Better practice in responding to family violence

Leadership is critical for businesses to embed lasting systems that will see the effective implementation of family violence responses.10 When executive and senior managers demonstrate a commitment to a business’s family violence initiatives staff members can feel confident that this is an issue their workplace takes seriously.

Businesses can use a family violence strategy to prioritise activities (for example developing a family violence policy), identify key functions of the business to examine and determine which staff members should be involved in different parts of the work.

AGL and Rio Tinto developed working groups to deliver their family violence strategies. These groups provided input from different parts of the business at a leadership level, which supported coordination across the business and better outcomes for customers and staff.

Case study – AGL

AGL created a Family and Domestic Violence working group called Safe Space with employees to support the roll out of training and develop ongoing awareness and engagement. The group had members from across the business so that anyone affected by family violence feels supported in the workplace. The group worked on introducing further processes to embed AGL’s policy, and the support mechanisms available.

Case study – Rio Tinto

Rio Tinto recognised it was important to get the senior leadership team’s support to overcome any resistance from within the business to making family violence a priority. They established a steering committee of senior leaders to drive the work, and consulted employees who would be affected by the work to ensure the options developed didn’t cause additional stress or harm.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Commonwealth Bank) put in place a whole-of-organisation strategy on responding to family violence to ensure that it supported both customers and staff. The strategy was informed by community organisations, government agencies, advocates in the family violence sector and frontline support bodies and recognised that a holistic response to this issue (both within the organisation and community-wide) was needed. 

Case study - Commonwealth Bank

Initially Commonwealth Bank’s strategy focused on reviewing its workplace response and where to enhance existing policies and support mechanisms. In the first year Commonwealth Bank increased its domestic violence leave (from 5 to 10 days), created support toolkits for employees and managers and developed a guide to assist leaders in supporting employees who are experiencing family violence. It also trained over 600 employees in partnership with the University of New South Wales Gendered Violence Research Network on how to support employees and customers affected by family violence.

In 2016 the bank engaged Our Watch to review its Smart Start financial literacy program to ensure it was promoting gender equality and supporting financial independence and security for young women. In 2017 the bank piloted a Domestic and Family Violence Emergency Assistance Package, which provided customers and employees with expert counselling and financial assistance. The pilot was extended in 2018 after it had assisted 6,000 customers and received 87,000 calls in its first month