How should employers deal with relationships in the workplace?

Valentine’s Day is almost here and for some that means celebrating a romantic relationship with a colleague. Romantic workplace relationships can be a sensitive issue for employers – the private lives of employees should be respected, but at the same time the interests of the employer may be impacted by complications arising in, and because of, a relationship.

For many, workplaces are a social environment as well as a working one and colleagues can become close friends. Sometimes it goes further than that with employees entering romantic relationships, which is where problems can potentially occur. That’s not to say that all romantic workplace relationships cause issues; many do not have a knock-on effect in the workplace – however, they can occasionally lead to difficulties.

In certain circumstances, other employees may object to the relationship; for example, if a manager is in a relationship with a more junior employee, there may be accusations of favouritism. Team relationships can quickly turn sour which can impact upon productivity, so the business will ultimately suffer.

What is often worse however is the fallout if the workplace relationship ends less than amicably. For instance, if you have two people in a team who do not want to communicate with each other after their relationship comes to an end, it can cause problems for the employer and employees who must work with them. The problem can escalate to something more serious if one party wants the relationship to continue while the other does not, potentially leading to claims of sexual harassment (the relationship was consensual, but the unwanted conduct afterwards is not).

Organisations that face such situations potentially need to consider whether to move one employee to another team (if possible), but care must be taken around who to move and how the employer goes about doing this. Alternatively, the employer may decide to dismiss one of the employees if it becomes apparent that they cannot work together, and a team move is not practicable. However, it is worth keeping in mind that this will likely lead to claims in an employment tribunal relating to unfair dismissal and potentially discrimination.

The duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of employees, which came into force in October 2024, further increases the stakes as a failure to take reasonable steps could result in an increase in any compensation award for discrimination by up to 25% – and with compensation for discrimination claims being unlimited, this could be costly.

The duty has led to many employers carrying out risk assessments, preparing action plans to address risks, implementing revised or standalone sexual harassment policies, providing training to all employees (from executive and line manager level to across the whole workforce) and taking proactive steps to protect employees when it comes to social gatherings such as after-work drinks and office parties. However, such practices are likely to be considered the bare minimum when it comes to taking steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.

The Employment Rights Bill also proposes to extend the statutory duty to a duty to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. This will be a significant change and will result in employers having to do even more to try and fulfil their obligations to protect employees from inappropriate conduct by others in the workplace. Further consultation and guidance is going to be required to give some clarification to employers on what they should be doing in this regard, although the Bill does indicate that regulations will be issued which will state what steps will be needed to comply with the “all reasonable steps” requirement. These will hopefully give employers a degree of certainty going forward.

In the meantime, and to reduce the risk of workplace romances causing issues for employers, it is important to have an employment policy governing relationships at work. The aim should be to ensure that staff don’t commit – and are not open to – acts of:

• inappropriate behaviour;
• favouritism;
• abuse of authority; and/ or
• conflict of interest.

Any policy relating to workplace relationships should clarify the behaviour you expect from employees; for example:

• the relationship shouldn’t affect their work;
• there should be no favouritism or preferential treatment, especially if one employee is more senior than the other in the relationship;
• the relationship has to be declared; and
• one party may potentially have to move roles if there is a conflict or issue with the couple continuing to work closely together.

Some companies do specify in employment contracts that employees can’t form an intimate relationship with a colleague; however, this is likely to be unnecessary in most workplaces.

If two colleagues do strike up a romantic relationship it is in the best interests of themselves, their colleagues, and their employer to ensure that they remain professional whilst they’re in the workplace, leaving any personal intricacies of the relationship at home.