR plus health and safety support with an employee assistance programme; the middle one, Enhanced HR support, is where the advice line (HR and employment law, open 24/7), the employment law change updates and the optional insurance against employee claims come in.

There are two forms of BrightHR Payroll, a software product and a managed one where BrightHR's team does gross-to-net and the HMRC correspondence; the software version, the vendor says, applies the statutory pay rules. BrightHR demos payroll on its own, and what the HR tiers list is a "Payroll navigator" reporting tool, so the online HR price excludes payroll. On the Act itself BrightHR has an e-learning course and a Small Business Survival Guide; its pages don't itemise SSP configuration, probation tracking or right-to-work records as product features. G2 had BrightHR at 4.3/5 from 222 reviews as of 26th October 2026.

Pricing

The online calculator shows the three tiers from £16.67, £21.20 and £31.30 per employee per month (it defaults to five employees, so £83.35, £106.00 and £156.50 a month ex tax) on 24, 36 or 60 month fixed terms. A FAQ on the same page quotes a lower floor, £3.00 per person, varying by business size; insurance sits outside the online price.

Compliance coverage

●      Absence management in all tiers

●      BrightHR Payroll, as software or managed, applying statutory rules on pay

●      Changing employment law updates and a 24/7 advice line from the Enhanced tier

●      An Employment Rights Act 2025 e-learning course and a guide for small businesses

The contract is the thing to read twice: 24, 36 or 60 month fixed terms, with the advice line and indemnity insurance starting at the Enhanced tier and insurance excluded from the online price.

6. Ciphr

Ciphr builds for UK organisations with 200 to 2,000 employees and says 1,400+ of them use it. Central HR covers absence, performance, documents, self-service and reporting; payroll, benefits, recruitment, a learning management system and HR analytics are separate modules, and Ciphr describes itself as built around UK compliance and UK payroll legislation, with data held in the UK or the EEA.

The payroll is native and Ciphr states it handles RTI, auto-enrolment and the nuances of UK pay, which keeps the pay run and the absence record in one system. The AI assistant books leave, including flexible and shift-pattern hours, and answers questions from live HR data; its extension into payroll, the LMS and benefits is on the roadmap and not yet shipped. SSP rules, probation tracking and right-to-work records aren't itemised. Ciphr's G2 listing is thin: G2 had it at 3.7/5 from six reviews on 26 October 2026, too few to read much into either way.

Pricing

Ciphr publishes one figure, from £5 per employee per month, and footnotes it as standard HR software for 125 employees on a three-year minimum term. Otherwise it prices by scope, with no online plans.

Compliance coverage

●      Absence, documents and reporting in Central HR

●      Native UK payroll handling RTI and auto-enrolment

●      Leave booking through the AI assistant, including flexible and shift-pattern hours

●      A learning management system module, sold alongside Central HR

The planning point is commercial: the only published price assumes 125 employees on a three-year minimum term, and everything else waits for a scoped quote.

7. MHR iTrent

iTrent is MHR's HR and payroll system for large or complex organisations, and MHR says 1,400+ organisations use its products. The payroll is native and supports five legislations: UK, Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man. iTrent's documented strengths are configurability, a People Analytics Platform, check-ins between managers and staff, and an LMS with a library of 30,000+ learning modules, which covers the training side of the 30 October 2026 harassment duty if the content fits.

MHR's pages carry guidance on the Act (a 23 October 2026 blog on guaranteed hours and shift scheduling) and no Act-specific product claims: SSP rules, probation tracking and right-to-work records aren't itemised. MHR sells by demo with no published price. G2 had iTrent at 3.9/5 on 33 reviews at the 26th October 2026 check.

Pricing

Quote only. Neither the iTrent nor the People First page carries a price; both route to a demo booking.

Compliance coverage

●      Native payroll for UK, Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey and Isle of Man legislations

●      HR and payroll on one configurable record

●      iTrent LMS with 30,000+ learning modules

●      People Analytics Platform and manager check-ins

Fit is the limit here: iTrent is built for large or complex organisations, and its payroll stops at the five legislations above, so a group with staff elsewhere in Europe needs another payroll.

8. Cezanne HR

Cezanne HR is built for mid-sized organisations, which it puts at 50 to 3,000 employees, with customers across the UK and Europe. You start with the core People Management module and add absence, performance, recruitment or others; Onboarding & Lifecycle is an additional module. Contracts are rolling, there's no implementation fee, and a minimum monthly fee applies.

The payroll is native to the HRIS and HMRC-recognised, with both the Full Payment Submission and the Employer Payment Summary filed from inside the system, so the SSP record after April 2026 and the pay run share one database. Absence lets you build multiple plans, each with its own accrual and carry-over rules, which is the shape holiday records need now that employers must keep six years of them.

Hosting is on AWS within the EEA and eleven interface languages come as standard. Flexible working requests, probation tracking and right-to-work records aren't described. G2 had Cezanne at 4.4/5 from 66 reviews (checked 26th October 2026).

Pricing

Quote-based. You pay a monthly subscription based on the modules you choose and your headcount, with no implementation fees, rolling contracts and a minimum monthly fee.

Compliance coverage

●      Statutory payments including maternity and sick pay calculated in native payroll

●      Occupational maternity and sick leave on configurable rules

●      Multiple absence plans with their own accrual and carry-over rules

●      HMRC RTI submission (FPS and EPS) from within the system, plus pension auto-enrolment assessment

●      Onboarding & Lifecycle as an additional module

Plan for a modular bill: absence, performance, onboarding and payroll are each added to the core People Management module, and the payroll covers the UK only.

9. Breathe

Breathe, the brand Centurion Management Systems Ltd trades under, sells HR admin software to employers of 250 people or fewer and charges per business rather than per head. The core product handles leave and absence, stores documents and policies, and runs performance reviews; Rota and Time & Attendance, Learn, Recruitment tracking, Expenses and Health and Safety are add-ons.

There is no payroll inside Breathe. What it has is an export tool that suits most cloud payroll products sold in the UK, and a Xero Payroll integration, so SSP and the FPS happen in the payroll you connect. Breathe publishes guidance on the 2026 to 2027 employment law changes as an e-book; its product pages don't describe statutory pay calculation, probation tracking or right-to-work records, and customer data sits in a UK data centre. Breathe publishes prices up to 100 people. G2 had Breathe at 4.4/5 across 608 reviews as of 26th October 2026.

Pricing

From £24 a month per business: £24 for 1 to 10 people, £44 for 11 to 20, £99 for 21 to 50 and £175 for 51 to 100, all ex VAT, with 101 to 200 people handled by sales. Add-ons run £11 to £16 a month per business.

Compliance coverage

●      Holiday and absence records, in the core product

●      Documents and policies, in the core product

●      Payroll export tool for UK cloud payroll systems and a Xero Payroll integration

●      Health and Safety and Learn add-ons for policy and training records

●      Rota and Time & Attendance add-on for shift records

Payroll sits outside: SSP, statutory family pay and HMRC submissions happen in the payroll Breathe exports to, so the absence record and the pay record live in two systems.

10. Zelt

Zelt is UK-based HR and payroll software for small and mid-sized companies, used by people teams at 400+ organisations, with the HRIS and payroll built together from the start. Modules cover Payroll, Benefits, Payments, Time Off, Apps, Devices, Surveys, Reviews, Goals, Scheduling and People.

The UK payroll is Zelt's own; in its words it covers submissions, pensions and statutory pay, and the system itself works out SSP, SMP, SPP, auto-enrolment and pro-rating. Time Off runs holiday, sick days, working from home and parental leave as custom policies, so the family-leave types that changed in April 2026 can carry their own rules.

Beyond the UK, Zelt runs payroll in the GCC and in selected countries in Europe and APAC; its servers are in the UK and it holds ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials. Flexible working requests, probation tracking and right-to-work records aren't described. G2 had Zelt at 4.6/5 from 298 reviews on 26 October 2026.

Pricing

The title of Zelt's pricing page puts the start at £5 a month per active employee; there are Core and Pro plans, and no module can be bought for fewer than 20 seats. Per-plan figures aren't in the page body, and Pro is talk to sales.

Compliance coverage

●      SSP, SMP and SPP calculated in native UK payroll, with pro-rating

●      Pension auto-enrolment and payroll submissions in the same system

●      Holiday, sick, working-from-home and parental leave as custom Time Off policies

●      Onboarding and 360 feedback on the pricing page

●      Scheduling module for shift records

The Core caps are the catch: three absence policies, one review cycle and one survey won't hold a full set of statutory leave types or a probation review calendar, so most of the Act-relevant setup needs Pro, by quote, and the 20-seat minimum stands either way.

11. Rippling

Rippling describes itself as a workforce platform that spans HR, IT and spend, and it sells payroll, benefits, expenses and device management each on their own, on top of the mandatory Rippling Platform core. Rippling's own UK entity runs the UK payroll on software HMRC recognises, covering PAYE, National Insurance, pensions and RTI, in the same screen as payroll for other countries and on one employee record shared with HR.

The compliance tooling on its UK pages is global in framing: global leave enforcement, global minimum wage enforcement and global compliance training, plus an employer of record service covering 115+ countries and contractor payments in 180+ countries.

Rippling states alignment with UK data protection law, and its listed certifications include ISO 27001 alongside a SOC 2 Type II report. Act-specific records, SSP configuration, probation tracking and right-to-work records aren't itemised on its UK pages. G2 gives Rippling the largest review base in this group, 14,735 reviews, and on 26 October 2026 the score stood at 4.7/5.

Pricing

Quote-based. Rippling asks what services you need and sends a custom quote; most products bill per employee per month, and some charge or include a monthly base fee.

Compliance coverage

●      UK payroll through Rippling's own entity: PAYE, National Insurance, pensions and RTI

●      Global leave enforcement and global minimum wage enforcement

●      Global compliance training

●      One employee record shared across HR, payroll and IT

The bill of materials needs working through: you buy each product alongside the required core platform, some with a monthly base fee on top of the per-employee charge, so pricing the UK compliance set means pricing each product in turn.

12. Dayforce

Dayforce is an AI powered people platform aimed at employers from 100 employees upwards; its UK site segments customers at 100 to 1,000, 1,000 to 12,000 and 12,000+. HR, payroll, workforce management, talent and people analytics run on one platform, sold by module.

The UK payroll is localised and Dayforce Payroll calculates pay as time is captured, so the pay figure moves with the timesheet during the period.

Compliance partners cover regulatory change in over 200 countries and territories, and the Dayforce Payroll Interface connects to in-country third-party providers where Dayforce doesn't run payroll itself. The UK pages carry no Employment Rights Act content and don't itemise SSP rules, probation tracking or right-to-work records; a Dayforce UK blog post reports CIPP Payroll Assurance Scheme accreditation under the Ceridian name. Dayforce AI Assistant and AI Agents include an agent for time off, and admins can limit or restrict AI capabilities. G2 had Dayforce at 4.2/5 from 962 reviews at the 26th October 2026 count.

Pricing

Quote only. Dayforce sells by module, and payroll is licensed either as an enterprise licence or by user; there is no published UK price.

Compliance coverage

●      Localised UK payroll that calculates pay as time is captured

●      Workforce management for time and attendance records

●      Time-off requests handled through an AI agent

●      Payroll Interface to in-country providers outside Dayforce's own coverage

Size is the question: the smallest segment Dayforce lists is 100 to 1,000 employees, and a 120-person UK firm is buying the same module-by-module licence as a 12,000-person group.

13. Sage People

Sage People is Sage's HR system for growing multinational organisations, which its UK page sizes at 250 to 5,000 employees, built on the Salesforce platform. It handles people across multiple sites and countries, currencies, languages and local legislations, with AI powered by Agentforce.

Payroll is native for the UK and the US through Sage People Payroll, and other countries connect through the Payflow connector. The UK page describes end-to-end HR and payroll tools in one place, absence management and performance review tools, and talent management for engagement; it carries no HMRC or RTI wording and no Employment Rights Act content, and SSP rules, family-leave policy types, probation tracking and right-to-work records aren't itemised. Sage steers firms under 250 employees to Sage HR, a different product with published prices. Sage People's G2 listing is small: G2 had it at 4.4/5 on 43 reviews, checked 26th October 2026.

Pricing

Quote only. Sage says pricing depends on the number of employees, the functionality and configuration required and other factors.

Compliance coverage

●      Absence management

●      Native UK payroll through Sage People Payroll

●      Performance review tools

●      Multi-country records covering currencies, languages and local legislations

●      Payflow connector to other payroll providers

The floor is the issue: Sage positions the product at 250 employees and above and its UK page says nothing about statutory pay or the Act, so a 50 to 250 person employer sits outside the audience Sage describes.

What UK HR compliance software covers

In the UK sense, HR compliance software is the system of record an employer can hand to a tribunal, to HMRC or to the Fair Work Agency without rebuilding it from email. It holds the contract and the documents a new starter signs, the right-to-work evidence, sickness and holiday records alongside the pay they produced, family-leave eligibility by leave type, probation dates, policy acknowledgements with timestamps and, where payroll is native, the RTI submissions and pension auto-enrolment history. The Act tests the employer's decisions; the software's job is to make the records behind those decisions retrievable six months, or six years, later.

The thirteen platforms above split on two points. One is where statutory pay gets calculated: in the system where the absence itself is recorded (HiBob, Employment Hero, Cezanne, Zelt and the other native payrolls) or in a connected payroll that receives an export (Personio, Breathe). The other is whether the vendor documents probation and right-to-work records at all; only Employment Hero names both as reports.

What to look for in HR software for Employment Rights Act compliance

Statutory pay and absence records that follow the Act's phasing

Since 6th April 2026, SSP has had no waiting period and no Lower Earnings Limit, and paternity leave and unpaid parental leave have been available from the first day of employment. A system still carrying the old defaults will under-pay a two-day absence or refuse a leave request it should accept. Ask the vendor to show an SSP calculation for an employee who was below the old Lower Earnings Limit and off sick for two days, and the audit entry that shows when the rule changed.

Holiday pay records kept for six years

Since April 2026, employers have had to keep records adequate to show they complied with the holiday and holiday pay rules, and keep them for six years. Accrual, carry-over and the pay calculation all need to survive a system migration and a leaver's departure. Ask the vendor to export one employee's holiday accrual and holiday pay history for the past year and to state how long the system retains it after the employee leaves.

Policy acknowledgement and an audit trail

From 30th October 2026, employers have to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment and may not permit harassment by third parties; from 1st January 2027 they must also tell workers of their right to join a trade union. Both duties turn on proof: who received which version of a policy, when, and what training followed. Ask the vendor to show who has and hasn't acknowledged the current harassment policy, with timestamps, and the retained history of the version before it.

Payroll and the HMRC link

Native payroll means the FPS and, where documented, the EPS go to HMRC from the system that already holds the absence, and pension auto-enrolment runs against the same employee record. Exported payroll means two systems and a reconciliation. From 6 April 2027 the payroll also has to carry company cars, fuel, vans and medical benefits as payrolled benefits in kind, with Class 1A National Insurance paid in real time and a one-off overlap with the P11D cycle in July 2027. Ask the vendor to walk through how an approved absence reaches the FPS, and what changes in the pay run when you payroll a company car from April 2027.

Choosing HR software for Employment Rights Act compliance in 2027

The best HR software for Employment Rights Act compliance in 2027 is the one whose records you'd be comfortable disclosing: the absence that produced an SSP line, the probation review dated before month six, the holiday pay history going back six years, the policy acknowledgement with a timestamp.

On the evidence of the vendors' own pages, HiBob is the strongest fit for a UK employer from 50 employees upwards, because Time Off, inside Bob Core, does the SSP, maternity and holiday accrual sums and passes approved absence into a native, HMRC recognised payroll with RTI, auto-enrolment and a retained history for every adjustment, on the same record that holds performance, pay and engagement.

Price the modules you will configure as one bill, and check every date against the government's 22nd October 2026 timeline update before you set a project plan. Dismissals from 1st January 2027 fall under the six-month qualifying period, so for anyone hired from July 2026 onwards the probation file is already the record that counts.