Better practice in responding to family violence

For a business’s family violence response to be effective in the long-term it must embed changes to its culture and systems, requiring buy-in from across the organisation. Policies may be championed by senior management or staff from a specific division, but staff members also need to be trained and supported to understand why the policy is relevant and important to their work. On the other hand, individual staff in an organisation may promote the organisation’s family violence policy, but without support from senior management and the executive, changes are unlikely to be embedded into the organisation’s culture and values.

The Thriving Communities Partnership roundtable had working group discussions on culture and mindset shifts, finding that these shifts were important to creating long-term and effective change. The group identified barriers to change as organisational processes, unconscious bias, lack of leadership buy-in and a lack of understanding of the complexity of family violence. Suggested solutions to these hurdles included consistent and continual messaging throughout organisations, reaffirming positive behaviour and incentivising organisations to change.

In their research WEstjustice, a Victorian community legal service, found that in some instances even though policies were championed by senior management and staff involved in developing the policy, case examples showed that not all staff in those companies understood, or followed their organisation’s family violence expectations, training or processes. Best practice suggests that a strategy needs to include embedding lasting systems so that policies are not reliant on the knowledge and championing by select members of the organisation.

North East Water recognised that to develop an effective family violence response for its customers the business needed to embed dedicated processes and ongoing training for its staff.

Telstra implemented system changes to ensure its customers’ safety and help them access additional services that they might need.

Case study – North East Water

All North East Water staff received training on family violence and North East Water’s new processes, and frontline staff were trained on internal processes to protect the privacy and safety of customers.

Taking this approach meant that staff were confident on what was expected of them in responding to customers affected by family violence. They were able to work with customers to determine the best forms of assistance from a variety of options, often looking outside what they would normally offer. Staff indicated that with clear guidance they were more confident in building rapport and trust with their customers.

North East Water also looked at their relationships with other organisations and communities in developing their response to family violence. They acknowledged that a joint commitment was required to work effectively on the issue.

The business spent 16 months becoming an accredited White Ribbon organisation to publicly announce its commitment to addressing family violence. They said the tools gained were invaluable in working with customers affected by family violence. North East Water says its customers “now have the confidence that we can assist them through internal support options, government grants and local referrals”.

Case study – Telstra

In early 2018 Telstra introduced a single point of entry for Safe Connections customers. This service is available to 276 Safe Connection agencies and all Safe Connections customers. The service provides assistance with:

•  activating Safe Connections phones
• assistance with setting up the 30 day exemption from the ID check requirement prior to pre-paid activation for Safe Connections customers
• housekeeping of existing accounts to troubleshoot any potential security/privacy issues
• ensuring that the customer is aware of all Telstra services they may need to access such as a Silent Line
• in cases of Telstra debt, transferring customers to the Specialised Assistance Team.

Telstra continues to support the Safe Connections program. The program distributes 600 new smartphones each month to women in crisis around Australia.