Create a probation policy for your workplace

A probation policy gives your business a written framework for how new employees are assessed during their early period of employment. It can set expectations around supervision, review meetings, feedback, performance concerns and internal decision-making. That is useful because informal practices often become inconsistent across managers or teams. A policy can create a clearer process, but it is still important that your managers follow it in practice. The practical working model can be just as important as the contract wording or policy wording when issues arise later.

A probation policy will often cover who the policy applies to, how long the review period runs, what standards or objectives are assessed, when check-ins occur, how feedback is documented, and what steps may be taken if concerns come up. It may also explain who is responsible for reviews and how outcomes are communicated. The exact content depends on your workplace and onboarding process. We draft the policy itself and advise on its wording, but the fixed-fee does not include ongoing HR management or representation if a dispute later develops.

The drafting usually depends on the types of roles you hire, how formal your onboarding process is, who manages performance reviews, and whether you already use employment agreements or internal policies that need to align with the new document. For example, a small business with one manager may need a simpler review structure than a business with multiple team leaders and staged sign-off points. The contract should reflect the practical arrangement, not just a generic precedent or one-sided checklist, especially where actual practice differs between teams.

Sometimes a template looks fine on paper but does not fit how the business really operates. Common gaps include unrealistic review timeframes, unclear manager responsibilities, and wording that does not match the employment documents already in use. If the policy says one thing and managers do another, that mismatch can create risk later. A tailored policy is useful where you want the document to reflect your real onboarding and review process rather than a generic model. It Your lawyer will explain the practical position and your options in plain English.

No. A policy is helpful because it records your intended process and expectations, but it does not replace the need to act fairly in the circumstances. If concerns arise during a probation period, what matters is not only what the policy says, but also how the role operates in practice, what feedback was given, and how decisions were made. This service deals with the policy document itself. It does not include ongoing representation, dispute work, or management of a live performance or dismissal process.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Probation Policy service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.