Have you ever felt uncomfortable at work because of someone’s behaviour, or worried that a teammate might be stepping over a line? As well as harming wellbeing, these situations can also lead to serious legal, reputational and financial risk for organisations. Harassment prevention is no longer optional.

What UK Law Demands

Key legal frameworks

• Equality Act 2010: Makes harassment unlawful when it relates to a protected characteristic (age; sex; race; disability; gender reassignment; religion or belief; sexual orientation; marriage/civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity). Harassment means unwanted conduct which has the purpose or effect of violating dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.

• Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023: Effective from 26 October 2024, this introduced a new duty: employers must take reasonable steps to prevent harassment in the course of employment. This is proactive (not just reactive), and includes anticipating risk, taking action to reduce risks, and preventing recurrences.

• ‘All reasonable steps’ defence: Employers can avoid liability (or reduce it) in harassment claims if they can show they took all reasonable steps to prevent the harassment. But recent case law has made clear that the quality, timeliness, visibility and relevance of training / policies matter. Old, vague, one‑off training sessions may not suffice.

  
  

What’s at stake

• Tribunal claims and compensation: If harassment occurs, employees can take employment tribunal action. Under the new law, if an employer is found to have breached the proactive duty, compensation can be uplifted (increased) by up to 25%.

• Enforcement by EHRC: The Equality and Human Rights Commission has powers to investigate and enforce compliance.

• Reputational damage, morale and retention: Harassment harms trust in leadership, damages organisational culture, increases turnover, and reduces productivity. In many cases, those costs far outweigh the costs of training and building safe systems.

• Legal liability for third-party harassment: The law now expects reasonable steps even to prevent harassment by third parties (customers, clients, suppliers) in many situations. Failure to do so may result in claims or enforcement consequences.

  
  

Why Companies Need to Take It Seriously

It’s not just about avoiding lawsuits. A strong harassment prevention approach can:

• help create psychological safety so all employees can perform to their potential;

• strengthen employer brand: people want to work for organisations that treat their teams with dignity;

• reduce absenteeism, turnover, mental health costs; and

• avoid costly investigations, legal fees, compensation, and the disruption those bring.

  
  

How You Might Structure a Harassment Prevention Course at Work

An effective workplace course on harassment prevention needs more than just a policy PDF and a PowerPoint. It should be interactive, engaging and tailored to the realities your employees face. Here’s a structure we recommend:

1. Start with an animated explainer

Open with a short, animated video that captures attention. It should show what the law says, explain why this matters to your organisation, and include real-world examples of how and where things can go wrong. The tone? Clear and human.

2. Introduce the legal foundations

Next, walk learners through the legal definitions under the Equality Act and the new proactive duty introduced in 2024. Make it interactive with quizzes or click-to-reveal content to help cement understanding.

3. Explore what the law means in practice

Outline what’s expected of all employees, especially managers and HR. This includes: identifying risky situations, knowing how to report concerns, taking action when harassment is witnessed, and understanding third-party risk. Make your own policies and procedures easy to access here.

4. Use case studies to build confidence

Bring in interactive, scenario-based learning. Learners are presented with realistic workplace situations and asked what they’d do next. Would they escalate it? Ignore it? Speak to the person directly? They see the outcomes and consequences of their choices, helping them understand their role in prevention.

5. Make it about culture, not just compliance

Finish by reinforcing that prevention is everyone’s job. Share what your leadership is doing, encourage allyship, and make sure people know what ongoing support is available. Set expectations for behaviour but also create a space where it’s genuinely safe to speak up.

Tips for Making Your Training Effective

• Keep it fresh and current: once‑only training or using old material can leave you exposed.

• Use real‑life examples relevant to your organisation / sector.

• Make it interactive, not just slides + lecture.

• Have visible leadership buy‑in: senior leaders speaking about it, behaving accordingly.

• Clear, safe reporting channels and follow‑through; people need to believe it’s safe to speak up.

  
  

Final Thoughts

Harassment prevention is now embedded in UK law. It’s not just something organisations react to, but something they must anticipate and actively work to prevent. Getting behind this law is both a risk mitigation measure and an opportunity: to build trust, to improve culture, to retain talent. A well-designed training programme helps everyone understand, comply, and contribute to a safe workplace.

If you'd like help designing a harassment prevention training course tailored to your organisation, Popcorn Learning Agency are always happy to talk about options.