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Waiting for a complaint will no longer be enough. Employers must show they acted in advance. The Equality and Human Rights Commission can enforce the preventative duty directly, even before an incident occurs. Where an employer is found not to have taken reasonable steps, tribunals can increase compensation awards by up to 25% — and there is no cap on awards for harassment.

The EHRC's 8-Step Technical Guidance names comprehensive, role-specific training as one of the primary metrics tribunals will use to assess whether an employer has satisfied the "all reasonable steps" standard. A signed attendance log or a passive click-through module will not be enough. Tribunals look for documented, interactive, content-current training that demonstrably changed behaviour.

Beyond the legal exposure, unaddressed harassment drives absence, turnover and reputational damage. A small, documented training investment now is far cheaper than the alternative.

The landmark Tesfagiorgis v Aspinalls Club Ltd case established that commercial deference to a client's behaviour can never override an employer's duty to protect staff. The tribunal rejected the defence that challenging client conduct would have been commercially damaging. Employment tribunals apply the same logic across all sectors: the client relationship does not supersede the employer's duty of care.

Practical steps required under the October 2026 duty include documented protocols for lone-worker client interactions, clear escalation routes for staff who experience third-party harassment, and training that explicitly covers how to recognise and respond to inappropriate behaviour from clients — not just colleagues.

Emblem Training Solutions designs high-quality, bespoke eLearning built around real workplace scenarios. Their courses are scenario-led — not a generic slideshow with a quiz bolted on. Learners make decisions inside realistic situations, which is what actually changes behaviour and stands up as meaningful training if you are ever asked to evidence it.

Emblem's sexual harassment prevention courses are designed and built in-house, accuracy-checked against current UK law, and available with your own branding for team rollouts. Each course issues a CPD-accredited certificate on completion, providing the audit trail tribunals require.