Notice period

What is Notice period?

A notice period is the length of time an employee or employer must give before ending an employment contract, running from the resignation or dismissal date to the employee's last working day.

Length is usually set by contract or by law, often scaling with how long someone has worked there - a new hire might owe a week, someone with ten years' service could owe two or three months. Probation periods typically carry a shorter notice period than the standard contract, which is one reason the two get confused.

What happens during notice varies: some employees keep working as normal, some are placed on garden leave and told to stay away, and some agree to leave immediately with pay in lieu of notice. Getting the end date and status right matters for payroll, access, and the final leave balance, all at once.

Related terms

• Probation period
• Garden leave
• Offboarding

See also

• HREvio vs Personio