If you run a business, this is one of those moments where it pays to pay attention. Not because you need to become an employment lawyer overnight, but because the direction of travel is clear: employers are being expected to be more organised, more deliberate and more accountable in how they manage people.
For growing businesses, the risk is rarely one dramatic legal issue. It is the slow build-up of smaller gaps: an old policy, a manager who has never been trained properly, a payroll process that has not kept up, or a people practice that worked at 10 employees but starts to creak at 40. The latest changes are another reminder that employment law is not something to revisit only when something has already gone wrong but as you go along.
Some of the biggest legal shifts have already happened. Employees gained a day-one right to request flexible working from April 2024. Carer’s Leave also came in, giving eligible employees a right to unpaid leave to support a dependant with long-term care needs. Employers have also been under a legal duty since October 2024 to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment at work. In April 2025, Neonatal Care Leave and Statutory Neonatal Care Pay were introduced for eligible parents.
Then came the next wave in April 2026. Statutory Sick Pay changed from 6 April 2026, with the Lower Earnings Limit and waiting period removed, meaning more employees qualify and SSP is payable from day one of sickness rather than after three waiting days. Day-one rights to Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave also took effect from the same date. Bereaved Partner’s Paternity Leave was introduced too, giving bereaved fathers and partners up to 52 weeks of paternity leave where the child’s mother or primary adopter dies within the first year.
Collective redundancy protection has tightened as well, where the maximum protective award doubled from 6 April 2026. Whistleblowing protection has been extended where workers report sexual harassment, and the Fair Work Agency was established on 7 April 2026 to support enforcement of workplace rights. Separately, the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage rates increased again from 1 April 2026, with the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over rising to £12.71 an hour.
More is still to come later in 2026. The government’s implementation timeline includes further changes around trade union rights, tighter tipping law, stronger anti-harassment duties and a new requirement on employers not to permit third-party harassment of employees. For customer-facing businesses in particular, that matters. Prevention, manager confidence and a clear response process will become even more important.
So what should founders and business owners do now?
Start with the basics. Review your sickness, family leave, flexible working, anti-harassment, whistleblowing and holiday policies. Check payroll is aligned with the new wage and sick pay rules. Make sure your record-keeping is up to scratch. Then look at manager capability, because a policy only works if the people applying it understand what good looks like. Guidance for employers also highlights the need to keep adequate holiday pay and entitlement records for six years.
Most of all, ask yourself where your business is still relying on habit, goodwill or “what we did last time”. That is usually where risk sits. The businesses that handle change best are not always the ones with the thickest handbook. They are the ones with current documentation, sensible processes and the right expert support around them.
Need support?
If you would like help understanding what these changes mean for your business, now is a good time to link in with our HR Services and Employment Law experts through the gighrly directory. Whether you need a policy review, practical HR support or legal guidance on more complex issues, there is expert help available to support you to not only deliver the change from a legal perspective, but to use the opportunity to make it part of your people experience.