Preventing Sexual
Harassment at Work
eLearning Course
Practical learning. Proactive prevention.
Real-world learning to build awareness, confidence and safer workplace behaviours.
Essential workplace
sexual harassment training
Employers have a legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, with the Employment Rights Act 2025 strengthening this to an ‘all reasonable steps’ requirement from 30 October 2026.
Tribunals can increase compensation by up to 25% where employers fail to meet their duty to prevent sexual harassment.
This practical 20-minute course helps employees understand what sexual harassment is, how it can affect people at work, and how to respond, report concerns and recognise when issues need to be escalated.
Sexual harassment in the workplace:
A widespread issue
Sexual harassment in UK workplaces remains a significant issue, even with the introduction of new legal duties. A Unite survey of 300,000 workers found that 30% had experienced sexual harassment and HR Grapevine reported that more than 60% of organisations still haven’t invested in sexual harassment training.
With the legal duty strengthening from October 2026, organisations need to make sure employees understand what sexual harassment is, how to respond and how to raise concerns.
Our course helps your organisation to:
- Increase understanding of what constitutes sexual harassment at work.
- Help employees understand the impact of sexual harassment and why intent does not outweigh effect.
- Give individuals clear guidance on how to respond, speak up and raise concerns.
- Reinforce learning through practical, real-world scenarios.
- Support a proactive approach to preventing sexual harassment across your workforce.
What we cover
What is sexual harassment?
Understanding sexual harassment – what it is, its impact and why behaviour can be sexual harassment even when it wasn't intended to cause offence.
The legal definition – understanding the legal test and why the effect of behaviour matters.
Spotting behaviours – recognising inappropriate behaviour, from unwanted advances and sexual comments to invasions of personal space.
Responding to inappropriate behaviour
Respond in the moment – practical ways to respond when inappropriate behaviour is directed at you or someone else.
Speak up and report – understanding how to raise concerns and follow the appropriate reporting routes.
Progressing concerns and delivering outcomes
Raising concerns – understanding what can happen when an issue is reported and when concerns may need to be escalated.
Escalation and outcomes – understanding formal processes and possible outcomes when concerns progress.
On-demand eLearning Walkthrough
Watch our on-demand walkthrough of Preventing Sexual Harassment at Work. The session shows how the course supports awareness and prevention as employers prepare for the strengthened legal duty to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.
In just 40 minutes, our employment law group experts, Charlie McHugh and Rena Christou, explain how the course helps build understanding of what amounts to sexual harassment, gives employees clear routes to speak up and uses practical, real-world scenarios to test learning.
They also cover how the training can support your wider approach to prevention and help demonstrate that employees have received relevant training.
Additional Courses
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Protect your business without compromising what makes the workplace great
Understand where humour ends and harassment begins.
Learn the law, what’s protected, and how intent vs impact matters.
Practical guidance on calling out concerns, supporting others, and handling inappropriate behaviour.
FAQs
How will the Employment Rights Act extend employer sexual harassment duties?
The Employment Rights Act 2025 strengthens employer duties around sexual harassment in several ways:
- Higher standard of prevention: From 30 October 2026, employers will need to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment, rather than “reasonable steps”. What constitutes reasonable steps will depend on the organisation and its circumstances.
- Third-party harassment: From 30 October 2026, employers will have a new duty not to permit harassment of employees by third parties, such as customers or clients, where they have failed to take all reasonable steps to prevent it. This provision covers all forms of harassment under the Equality Act 2010, not just sexual harassment.
- Whistleblowing protection: Since 6 April 2026, sexual harassment has been a qualifying disclosure under whistleblowing law. Workers who make a qualifying disclosure can have protection from detriment and, where applicable, unfair dismissal.
- Confidentiality clauses: The Act makes contractual provisions void where they seek to prevent workers from making allegations or disclosures about relevant harassment or discrimination, including an employer's response to such allegations or disclosures.
Is there a recommended risk assessment template for sexual harassment?
Yes. Our group employment law experts have developed a risk assessment template to help employers assess and address the risks of sexual harassment in the workplace.
If you'd like to discuss access to the template, get in touch with us.
Are employers required to provide sexual harassment training?
No, employers are not currently subject to a standalone legal requirement to provide sexual harassment training. However, they have a legal duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, which will strengthen to “all reasonable steps” from 30 October 2026.
Acas recommends training everyone who works for an organisation on recognising and understanding sexual harassment, as well as training managers on how to assess and manage risks. From 30 October 2026, employers will need to provide training that is suited to their organisation as part of their wider preventative approach.
Training is one part of a broader approach to prevention, alongside risk assessment, appropriate policies, clear reporting routes and creating a culture where sexual harassment is not tolerated.
How often should sexual harassment training be conducted?
Sexual harassment training should be an ongoing part of your organisation's approach to prevention, rather than a one-off exercise. The right frequency will depend on your organisation, its risks and any changes to legislation, policies or the working environment.
Keep training current: Review training regularly to make sure it reflects current legislation, organisational policies and the risks your people may face.
Refresh learning: Regular refresher training can help reinforce expectations, keep reporting routes clear and maintain awareness over time.
Respond to change: Consider additional or refreshed training following changes to the law, policies, working practices or risks, or where incidents highlight a need for further learning.
The Allay (UK) Ltd v Gehlen case also highlighted the importance of effective, up-to-date training. In that case, the Employment Appeal Tribunal found that previous anti-harassment training had become “stale” and could not be relied on as an effective preventative measure.