Coming soon

Commentary and insights: Beyond metrics - rethinking how we measure high performance

The way we define high performance in organisations is changing rapidly. For HR professionals and organisational leaders, this transformation brings both challenges and opportunities, prompting a key question: How can we fairly assess and recognise what truly drives success in today's evolving work environment?

Leading practice guides: Organisation design

A series of Leading practice guides authored by Lilian Duckart, a trustee for the European Organisation Design Forum, exploring how HR professionals can approach organisation design to drive positive business outcomes.

The wide-ranging Employment Rights Bill paves the way for the biggest upheaval in employment law for many decades. Among other things, the Bill:

• removes the two-year service requirement to claim unfair dismissal;
• makes "fire and rehire" dismissals without evidence of financial difficulties automatically unfair;
• extends the requirement for collective redundancy consultation, so the relevant number of employees is no longer to be calculated only at site/workplace level;
• introduces a right for trade unions to request access to workplaces and requires employers to notify new hires of the right to join a union;
• expands protection against dismissal for pregnant employees and individuals who are on, or have recently returned from, family-related leave;
• makes statutory paternity leave and ordinary parental leave day-one employment rights;
• makes entitlement and procedural changes to statutory sick pay;
• entitles zero and low hours workers to stable contractual arrangements;
• widens the statutory right to bereavement leave beyond bereaved parents to all employees;
• requires large employers to publish gender pay gap and menopause action plans;
• introduces stronger workplace harassment laws; and
• reforms the right to request flexible working.

• Ongoing commentary and insights from the Brightmine team: Our team of experienced HR and employment law experts is continuing to sift through the fine detail of each version of the Bill as it progresses through Parliament and any supporting documentation or announcements that the Government subsequently releases to bring you the very latest updates and insights.

• Look out for many new and updated resources from Brightmine: The Employment Rights Bill provides the framework for multiple employment law changes - much of the detail is still being worked out. As the Government releases more details about these changes, the Brightmine team will be formulating our plans to bring you the very best resources, including: model HR policies and contract clauses; model letters and forms; line manager training guides; surveys/benchmarking; podcasts and webinars; and much, much more.
• Check out existing resources from Brightmine: In the meantime, key resources include our Legal timetable; On your radar - Employment Rights Bill updates and HR mythbusting; and Employment Rights Bill implementation roadmap: Key dates for HR.

In 2026 and 2027 - and beyond.

The Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act 2024 will allow an employee to take paternity leave as a day-one right where a mother, or a person with whom a child is placed or expected to be placed for adoption, dies.

• New paternity bereavement leave policy explaining the rights of employees to paternity bereavement leave.

• Suite of template letters to help support employers.
• New section in employment law guide on paternity bereavement leave.

2026

The Supreme Court has ruled that the legal definition of a woman under the Equality Act 2010 is based on biological sex. While Judge Lord Hodge stated "we counsel against reading this judgment as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another", employers may have to rethink their policy towards single-sex spaces in the workplace, such as bathrooms and changing rooms.

The following resources have had interim updates in light of the judgment:

• Transgender and non-binary equality policy

• Supporting an employee who is transitioning action plan
• Leading practice guides on Supporting non-binary and transgender employees

We have provided the following additional commentary and guidance:

• The definition of a woman: The legal meaning and practical implications of the Supreme Court ruling
• Supreme Court ruling and EHRC latest: How should HR respond?
• EHRC: Interim update on single-sex spaces draws criticism

Late 2025