Review how you hire, develop, pay and progress people, showing where fairness gaps are costing you talent and if the Employment Rights Act are creating legal exposure.
Most organisations lose good people long before anyone files a complaint. Hiring draws from too narrow a pool, progression stalls for the same groups year after year, managers handle sensitive conversations they were never trained for, and pay decisions get made informally.
Each is expensive on its own, but together they set the true cost of your employee experience and from January 2027, the legal exposure attached to getting it wrong becomes uncapped.
£30k+
Average cost of replacing one employee earning over £25,000, before senior-level uplift.
Oxford Economics
£51bn
Annual cost of poor mental health to UK employers, with presenteeism the largest single driver at £24bn.
Deloitte, 2024
5.7 days
Average training per employee per year (the lowest level recorded)
DfE Employee Skills Survey, 2024
Cost to the organisation
Replacing one employee costs upwards of £30k once recruitment, induction, lost productivity and team disruption are counted, and considerably more at senior level.
Poor mental health costs UK employers £51bn a year, with presenteeism the largest component at £24bn. Deloitte puts the return on wellbeing investment at £4.70 for every £1 spent.
Discrimination claims (involving race, disability, sex and unlawful pay discrimination) are uncapped at tribunal, and disability discrimination claims rose 79% year-on-year in the most recent Ministry of Justice figures.
From 1 January 2027 the compensatory cap on ordinary unfair dismissal will be removed entirely.
What could improve?
Hiring and early experience
• Talent pipelines drawn from too narrow a pool – by geography, background, education or network – limiting the range of diverse thinking available and leaving skills gaps unaddressed
• Hiring processes are not typically designed for disabled or neurodivergent candidates, losing capable people before they start
• New starters leaving within 6-12 months because expectations were not set and induction was not thorough enough
• Probation handled informally and inconsistently, which becomes a live risk when the unfair dismissal qualifying period drops to six months in January 2027
Progression, pay and fairness
• Ethnicity, disability and gender progression gaps that are reported but not diagnosed – the numbers get published but the causes never get understood or acted on
• Appraisal shaped by proximity and visibility rather than contribution, disadvantaging part-time, flexible and remote workers
• Pay decisions made informally are hard to defend when challenged and easy to read as discriminatory
• A pipeline that looks diverse at entry level and narrows at every grade above it, with no explanation and no action plan to change it
Development, wellbeing and inclusion
• Managers without the skills or confidence to have more sensitive conversations: disclosures, misconduct, mental health, reasonable adjustments
• Harassment and disrespectful behaviour going unreported because people do not believe anything will change
• Wellbeing initiatives that sit above the real working conditions rather than addressing them
• DE&I run as a set of activities rather than a strategy – no metrics, no owner, and no line drawn to business performance
Start with the questions that impact your workforce most
Most organisations start with one experience and find it opens up the others. We scope around your most pressing findings and tell you honestly where the evidence points next.
How can Energise help
Fair hiring and onboarding review | How you attract, shortlist, select and induct people, and where bias, inconsistency or legal risk has crept in. Includes probation design programmes ahead of the January 2027 change.
Progression equity audit | A data-led analysis of who progresses across gender, ethnicity, disability and caring status, identifying where the progression opportunities narrow and why.
Pay equity and transparency | Statistical pay gap analysis with root-cause diagnosis, plus pay banding, job levelling and a remediation roadmap that goes beyond disclosure.
Manager and leadership development | Practical development for line managers and senior leaders covering equity, inclusion, difficult conversations, reasonable adjustments and objective assessments.
Wellbeing and life-event framework | A diagnostic and analysis across absence, turnover and engagement, with policy and manager toolkits for parental leave, bereavement, menopause and return to work.
DE&I strategy | A bespoke DE&I strategy embedded in your wider sustainability strategy, with metrics, KPIs and a roadmap – addressing systemic issues rather than running disconnected activities.
Where to start
Most organisations start with one of these and find it opens up the others. A pay equity audit surfaces progression patterns; a progression audit surfaces how hiring and appraisal are really working. We scope the first piece around whichever question or pain point is most pressing for you, and we will tell you honestly where the evidence points next.
12.8%
UK median gender pay gap for all employees (April 2025) with widening gap among employees aged 40 and over
ONS ASHE, 2025
74k
Women who lose their jobs each year in the UK due to pregnancy or maternity
Pregnant then Screwed, 2025
£4.70
Return for every £1 invested in workplace mental health support, rising to £6.30 for culture-level interventions
Deloitte, 2024
Employment Rights Act 2025
What’s changing and when
Our Social Sustainability consultancy customers
These issues rarely sit in isolation
Energise works with organisations to understand where things are not working and build the conditions for lasting change, not just short-term fixes.
Employee Experience, Fairness & Retention FAQs
When does the unfair dismissal qualifying period change?
From 1 January 2027, the qualifying period falls from two years to six months and the compensatory cap is removed. Employees who already have six months’ service on that date are protected immediately. Probation design, performance management and record-keeping are the areas most employers need to tighten before then.
What is a pay equity audit, and how is it different from gender pay gap reporting?
Gender pay gap reporting publishes a number. A pay equity audit works out why the number is what it is: where pay decisions are made, who they favour, and which gaps are explained by role and which are not. It ends in a remediation plan rather than a disclosure.
Do we have to publish a gender pay gap action plan?
Not yet. From 6 April 2026, gender pay gap and menopause action plans can be published voluntarily. They become mandatory for employers with 250 or more workers during 2027. Employers using the voluntary window tend to find their diagnosis, not their drafting, is the slow part.
How much does replacing an employee actually cost?
Oxford Economics puts it above £30,000 for someone earning over £25,000, once recruitment, induction, lost productivity and team disruption are counted, and considerably more at senior level. Poor mental health costs UK employers around £51 billion a year, with presenteeism the largest single component.
What does the new duty to prevent sexual harassment require?
From 30 October 2026, employers must take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, and become liable for harassment by clients, customers and contractors. “All reasonable steps” is a higher bar than the current duty, and risk assessment, training and reporting routes are where most employers are exposed.
We already report our diversity data. Why isn't that enough?
Reporting shows where the gaps are. It does not explain them. Most organisations can tell you their ethnicity or disability progression gap but not which stage of hiring, appraisal or promotion creates it, which means the same numbers get published year after year.
Have a question for us?
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