READING, England — Oct. 26, 2026 — From Oct. 30, 2026, UK employers must take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their staff. HR software provider Ciphr has updated its sexual harassment e-learning course to reflect the change, and the full course is available to employers as a free trial.
Since October 2024, employers have had a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. The Employment Rights Act 2025 raises that bar. Acas says employers will need to take every step that’s reasonable for their organization and focus on prevention rather than only responding to incidents. Those steps also need to apply across the whole organization, covering online harassment as well as in-person incidents.
Employers also take on new responsibility for harassment by third parties. If a customer, client or contractor harasses a worker, the employer can be liable unless it took all reasonable steps to prevent it. This applies to harassment related to any protected characteristic, not just sexual harassment. Where a tribunal upholds a sexual harassment claim and finds the employer breached its prevention duty, compensation can be increased by up to 25%.
Government regulations setting out what “reasonable steps” should include aren’t expected until 2027. In the meantime, it is recommended that employers review their policies, strengthen their procedures for reporting and handling complaints, give staff multiple ways to report concerns and train employees on the nature of sexual harassment and their rights and responsibilities at work. A dated record of who completed training, and when, is one of the clearest ways to show prevention in practice.
“Most people already know harassment is wrong. The new duty asks a harder question: did your organisation do everything reasonable to stop it? Training everyone, and being able to show who’s completed it, is one of the clearest answers an employer can give,” said Toby Gilchrist, head of eLearning content at Ciphr.
The course takes about 20 minutes and covers:
- The legal context, updated for October 2026, including a new scenario and knowledge check on third-party harassment
- What counts as sexual harassment, including myths about “banter” and one-off incidents
- The impact on people and organizations
- What to do if you experience or witness harassment
- A final assessment and CPD certificate
Organizations can host the course on Ciphr’s learning management system (LMS). Because the LMS connects with Ciphr HR, completions and certificates sit in the same employee record. Sector-specific and bespoke versions are also available.
Ciphr offers a comprehensive range of off-the-shelf e-learning content and microlearning courses. It has delivered diversity and inclusion training for more than 20 years, reaching more than 2 million learners worldwide.
Try the full course now: www.ciphr.com/elearning-courses/sexual-harassment.
Ciphr is a UK HR and payroll software company that builds solutions for UK HR and payroll teams at organizations with 200-2,000 employees. Its connected platform brings HR, payroll, recruitment, learning and benefits together, so HR, L&D and payroll teams get one accurate source of data instead of disconnected systems that don’t talk to each other. Ciphr is designed around UK legislation and compliance changes, provides expert implementation and ongoing customer support and is trusted by more than 1,400 organizations.
About Ciphr
Ciphr is the go-to HR and payroll software and solutions partner for medium and large organizations in the UK. Its integrated HR, payroll, benefits, learning and recruitment software, services and content provide invaluable insights to HR teams, helping to inform their people strategy and grow and develop their organizations. Ciphr is on a mission to amplify the voice and value of HR through intelligent people data solutions that help HR be heard — in the boardroom and across the business.
The Ciphr Group is a privately held company backed by ECI Partners and headquartered in Reading. More than 200 employees work across the group, which includes Ciphr and FlexGenius, as well as its previous acquisition Marshall E-Learning (now known as Ciphr eLearning).
