A Line in the Sand for Workplace Cultures

This week marks a milestone for workplace rights in the UK. The Employment Rights Bill has cleared its final parliamentary hurdle and will become law in 2026. Within it sits a change that genuinely reshapes expectations of workplace culture.

For the first time, employers will have a clear, proactive legal duty to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment at work. This is a really big moment.

From reaction to prevention – finally

Until now, the legal framework has largely allowed organisations to be reactive. At LimeCulture, we’ve seen how this plays out in practice: harm happens first, then organisations scramble to respond — often poorly.

The Worker Protection Act, which came into force in October 2024, began to shift the dial by introducing a duty to take “reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment. In reality, however, we saw very little meaningful prevention activity taking place. This seemed to amount to little more than generic training delivered in isolation.

That is no longer enough.

Prevention is no longer optional.
It’s no longer a box-ticking exercise.
And it’s no longer something organisations can deal with after a problem has occurred.

It is now a legal expectation.

Why this is such a big deal

Let’s be honest about the reality this legislation responds to.

Sexual harassment remains widespread. It occurs across all sectors and at all levels of seniority. Too many people choose not to report what they experience because they fear not being believed, worry about the consequences for their career, don’t trust internal processes, or they simply don’t believe that anything will change.

This legislation reflects what we at LimeCulture have been saying for a long time: doing the bare minimum does not keep people safe. Safer workplace cultures are only achieved when employers take genuine, sustained steps to prevent harm before it happens.

At LimeCulture, we believe creating and embedding safer cultures allows organisations and the individuals within them to thrive.

Prioritising safer cultures – where expectations of behaviour are clear; inappropriate behaviours, misogynistic attitudes, harassment and abuse are not tolerated; and responses are swift, fair and embedded in an understanding of trauma, is increasingly an inherent expectation of any effective organisation.

Demonstrating a genuine and ongoing commitment to a safer culture builds trust with staff and stakeholders in the ability and effectiveness of an organisation to respond appropriately should incidents occur. And, in turn, trust in that response gives people the confidence to raise concerns, and victims/survivors of seuxal violence, harassment and abuse the confidence to seek support.

In our view, creating safer cultures requires employers to demonstrate meaningful engagement with the following principles.

What “all reasonable steps” really looks like

1. Leadership commitment, governance and accountability
Senior leaders must actively demonstrate commitment to preventing and responding to sexual harassment and abuse. They should promote respectful, inclusive cultures and hold themselves, and others, accountable for their behaviour.

2. Clear systems, policies and procedures
Organisations need clear, accessible and comprehensive policies and codes of conduct that explicitly define unacceptable behaviours, including sexual misconduct, and set out the consequences for enabling or perpetrating them.

3. Training and development
Prevention requires a tiered, organisation-wide training programme. All employees should understand how to recognise, prevent and challenge sexual harassment, and how the organisation will respond.

In addition, specialist training should be embedded for staff responsible for receiving disclosures and managing cases, ensuring responses are safe, trauma-informed and appropriate. Board members and senior leaders may also need targeted development to oversee and drive cultural change.

4. Reporting processes
Reporting mechanisms must encourage victims and witnesses to come forward. This means processes that are confidential, protect against retaliation, and provide access to immediate and ongoing support.

5. Provision of support
Organisations should foster empathetic, trauma-informed environments where individuals feel supported throughout reporting and resolution. Support should be available both to those who disclose or report concerns and to those who are subject to allegations.

6. Investigation and resolution processes
Fair, impartial and timely investigation processes are essential. These should be trauma-informed, protect the rights of all parties, and lead to meaningful consequences where misconduct is substantiated.

7. Risk governance
Clear governance arrangements should be in place to identify, manage and escalate risk in sexual misconduct and safeguarding cases. This includes risks to individuals, the wider workforce, organisational reputation, and any related criminal or disciplinary processes. Boards and senior leaders must retain oversight and be clear about the level of risk the organisation is prepared to tolerate.

8. Continuous monitoring and improvement
Safer cultures require ongoing evaluation and improvement. Organisations must regularly assess the effectiveness of their policies, procedures and training — including through workforce engagement — and address gaps when they emerge.

Not just on paper, but in practice.

Stronger protections, clearer responsibilities

The Employment Rights Bill doesn’t just modernise workers’ rights. It significantly strengthens protection from harassment:

– A higher preventative duty
Employers must take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, including harassment by third parties such as clients, customers and contractors.

– Enhanced whistleblowing protection
Disclosures relating to sexual harassment will explicitly qualify for whistleblowing protection, strengthening safeguards against detriment and unfair dismissal.

– NDAs can no longer silence victims/survivors
Non-disclosure agreements that prevent individuals from speaking about harassment or discrimination will be void, helping to break cycles of silence.

These are not symbolic tweaks. They are meaningful, structural changes.

The law may not come into force until 2026, but this should not be treated as a distant deadline. It’s an opportunity to get ahead, build trust, and create environments where people feel safe to do their best work.

For more information about the work LimeCulture does to create and embed safer cultures, get in touch.

Email: info@limeculture.co.uk
Phone: (+44) 203 633 0018
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www.limeculture.co.uk