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Read moreGovernance and Employment Risk Review
The Employment Rights Act 2025 (formerly the Employment Rights Bill) received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025, with most changes expected to take effect across 2026 and 2027. For employers, this brings increased expectations around fairness, transparency, and how employment practices operate in reality.
An Employment Rights Act 2025 Readiness Audit helps you understand where your business stands now, and what needs to change ahead of the 2026-2027 reforms.
Are your contracts, policies, and procedures ready for the new legislation?
Are managers applying HR processes consistently and fairly?
Do day-to-day practices reflect what your policies say on paper?
Do you know where genuine risk exists — and where it doesn’t?
Preparing for the Employment Rights Act 2025
Why every employer should review their compliance now
The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduced phased changes, with key measures expected during 2026 and 2027. It is expected to bring one of the most significant shifts in employment law in recent years. While final details are still emerging, the direction of travel is clear: greater worker protection, clearer rights, and increased accountability for employers.
For many organisations, the biggest risk is assuming existing policies and practices will be “close enough”. Even minor gaps in compliance can lead to costly disputes, reputational harm, and operational disruption.
This is the ideal time to review your employment framework and confirm that your business is genuinely ready.
What’s involed in the Governance and Employment Risk Review
The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduced the most significant workplace reforms in over a decade. Our Governance and Employment Risk Review helps employers get ahead of these changes by identifying what needs to be updated, strengthened, or better embedded ahead of the 2026-2027 reforms.
This audit does not simply check whether paperwork exists. It assesses whether your contracts, policies, and procedures are current, defensible, and ready for the next wave of employment law reform. We review documentation for both compliance and future readiness, highlighting areas that will need adjustment under the Act.
However, documentation alone is not enough.
We go beyond the written word to assess how policies are actually lived day to day. This includes reviewing how consistently managers apply procedures, how well employees are informed and consulted, and whether the fairness and transparency expected by the new legislation exist in practice.
The audit provides clear, evidence-based conclusions about how ready your business is for the Employment Rights Act 2025, alongside prioritised actions. This gives you confidence that both your policies and your people are aligned with the forthcoming reforms — and that your business is genuinely prepared, protected, and ready to thrive under the new employment landscape.
MAD-HR Employment Rights Act 2025 Compliance Services
No two businesses face the same risks or challenges. That’s why we offer two Employment Rights Act 2025 compliance review options, so you can choose the level of depth and support that’s right for your organisation.
Governance and Employment Risk Review
Price: from £999 + VAT
As employment law evolves and organisations grow, governance and people risk can quickly move from operational concern to strategic exposure.
Our Governance and Employment Risk Review provides an independent, structured assessment of your governance framework, employment compliance position and leadership risk. It is designed to give business owners and directors clarity on whether their organisation is compliant, defensible, and ready to scale.
This is not simply a document check. It is an assurance exercise that examines how decisions are made, how authority operates in practice and whether your employment framework would withstand external scrutiny.
We assess key areas including:
- Governance and decision-making structure
- Director and fiduciary exposure
- Employment contracts and ERA readiness
- Policy robustness and procedural defensibility
- Leadership capability and management consistency
- Change and growth risk
Using a clear risk-rating framework, we provide a consolidated Governance and Employment Risk Profile, highlighting immediate priorities, systemic weaknesses, and areas of assurance.
You receive practical, prioritised recommendations and a clear view of your organisation’s ability to deliver strategy safely and recommendations for next steps.
The outcome is clarity, control and confidence enabling informed leadership decisions rather than reactive compliance fixes.
Take the next step
The Employment Rights Act 2025 changes are approaching quickly. Reviewing compliance now puts you in control and allows change at a manageable pace.
If you’d like us to audit your current practices and guide you through the upcoming changes, we’re here to help. Fill in our quick contact form to arrange a call back, or book a discovery call using the button below.
ERB Enquiries
Why compliance matters
A proactive compliance review helps your business to:
- Stay ahead of new legal responsibilities and avoid last-minute changes
- Reduce the risk of claims, grievances, and financial penalties
- Strengthen trust with employees through fair and transparent practices
- Improve recruitment and retention
- Ensure HR policies, contracts, and procedures are fit for purpose and future-proof
For SMEs in particular, preparation is not just about legal protection — it supports a stable, engaged workforce and avoids unnecessary time and cost later.
Likely areas affected by the Employment Rights Act 2025
While final legislation will confirm the detail, employers should expect changes across areas such as:
- Day-one rights for key employment entitlements
- Flexible working reforms
- Protections for insecure or atypical workers
- Family-friendly rights and leave
- Predictable working patterns and transparency
- Potential changes to dismissal and redundancy processes
Understanding how these changes interact with your current framework is essential to staying compliant.
How an Employment Rights Audit from MAD-HR helps
Our audit provides a clear, practical view of where your business stands today — and what needs to change ahead of the 2026-2027 changes.
What we assess
- Employment contracts and terms
- HR policies and handbooks
- Working time and scheduling arrangements
- Family-friendly and flexible working processes
- Dismissal, disciplinary, and grievance procedures
- Record-keeping and documentation
- Line-manager practices and decision-making
- Risks specific to your sector or workforce model
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