We recently caught up with Wendy Roberts, Director of HR Connected, to get her take on what the April 2026 employment law changes mean for marketing and media agencies. In this guest blog, she breaks down the key practical implications of the Employment Rights Act and what your agency should be doing now to make sure it’s ready.
The changes may look straightforward, but for marketing and media agencies, how they play out in practice is where the real impact sits.
The Employment Rights Act introduced a significant wave of employment law reform this April. While much of it has been expected for some time, the practical implications are easy to underestimate.
Agency environments are fast-paced, collaborative, and driven by a genuine sense of pride in the work. Teams care about what they deliver, and that energy is part of what makes agencies successful.
At the same time, many agencies operate without dedicated HR support, particularly in their early stages. That often means people’s decisions are made quickly and with the best intentions, but without always having the space to step back and sense-check how things are being handled.
It’s in that space, between knowing what the law says and working out what it looks like day-to-day, where the detail starts to matter.
From 6 April, Statutory Sick Pay is payable from day one of absence, and the lower earnings limit has been removed. At a practical level, this is a positive change; more employees are eligible, and those who are unwell are no longer faced with an immediate loss of income in the first few days of sickness.
In agency environments, where people are highly committed to their clients and teams, it’s not unusual for someone to log on when they’re under the weather, particularly during a busy campaign or key deadline. Removing the waiting period helps ease that financial pressure. It also shifts the emphasis onto how absence is managed, whether people genuinely feel they can take the time they need, and whether managers are having the right conversations when they return.
Paternity leave and unpaid parental leave are now day-one rights.
For agencies, this is less about complexity and more about clarity. There is an important nuance: entitlement to leave begins immediately, but statutory pay still requires 26 weeks’ service. If that distinction isn’t clearly understood, expectations can quickly misalign, particularly in smaller agencies without formal HR support.
In fast-moving environments, where new starters are expected to contribute quickly, these conversations don’t always happen as early or as clearly as they should.
A new right to up to 52 weeks of unpaid leave has been introduced where a mother or primary adopter dies.
This will hopefully be rare. But in people-focused businesses like agencies, how situations like this are handled matters deeply. Most managers won’t have encountered something like this before, and responses can feel uncertain without prior experience. Awareness of the right, and confidence in how to respond, can make a significant difference if it ever arises.
Reporting sexual harassment is now explicitly recognised as a protected disclosure.
Agency environments are often social and collaborative, with close-knit teams and regular client interaction. That’s a strength, but it also means clarity around boundaries and confidence in raising concerns is particularly important.
Most agencies would say they take this seriously. But the real question is: would someone actually speak up? And if they did, would the response feel clear, consistent, and supportive? Concerns that aren’t addressed don’t tend to disappear, they can resurface later, often with greater scrutiny around how they were handled.
The maximum protective award for failing to properly consult has doubled to 180 days’ pay.
Agencies are used to adapting and restructuring, whether scaling up quickly or responding to changes in client demand. When that happens, decisions sometimes need to be made at pace, while consultation requires a different kind of space. Balancing the two isn’t always straightforward.
Managers who have conducted restructures may not have experienced scrutiny of the consultation process, it’s definitely worth thinking about before the next one.
The new Fair Work Agency brings together enforcement of minimum wage, sick pay, holiday pay and worker protections, and can act proactively, without waiting for a complaint.
For agencies, where working patterns can be fluid, the risk isn’t usually intentional non-compliance, it’s informality. Holiday records, time off in lieu, and working hours may all be tracked, but not always in a way that’s easy to evidence externally, particularly where flexibility is part of the culture. This can become problematic if looked at more closely, it’s worth an honest look at whether records would stand up if someone asked.
Most agencies will already have picked this up, but from 1 April, the National Living Wage rose to £12.71 per hour for those aged 21 and over. This is equivalent to around £24,785 per year for a 37.5-hour week. It’s worth confirming any associated salary bandings have been updated.
Further changes are on the horizon, including extended tribunal time limits and a reduction in the qualifying period for unfair dismissal from two years to six months.
For agencies, this places more emphasis on the early stages of employment, often the point where roles are evolving quickly and expectations are still being shaped.
None of these changes are unmanageable, but agency environments should be mindful that they can play out in ways that aren’t always immediately visible, often through small decisions made quickly in busy moments.
If you’re reading this and thinking “we’re probably fine, but I’m not completely sure” that’s usually where the most useful conversations start. If you’d like to talk anything through, you’re welcome to get in touch with me directly at wendy@hrconnected.co.uk.
Often, it’s not just about rewriting policies, it’s about having the space to step back, sense-check what’s happening, and make sure it all joins up.
Agencies - April 14, 2026
