As we get into the summer months of June at InvestingIn, our CEO, Sarah Garrett MBE rounds up of the year so far for Inclusion in the UK.
Those who work in the inclusion space, will already of seen the gradual impact of social, economic and governance measures. As we move into Quarter three of 2026, I thought it would be a good chance to look at what we have seen changing. Particularly within the already busy inclusion workload that inclusion specialists and leaders have, there seems to be some key shifts.
We have seen organisations, coupled with new Government policy, entering into a new phase of ensuring inclusion gives a return in the UK. This is very timely as we embark on gathering best practice for our 2027 carnation of our benchmark, the Maturity Matrix.
For those who are committed to getting this right (and those who have the time and resource), we’ve seen many auditing their strategy and action plans, aligning it to business goals and moving away from superficial “box-checking”, whilst adapting to new legislative pressures, tighter budgets, and a more complex, socially polarised environment.
We are busy behind the scenes working on all the changes, so we can support you. Get in touch if you want to find out more.
Here’s my highlights of the major UK Inclusion updates and trends we are seeing so far in 2026:
1. The Legal Landscape: Employment Rights Bill & Pay Transparency
The legislative spotlight is firmly on accountability, equity, and transparency.
Expanded Pay Gap Reporting
Under the framework of the Employment Rights Bill, the push for pay transparency has broadened. In addition to mandatory gender pay gap reporting, large organisations (250+ employees) face increasing compliance pressures to track and publish ethnicity and disability pay gaps.
Voluntary Transparency Gains Momentum
Beyond strict legal mandates, transparency is becoming a core component of employer branding. Data from industry surveys (such as WTW) shows that over 70% of UK companies now plan to proactively share salary ranges with both internal employees and external candidates to build trust and market competitiveness.We have a number of resources on increasing disclosure or declaration rates, get in touch if you need some support in this area.
2. Navigate Change: Communications, inclusion activities and action plans
Business case and measurables
Over the first half of 2026, this shift has seen inclusion activities being more data and evidence based, ensuring that they include measurable outcomes. Although, there are some organisations who are edging their bets, and have continued their shift from last year and kept a “Business as usual” approach and pivoting around their communications, particularly externally. Whilst others have disappeared from their commitment to inclusion completely.
Inclusion specialists acknowledge that progress must happen despite economic pressures and tightening HR budgets, however with shifts in wider business strategy, redundancies and the economic pressures, this has meant that the best inclusion progress has been made by those that have clear measurables and business objectives attached to their measures.
Communications around inclusion
The communication strategy has shifted to an inclusive lens, but also acknowledging intersectional approaches and the nuances attached to lived experience that affect workplace barriers.
Evolution of Inclusion Roles
According to Acas, nearly half of UK employees report a rise in workplace conflict. Economic stress, job security fears, and a polarised political climate can disproportionately affect diverse groups differently, which has led to the typical D&I leaders are incorporating into culture and engagement roles focused on conflict resolution, civil dialogue, and psychological safety.
3. The Holistic Integration of Wellbeing & D&I
Mental health is no longer treated as a separate initiative from D&I; the two are becoming more as one. No pressure!
Psychological Safety as a Metric
Progressive UK employers are embedding psychological safety into their key performance metrics through sentiment surveys, and as a result at seeing disparities within underrepresented groups are implementing activities like listening sessions.
Preventing Burnout
For companies that are tracking their attrition rates by underrepresented groups, we are also seeing that there are trends around those leaving organisations. D&I professionals are heavily involved in designing workplace cultures that actively ensure all colleagues feel that they belong, whilst mitigating the growing trend towards burnout and exhaustion—particularly among minority or marginalised groups who often carry a heavier emotional load during times of societal transformation.
4. AI Ethics and Governance
As Artificial Intelligence integrates into standard HR workflows, its impact on inclusion is a massive talking point.
Mitigating Algorithmic Bias
Rather than letting AI tools run unchecked, UK D&I leaders are taking an active role in tech governance. They are auditing the datasets used by AI hiring tools, ensuring robust human-in-the-loop oversight, and preventing automated processes from reinforcing historical biases in recruitment and promotion.
Who is AI-ready
Alongside how AI is being embedded into practices, we are also seeing who is becoming AI ready, and who is going to be disproportionately affected by risks of AI causing redundancies. We plan to launch a survey and sessions to support underrepresented groups over this year.
5. Embedding inclusion into everyday practices
Major public bodies, such as the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the NHS, have published mid-year updates outlining their a shift from annual diversity reporting to including reports into relevant business functions and more regular reporting.
We are also seeing how inclusion is being owned by those inside business functions from talent acquisition to data teams.
