Better practice in responding to family violence

The Economic Abuse Reference Group recommends that businesses should have an ongoing policy review process to monitor the quality and effectiveness of their response.39 This approach will ensure businesses are also able to evaluate where any processes inadvertently facilitate family violence or place its customers at risk.

Yarra Valley Water and Telstra looked at ongoing reporting measures to monitor engagement with the family violence support options available to customers and staff. These measures supported a culture of continuous improvement within the businesses on their family violence responses.

“Yarra Valley Water has key performance measures for the Customer Support Team that reflect its family violence work”–. Yarra Valley Water

Case study – Telstra

Telstra uses several mechanisms to measure the effectiveness of its programs and policies to support people experiencing family violence. It monitors the number of employees using domestic and family violence leave and the employee assistance program and measures progress against its diversity and inclusion objectives (in annual and sustainability reports). Telstra also measures overall employee engagement through annual people surveys

Businesses could also consider public reporting mechanisms as a way of showing their commitment to the issue to the broader community, for example via its Financial Inclusion Action Plan or reporting via the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. 

Case study – Financial Inclusion Action Plan (Energy Australia)

Good Shepherd Microfinance works with organisations to create a Financial Inclusion Action Plan with measurable actions to commit to financial resilience for their customers and staff. EnergyAustralia released its first Financial Inclusion Action Plan in 2017.

EnergyAustralia’s plan includes actions to support women to improve their financial knowledge. It also has actions to review policies and procedures on how they support people in abusive relationships. The plan also includes the need to maintain relationships with key community organisations such as WEstjustice and financial counsellors to further support vulnerable customers, especially family violence victim-survivors.

Case study – Workplace Gender Equality Agency

AGL, Alinta Energy, EnergyAustralia, and the Energy and Water Ombudsman Victoria provided reports to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, an Australian Government agency responsible for promoting and improving gender equality in Australian workplaces. These reports included areas like workforce composition, employer action on pay equity and family violence support measures. Some businesses (including Mirvac and AGL) also make a version of this report publicly available on their website.