The government’s plans to reform the employment tribunal system is unlikely to make employers more likely to recruit, a survey has shown.

The planned reforms are designed to reduce red tape in an effort to encourage businesses to take on more staff, and include increasing the period of employment an employee must serve before being able to claim for unfair dismissal from one year to two.

The survey, conducted by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s official magazine People Management, showed that only 8 per cent of employers thought that these reforms would encourage them to hire more people. Instead, employers preferred financial incentives such as extra funding for apprenticeships or internships, or tax breaks such as reforms to National Insurance, rating them much more highly as incentives to increase recruitment.

“Many HR professionals support the proposed reforms to the tribunal system, but it seems that the link between these changes and recruitment is tenuous to say the least,” said PM’s news editor James Brockett.