Businesses should act now to ensure compliance with the reforms coming into force in October, says Jonathan Shevlane

Identify what the following measures have in common:

• A pre-recorded message to customers calling an insurance company advisory line on respecting employees.
• A buddying-up policy for waiting staff leaving isolated rural restaurants or pubs late at night.
• A protocol for the situations when withholding hospital care may be appropriate in response to sexually harassing conduct from patients or family members.

These are all examples of the sorts of measures organisations have been considering and introducing since the employer duty to take reasonable steps to prevent the sexual harassment of their employees came into force in October 2024 (the preventative duty).

Many organisations moved quickly, using Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) guidance to inform their approach. The guidance identified steps employers should take to comply with the duty, including:

• an effective anti-harassment policy with clear reporting mechanisms;
• detailed, focused and employer-specific training;
• a thorough workplace sexual harassment risk assessment reflecting the particular working environment;
• consultation with staff to understand workplace-specific risks and, where possible, conducting open discussions on how to address them; and
• monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of these actions.

A notable feature of the guidance was the expectation that employers should...

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