As of 13 August 2026, AI can create probation goals for a new employee.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open the employee's current job description, the probation policy and any team performance guidance used for comparable roles.
   2. Gather the probation length, core responsibilities, expected standards, training available, system access and dependencies that could affect the employee's work.
   3. Paste those details into the prompt and ask the chatbot to produce the probation goal plan without adding facts that are not supplied.
   4. Compare every drafted goal with the job description and probation policy, removing targets that are not part of the role or that depend on resources the employee does not have.
   5. Check that each goal has observable evidence, a realistic review point and named support, then ask the employee what clarification or support they need.
   6. Revise the plan with the employee's comments and send the final goals through the employer's normal HR or line-management process.

   Prompt

   Create a probation goal plan for this UK employee.
   
   Role: [job title]
   Team and manager: [team and manager]
   Probation length: [length]
   Main responsibilities: [paste the relevant job description or list the responsibilities]
   Expected standards: [what good performance looks like]
   Available training, systems and support: [details]
   Role-specific constraints or dependencies: [details]
   
   Produce four to six goals. For each goal, include:
   1. A plain-English objective.
   2. Specific evidence that would show satisfactory progress.
   3. A realistic review point during the probation period.
   4. What support, training or access the employee needs.
   5. Any dependency outside the employee's control.
   
   Make the goals specific, measurable where that is genuinely appropriate, and linked to the role. Do not invent targets, policies, systems, deadlines or qualifications. Do not make goals depend on unpaid overtime, personal characteristics, protected characteristics or outcomes the employee cannot control. Avoid presenting the goals as legal advice or as a final performance decision. End with a short checklist of facts the manager must confirm before sharing the plan with the employee.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.