WORKPLACE RESPONSES
[Employees, Contractors, Volunteers]
LIVED EXPERIENCE INSIGHTS RELATED TO WORKPLACES
In our listening to victim-survivors of violence and abuse, we heard examples that reveal the perpetrators choice to use violence and abuse. The actions described highlight the perpetrator is 'taking control' and 'intensifying control' - their actions show that they are 'in control' not 'out of control'.
Click on each tile below to open the related examples.
Guide to uplifting workplace responses
Workplaces, are well placed to provide timely and significant support to victims-survivors of domestic, family and sexualised violence. We encourage organisations to develop their understanding and readiness to respond in ways that uphold dignity and build on safety.
This guide invites you to build on being a workplace that has insight-informed design and responses to people experiencing domestic, family and sexualised violence.
Read and implement the Guide: Uplifting workplace responses (3rd Edition).
My Support Options
People experiencing domestic, family and sexualised violence rely on multiple parts of a complex information and support ecosystem for their safety and wellbeing. When a person who is experiencing domestic, family and sexualised violence reaches out it might be the first, only or last time they seek support. There is no one path or preference. And every option matters.
‘Support Options’ that assume or expect victims to ‘leave violence’ add to the danger and pressures. Let’s support safety guided by what victim-survivors need now & next.
Explore and share My Support Options
Intranet Content Guide
The Workplace Intranet Content Guide is designed to support organisations in their intranet communication about workplace responses to domestic, family and sexualised violence. The guide is not exhaustive or conclusive. It is designed to support reflection and review of what your organisation has in place already, how that might need to be adapted, and what might be missing. Listening mechanisms to hear from people with lived experience will inform how and where further refinements can be made in your workplace responses.
Note: The Workplace Intranet Content Guide is a supporting resource to the Insight Exchange Futures Framework and responds to the insights in No Hidden Door.
Workplace Scenarios Kit
The Workplace Scenarios Kit is designed to provide practical support to organisations as they assess their existing and potential responses to experiences of domestic and family violence. It complements the Futures Framework and other Insight Exchange materials designed to inform and support responders.
The Kit brings together extracts from lived experience narratives (as a possible proxy for employees) with real world scenarios to reveal what is (and is not) in place in your workplace to support the needs of individual employees who may seek support. It will guide organisations to establish their essential mechanisms for responding to domestic and family violence through listening, language and policies.
Quality Response Continuum
What do we need to be thinking about when it comes to the quality of our responses to domestic, family and sexualised violence?
The quality response continuum is an Insight Exchange tool designed to support critical reflection about the quality of our responses.
'There is no fence to sit on.'
View the Quality Response Continuum animation (3.30mins)
View the illustrative examples in the library of Quality Response Continuum examples.
Insights paper
Insights Paper: Experiences and perceptions of workplace responses to domestic and family violence.
This report is designed to inform and support the reflections of workplaces and employee assistance program (EAP) providers.
Asked what they’d most like us to influence about workplace responses to DFV, respondents’ top three wishes were for
- People in the workplace to be compassionate and non judgmental
- Workplaces to provide more, or better, tangible support and
- Improved understanding and awareness of domestic and family violence
This insights paper informed the development of the Guide to uplifting workplace responses (above).
WORKPLACE & EAP INTERSECTION
Does your workplace contract an Employee Assistance Program?
Employee Assistance Professional Association of Australasia (EAPAA) provider members (76) throughout Australasia oversee over 11,500 organisations, providing coverage to 9.4 million direct employees. (Source: Engagement Rate of the Employee Assistance Professional Association of Australasia (Inc.) October 2021).
The readiness and quality of Employee Assistance Program responses to domestic and family violence matter. Every EAP. Any workplace.
In 2022, the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) reported a range of measures that were highly prevalent among organisations offering support to employees experiencing domestic and family violence. 92.8% of organisations offered access to their company’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
But how much, how well and in what ways does the procuring workplace assume or ask about the quality of responses to domestic, family and sexualised violence?
EAP Foundations
The free (donated) EAP Foundations includes selected resources build on understanding of domestic, family and sexualised violence.
EAP individuals, teams and providers can continue to directly draw from the work of Insight Exchange in alignment with the guidance on using Insight Exchange.
Archive of support to uplift Workplace and EAP responses
Archive - Supports to Workplace & Employee Assistance Programs
2021 - 2023
Read about the supports we donated to Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) on the Industry Lab page.
2020
Workplace Kit: Understanding and responding to employees experiencing domestic and family violence. A Workplace Kit (including the Insights Paper, Follow My Lead and My Safety Kit) was launched on 19th February 2020 with 46 individuals attending from 27 different organisations. Read the feedback comments from attendees at the launch. The 3 resources in the workplace kit are are accessible as distinct resources and Follow My Lead and My Safety Kit are published as new editions.
2019 - 2020
The network of workplaces and employee assistance programs (EAPs) was an informal, national network facilitated by Insight Exchange, through 2019/20. Participating organisations shared a commitment to improving awareness of and responses to domestic and family violence in Australia.
Participants in the network were interested in exploring the following challenges in responding to domestic and family violence (DFV):
- Understanding scope and duty of care of organisations; what role does the workplace and EAP play in responding to an individual experiencing DFV? What role could/should each of these play?
- Improving how organisations and EAPs support, not just what is offered in support of, people experiencing DFV.
- First-responder support - identifying and providing support for workplace managers and EAP practitioners responding to people experiencing DFV.
- Responding to people who use violence – how do organisations and EAPs respond to and support people using violence?
- Managing complexity including: privacy and confidentiality; understanding where organisations, and individuals within them, fit in the broader ecosystem; and negotiating EAP contracts.
Participants included: Access EAP, AGL Energy, Assure Programs, Commonwealth Bank, Converge International, CSIRO, Employee Assistance Professionals Association Australasia, QBE, PwC, Sydney Water, Tabcorp.
The Workplace Insights Paper hosts some reflection questions for workplaces and for EAPs.