This April’s compliance workload may be a little heavier than usual for HR professionals, as this year’s raft of updates brings with it additional measures introduced under the Employment Rights Act 2025.
These coincide with the usual changes that come in every April, including increases to the national minimum wage and gender pay gap reporting obligations for employers with 250 or more staff.
Ben Willmott, head of public policy at the CIPD, points out that employers will have to “devote significant time and resource to comply with the changes coming into force” next week.
“They will need to ensure they update HR policies to align with new laws, communicate them clearly to staff and ensure line managers are aware of any new obligations they might face as a result of the changes,” he says. “Organisations should also ensure they understand the impact of new rules on other aspects of people management.”
Alongside the detail of the legislation and the policy or system tweaks that will be required to support this, how else should HR departments prepare for the changes coming up in April?
From 6 April, the ERA will ensure that employees who speak up about sexual harassment will benefit from whistleblowing protections against detriment and unfair dismissal.
Previously, sexual harassment was not on the list of wrongdoings that could be the subject of a protected disclosure. Changes to the law could encourage more workers to share reports of sexual...
Welcome to Reality Check, NewsGuard’s nonpartisan newsletter that tracks the false claims and conspiracy theories that shape our world — and who’s behind them. Please support us by becoming a premi...