TL;DR
- The employee lifecycle is useful only when each stage is attached to something fixed. Before an offer, Equality Act 2010 section 60 says an employer must not ask about an applicant's health, with six narrow exceptions. The written statement of particulars must be given not later than the beginning of the employment under Employment Rights Act 1996 section 1.
- Induction is not optional goodwill. Regulation 13 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires adequate health and safety training on being recruited, and says it must take place during working hours. A change to pay or hours needs written notice at the earliest opportunity and in any event not later than one month after the change, under section 4.
- On the way out, statutory notice under section 86 is one week under two years' service, one week per year from two years, and twelve weeks at twelve years or more. After exit there is no single statutory retention period: the ICO states that data protection law does not set specific time limits for how long you can keep your workers' personal information.
Search for the employee lifecycle and you get a wheel with five arrows on it and words like "engage", "align" and "optimise" around the rim. Nothing in the wheel tells you what to do on Monday, or which parts are your choice and which are already decided by law.
This article names eight stages and hangs each one on the thing that is fixed at that point: a duty you owe, a document you owe, or a record you have to produce. The stage names are a convenience. The duties are not. This is general information about the position in the United Kingdom and is not legal advice.
Each stage leaves a record, and the records have to find each other later. See how New Dynamics workflows run your own stages with owners, reminders and a completion view, so an induction sign-off or a contract change is a record rather than a memory.
What the employee lifecycle is, and what it is not
The employee lifecycle is the sequence of relationships between a person and an employer, from the first sight of a job advert to the deletion of the last record about them. Some models call it the employee journey, or hire to retire.
It is not a legal framework. No statute sets out stages. What exists is a scattered set of duties that land at predictable points, and the value of the model is that it stops you discovering a duty three weeks after it applied. For who does this work, see our post on what HR management is.
One warning. No official UK source publishes how long a lifecycle stage typically takes, or what a normal time to hire or time to productivity looks like. Figures of that kind come from vendor surveys of self-selected customers, not a statistical authority, so none appear here. Every figure below is attributed and dated. Our HR statistics hub collects the ones that are published.
Stage 1: attraction and selection
The fixed thing here is what you may not ask.
Section 60 of the Equality Act 2010 provides that a person to whom an application for work is made "must not ask about the health of the applicant" before offering work, or before including the applicant in a pool from which a selection will be made. Read section 60 in full, because subsection (6) permits a health question for six narrow purposes, including establishing whether the applicant can carry out a function intrinsic to the work, and monitoring diversity.
Two consequences follow. Sickness absence questions belong on a post-offer form. And a blanket "do you have any medical conditions?" box on a web form is the commonest way a small employer breaches section 60 without noticing.
Stage 2: hiring, the right to work check and the written statement
Two obligations collide in the same week, with different deadlines.
The right to work check comes before employment. GOV.UK states: "You must check that a job applicant is allowed to work for you in the UK before you employ them." The same page adds, "You must not discriminate against anyone because of where they're from", which rules out checking only the candidates whose names prompted the thought. There are three routes: an online check using a share code, original documents, or an identity service provider. British and Irish citizens cannot get a share code, which our post on the share code right to work check explains. GOV.UK puts the consequence of skipping the check at a "civil penalty (fine) of up to £60,000 for each illegal worker", with a statutory excuse if you can show you made the correct checks.
The written statement comes no later than day one. Section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 requires a written statement of particulars, and since April 2020 subsection (2) requires the main particulars to be "included in a single document" and the statement to be "given not later than the beginning of the employment." Not within two months, as the old rule had it.
The list in section 1(3) and 1(4) is longer than many templates. Alongside pay, hours, holiday, sick pay, pension and notice, subsection (4)(ga) requires "any probationary period, including any conditions and its duration", and subsections (4)(l) to (n) require any training entitlement, the part of it the employer requires the worker to complete, and any other required training whose cost the employer will not bear. Check your template against section 1, not against last year's template. Our post on the employment contract covers the document itself.
Stage 3: induction
The fixed thing at induction is health and safety training, and it is a regulation rather than a nice idea.
Regulation 13 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires every employer to ensure employees "are provided with adequate health and safety training on their being recruited into the employer's undertaking", and again on exposure to new or increased risks through a transfer, a change of responsibilities, new equipment, new technology or a new system of work. Paragraph (3) adds three things that are easy to miss: the training shall "be repeated periodically where appropriate", be adapted to changed risks, and "take place during working hours". Read regulation 13 as made.
The induction record therefore has to show what was covered and when, and be refreshed when the job changes, not only when the person is new. The rest of a first week is yours to design, and we cover it separately: the employee onboarding process, the practical onboarding checklist, the onboarding check-ins that follow, and the probation review meeting that closes the probationary period your section 1 statement had to describe.
Stage 4: development and performance
This stage has the least statutory structure, and pretending otherwise is how lifecycle writing goes vague.
There is no UK duty to appraise anyone, to rate anyone, or to review at any frequency. What is fixed is narrower. Any training entitlement you promised in the section 1 statement is now a contractual particular, so withdrawing it triggers stage 5. Regulation 13 applies again whenever responsibilities change, so a promotion is a health and safety training event as well as a pay event. And once underperformance becomes formal, the Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures governs the process, and an employment tribunal takes it into account.
Our post on performance reviews covers running the cycle. The lifecycle point is that the review record is what you will need at stage 7, and a review history that stops two years before a dismissal is a problem created here.
Stage 5: pay changes, promotions and any change to the particulars
The fixed thing is the deadline for telling someone in writing.
Section 4 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 provides that where there is a change in any matter section 1 required in the statement, the employer "shall give to the worker a written statement containing particulars of the change", and that it "shall be given at the earliest opportunity and, in any event, not later than one month after the change in question". There is an earlier deadline where the change results from a requirement to work outside the United Kingdom for more than a month: the statement is due by the time the worker leaves. See section 4.
One month after the change, not one month after you remembered. It applies to a pay rise, a change in hours, a new job title, a different place of work and a changed notice period, not only to a cut.
Stage 6: absence and leave
Here the fixed things are entitlements, and they are floors rather than defaults.
GOV.UK states that almost all workers are legally entitled to "5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year", which for someone working five days a week is "28 days' paid annual leave a year", and that the statutory entitlement is capped at 28 days however many days a week someone works. Bank holidays do not have to be given as paid leave. See holiday entitlement rights.
For sickness, GOV.UK stated on 6 November 2026 that an eligible employee gets "£123.25 a week Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) or 80% of your normal weekly earnings", whichever is lower, "paid for up to 28 weeks". Rates change each April, so check the Statutory Sick Pay page rather than a copy of it.
The obligation here is practical: absence dates in one place, or holiday pay, SSP and accrual cannot be calculated correctly. Our posts on absence management and leave of absence cover the policy side.
Stage 7: exit
Three things are fixed, and they are often confused with each other.
Notice. Section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 sets the minimum for someone continuously employed for one month or more: "not less than one week's notice" where continuous employment is under two years, "not less than one week's notice for each year" from two years up to twelve, and "not less than twelve weeks' notice" at twelve years or more. Notice from the employee is "not less than one week". A contract may give more, not less. See section 86.
Written reasons for dismissal. Section 92 gives an employee the right to a written statement of the reasons for dismissal, "only if he makes a request for one", "provided within fourteen days of such a request", and normally only after two years' continuous service. An employee dismissed while pregnant, or where maternity or adoption leave ends by reason of the dismissal, is entitled to it without a request and whatever their length of service. The statement "is admissible in evidence in any proceedings". See section 92.
Final pay. Acas states that "A worker should get their final pay on the date they are normally paid", and that it will often differ from usual pay because of untaken or overtaken holiday, training-cost deductions, redundancy pay or notice not worked. The payslip should make clear what each payment and deduction is for. See the Acas guidance on final pay when someone leaves a job.
Our posts on employee offboarding and exit interview questions cover running the leaving process.
Stage 8: after exit, and how long records may be kept
There is no single statutory retention period for most HR records, and anyone who gives you one number is giving you their policy, not the law.
The Information Commissioner's Office says so directly in its employment records guidance: "Data protection law does not set specific time limits for how long you can keep your workers' personal information. This is up to you, and will depend on how long you need the information for your particular purposes." Its advice is to set standard periods by category, factor in other obligations such as income tax and health and safety, explain why each period is justified, and review them. See the ICO on collecting and keeping employment records and on storage limitation, which notes that published retention schedules from sector bodies "do not guarantee compliance".
So stage 8 is a decision you make and write down, per category, with a reason. Our post on employee records retention works through the categories and the obligations that do set a period.
Frequently asked questions
What is the employee lifecycle?
The employee lifecycle is the sequence of stages in the relationship between a person and an employer, from first seeing a job advert to the deletion of the last record about them. It is a planning model, not a legal framework, but specific duties attach at predictable points in it.
What are the stages of the employee lifecycle?
Models vary between five and eight stages. This article uses eight because each carries a distinct UK duty or record: attraction and selection, hiring, induction, development and performance, pay and contract changes, absence and leave, exit, and retention after exit. Any grouping works if no duty falls between two stages.
When must a UK employee be given a written statement of particulars?
Section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 requires the main particulars in a single document given "not later than the beginning of the employment". The older rule allowing two months no longer applies to the principal particulars.
Can an employer ask about health or sickness absence during recruitment?
Not before an offer, in most cases. Section 60 of the Equality Act 2010 prohibits asking about an applicant's health before offering work, or before including them in a pool from which a selection will be made. Subsection (6) permits questions for six specific purposes, including whether the applicant can carry out a function intrinsic to the work.
How much notice must a UK employer give?
Section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 sets the minimum at one week for continuous employment under two years, one week for each year from two years up to twelve, and twelve weeks at twelve years or more. The employee's minimum is one week. A contract can improve on these figures but not reduce them.
How long can HR records be kept after someone leaves?
There is no single statutory period for most HR records. The ICO states that data protection law does not set specific time limits, that it is up to the employer, and that it depends on how long the information is needed for the stated purposes. Set a period per category, record why, and review it. Some records do have a fixed period set by tax or health and safety rules.
Your next step: find the gap in your own lifecycle
- Put one recent starter's records beside one recent leaver's. You are looking for the eight items above, not for a tidy file.
- Check the application form for any health or sickness question sitting before the offer. If one exists, move it to a post-offer form today.
- Compare your offer pack with section 1(4). Probationary period, training entitlement and required training at the worker's own cost are the particulars most often missing.
- Check the date of your last three pay or hours changes against the date written confirmation went out. Section 4 gives you one month from the change.
- Write down, per category of record, how long you keep it and why. That document is your answer to a subject access request.
For the function around all of this, read and download our HR management guide. The guide is free to read, and the PDF uses our short download form.
Want each stage to leave a record you can find later rather than one you reconstruct? Book a New Dynamics demo and bring your current offer pack. You can also email contact@new-dynamics.com.
