What Employers Need to Know About the Employment Rights Act and Workplace Inclusion
The Employment Rights Act represents significant changes to employment law. It will have a significant impact on HR, Leaders and workplaces. It strengthens protections in areas including unfair dismissal, zero-hours contracts, statutory sick pay, family leave, and workplace and third-party harassment.
Whilst much of the focus has been on compliance, there’s also a wider issue around how it can better support a more inclusive workplace where everyone feels safe, respected and supported.
It means ensuring employees understand their rights, managers feel confident applying policies fairly and consistently, and organisations are taking a proactive approach to building workplaces that genuinely work for everyone.
Because ultimately, this is not just about compliance, it’s about how fairness, consistency and inclusion show up in practice across the employee lifecycle.
And when we get this right, it improves employee experience, psychological safety at work and supports a more inclusive workplace culture.
So where do you start?
What HR Leaders should be thinking about now
With many of the changes being phased in over this year and next, organisations are likely to be reviewing and updating key HR policies and processes. through an inclusion lens.
Use this as an opportunity to look beyond what's written in your policies and consider how decisions are being applied in practice.
Things to think about:
Are recruitment, promotion and performance decisions being applied fairly and consistently using structured criteria?
Could different managers interpret policies differently?
Are expectations and processes transparent and well understood?
What data are you gathering and reviewing to identify patterns or inconsistencies in outcomes?
From an inclusion perspective, inconsistency is often where perceptions of unfairness emerge, even when intentions are positive.
Supporting managers to respond confidently
Policies alone do not build fairer workplaces. Manager behaviour and confidence play a significant role in how policies are experienced day to day.
As changes are introduced under the Act, managers need to feel equipped to apply processes consistently, communicate clearly, and manage sensitive conversations confidently.
Things to consider:
Do managers feel confident handling conversations around performance, change, absence or inappropriate behaviour?
Is there clarity around what good practice looks like?
Are managers receiving regular communication, guidance and training to support consistent decision-making and how policies are applied?
This is often less about understanding what the law says and more about confidence, judgement and consistency in practice.
Employee engagement and trust
Periods of change can increase uncertainty, which in turn can affect trust and confidence in organisational processes.
Create opportunities for employee feedback as well as how the organisation document, track and act on what that information is telling them.
Things to consider:
Do employees feel safe raising concerns or sharing feedback?
Are concerns followed up consistently and transparently?
What data are you reviewing to understand how decisions and behaviours are affecting different groups?
Are there patterns in recruitment, progression, disciplinary action or employee relations outcomes that require further attention?
Well equipped organisations don't just collect data, they use it to identify gaps, improve consistency and strengthen accountability.
Supporting your next steps
If you are reviewing your policies, processes or management capability in light of upcoming changes, our Inclusion Health Check diagnostic is designed to help organisations identify gaps, strengthen consistency, and build confidence and capability in implementation.
If you would like to explore this further, feel free to get in touch by booking in a call.
