Guidance

Step 2. Choose your actions

Updated 7 April 2026

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

Once you have understood the issues in your organisation, you should then choose actions which help to address them. 

There are 18 actions to choose from. You must choose a minimum of 2 actions in your action plan:

• one must address your gender pay gap
• one must support employees experiencing menopause

Types of action

For each action you select, we will ask if it is:

• new or in progress – this means you will be working on it for the first time or building on something you are already doing

• embedded – this means it is already an established part of your working practice

You must choose at least 2 actions that are ‘new or in progress’.

‘Embedded’ actions

If you have already made some of the government’s actions an established part of your organisation’s working practice, you can add them to your action plan as ‘embedded’ actions.

This can help give people a more complete picture of what your organisation has already done to improve gender equality. 

We encourage you to include:

• any actions that your organisation has already embedded 
• further details about how your organisation made them an established part of its working practice – read more about writing a supporting narrative

If you want to do more work on an action you have added to your plan as ‘embedded’, you can change its status to ‘new or in progress’ – you would usually do this when you review your action plan.

List of actions

The following actions were researched and developed by the government. Evidence suggests they may be effective ways for organisations to improve equality in the workplace.

Recruiting staff

• Make job descriptions inclusive
• Encourage applications from a range of candidates
• Reduce unconscious bias in CV screening
• Use fair and structured interview techniques
• Advertise leave policies in job adverts
• Advertise flexible working arrangements in job adverts

Developing and promoting staff

• Automatically consider eligible employees for promotion
• Encourage employee development through actionable steps
• Offer mentoring, sponsorship and other development programmes

Building diversity into your organisation

• Set targets to improve gender representation

Increasing transparency

• Increase transparency for pay, promotion and rewards
• Enhance and promote flexible working and leave policies

Supporting employees experiencing menopause

• Train managers to support employees experiencing menopause
• Offer occupational health advice for employees experiencing menopause
• Set up menopause support groups and networks
• Offer workplace adjustments for employees experiencing menopause
• Conduct a menopause risk assessment for your workplace
• Review policies and procedures to meet the needs of employees experiencing menopause