An employee leaves your business following several months of performance concerns.
There have been informal conversations, meetings, emails and eventually a formal process before their employment ends.
Time passes. The manager involved moves to another company. Some of the earlier conversations were never written down. Notes from other meetings are sitting in individual folders and nobody has thought about the matter for months.
Then an Employment Tribunal claim arrives.
Could you confidently piece together what happened – and demonstrate that the business followed a fair and reasonable process?
Employment Tribunal time limits are changing
From 1 October 2026, the time limit for bringing the majority of Employment Tribunal claims will increase from three months to six months.
For employers, that means a longer period may pass between the events giving rise to a potential claim and the point at which the business becomes aware that it needs to defend one.
Six months can be a long time in a busy workplace. Managers leave, teams change, memories fade and documents become harder to locate.
That’s why good HR record-keeping matters.
Good records aren’t just paperwork
It’s easy to see taking notes and documenting conversations as additional administration – particularly when a manager is dealing with a difficult situation alongside their day job.
But those records can become extremely important later.
Imagine a manager has spoken to an employee several times about poor performance but hasn’t documented those conversations. Six months later, how confidently will they remember what was discussed, the examples they gave, what support was offered or what the employee said in response?
Without a record, you may be left relying on two very different recollections of the same conversation.
Good documentation provides a clear timeline of what happened, what was discussed, what decisions were made and, importantly, why they were made.
What should managers be recording?
This doesn’t mean managers need to document every interaction they have with an employee.
However, where an issue could ultimately lead to a formal process or important employment decision, keeping appropriate records is good practice.
Depending on the circumstances, this might include:
- notes of important meetings and conversations;
- correspondence with the employee;
- concerns that have been raised and examples discussed;
- objectives, expectations or improvements agreed;
- support or adjustments offered;
- investigation notes and relevant evidence;
- formal warnings and outcomes; and
- the reasoning behind significant decisions.
Records should be factual, professional and stored appropriately.
Managers should also be mindful of what they write in emails, Teams messages or informal notes. A throwaway comment written in frustration can look very different when read months later without the context of the original conversation.
Don’t wait for a formal process
One of the biggest gaps can occur before an issue becomes formal.
Perhaps a manager has been speaking to an employee about their performance for several months. Everyone within the team knows there is a problem, but very little has been recorded because the conversations have been considered “informal”.
When the issue eventually escalates, there may be no reliable record of what the employee was told, how long the concerns had existed or what opportunities they had been given to improve.
The same can apply to absence management, conduct concerns, grievances and other workplace issues.
Informal management is often entirely appropriate. Informal shouldn’t mean undocumented.
A brief, factual record of an important conversation can make a considerable difference if the business later needs to understand or demonstrate what happened.
Good processes and good records go hand in hand
Of course, thorough documentation cannot rescue a fundamentally poor process.
Having detailed notes showing that an employee was treated unfairly is unlikely to help an employer’s position.
Good record-keeping needs to sit alongside fair, consistent HR practices. Managers should understand when an issue needs to move from an informal conversation to a formal process and when they should seek advice before taking further action.
The aim isn’t to create paperwork for the sake of it. It’s to make sure important employment decisions are made carefully and that the business can demonstrate the process it followed.
Using HR software can also make good record-keeping much easier. Having employee information, documents and key HR records held securely in one central place can help avoid important information becoming scattered across inboxes, individual folders or paper files.
HR Surgery works with Breathe HR, a cloud-based HR system designed for SMEs. We can help clients implement and manage Breathe to whatever level suits their business – from getting the system set up correctly and handing it over to their team, through to providing ongoing support and administration.
What should employers do now?
With the longer Tribunal claim window fast approaching, now is a good time to review how employee issues are documented within your business. In particular, make sure managers understand:
- what should be recorded;
- where records should be stored; and
- when an informal issue needs to move into a formal HR process.
Would your records tell the story?
The extension of Employment Tribunal time limits is a useful prompt for employers to look at their current HR practices.
Ask yourself:
If you received a claim several months after an employee had left, would your records allow someone who wasn’t involved at the time to understand clearly what happened and why?
If the answer depends on one manager remembering the details, searching through an inbox or finding handwritten notes in a drawer, there may be room for improvement.
Good HR records aren’t simply an administrative exercise. They help businesses manage people consistently, make better decisions and, if a dispute does arise, provide evidence of how those decisions were reached.
If you’re unsure whether your current HR processes and record-keeping would stand up to scrutiny, we can help. HR Surgery can support businesses with managing employee issues, reviewing HR processes, helping managers understand what good record-keeping looks like in practice, and introducing HR software and systems to make managing employee records simpler and more effective.
Please get in touch if you would like support.
