The role employers play in protecting women from domestic violence
As work and home lives converge, employers must consider the duty of care towards employees’ wellbeing.
In the wake of the sh*t show that is currently British politics, the cost of living crisis pushing the price of butter up to £9; and, elsewhere in the world, abortion laws being overturned, the president of Sri Lanka fleeing angry mobs, plus, of course, a small matter of Ukraine still fighting off Russia…well, the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial seems like old, insignificant news.
And maybe it is. But what I will remember it for is not just how it dominated my social media feeds, but how it shone a light on the amount of resources required for a woman to tell her story and seek justice - that may not be forthcoming, if the other person happens to have deeper pockets (I have no evidence of this, but I was not entirely convinced by the final outcome).
For ordinary people without such deep pockets, it isn’t so easy, especially when you consider how the rise of remote working - for all its benefits, and as much as I am a huge advocate for it - is a potential death trap to those now in constant close quarters with their abusers.
Indeed, in the year ending March 2021, the number of domestic abuse-related incidents recorded by the police in England and Wales increased by 6% compared with the previous year ending March 2020, ending the trend of consecutive annual decreases. The BBC even branded it an “epidemic beneath the pandemic” that is still an overwhelmingly female problem.
As the experts I spoke to for my coverage of this issue pointed out, working from home now makes not just spotting and preventing domestic violence an employer’s issue, but supporting them too. Some big companies are now going as far as helping to relocate affected employees and pay their legal fees, while smaller businesses without such resources, should at least be able to provide some form of paid leave to give people the space, away from their partners, to make plans for an exit.
Photo by Parker Johnson on Unsplash
Reward Gateway, an employee benefits and engagement platform, is one of those that fall into the former camp, providing affected staff significant financial support, paid leave and connections to support services, to get them away from their abusers and back on their feet. It takes its duty of care particularly to its female staff so seriously that it even encourages those who find themselves in a less than ideal situation when out of work to make a swift escape via taxi, and they will foot the bill.
That’s why I wanted to dedicate this edition’s Q&A to talking to Catrin Lewis, the company’s head of global engagement and internal communications, whose nearly three years at handling calls for Thames Valley Police - many of them domestic violence related - gave her the insights and empathy needed for being the face of the company’s domestic violence policy.
As she says, the policy costs very little to implement as, thankfully, it’s got the least uptake of any of the company’s “benefits” - but the difference it makes is literally life saving.
I can’t claim to have had much exposure to people in this situation, so I, also thankfully, don’t have a personal story to share as I have done in previous editions of this newsletter. But what makes me feel confident enough to lend my voice here is the fact that domestic violence still disproportionately affects women.
If companies can stop this being a reason for affected women dropping out of the workforce, and instead become the safety net they need to move on from the trauma and be professionally successful, then I think this is something that needs to be more widely recognised.
Please do read on past Catrin’s Q&A for more from me on corporate domestic violence policies. If you know of an equally thoughtful employer, do let me know.
PS - Please also accept my apologies for such a long break in between editions of ‘Your Best Work Life’. I took some time off to visit family in Australia, just before which my husband and I found out we are expecting our second son :) I have had appointments almost weekly since, for various reasons, which have taken up my ‘free’ time that I spend on this newsletter. I’m doing my best to get back on track, and will be taking some extended time off from November (with some breaks before that), so thank you for your patience!
“Speaking to your employer might be your only opportunity to talk to somebody”: Q&A with Catrin Lewis, head of global engagement and internal communications, Reward Gateway
Why is domestic violence an employer's problem - why should an employer get involved in what is essentially a personal issue?
Catrin Lewis (CL): The right thing to do is to be looking after your people. But also the business case for it is that you're not going to be wanting to have a worst case scenario of somebody dying - how would that affect your whole workforce, not to mention the individual and then their family and so forth. It has much wider implications if it gets to the very worst aspect of domestic violence, which would be horrific. As a company, you don’t want a crisis situation on your hands, which is where these types of things can go.
This also goes hand in hand with being a responsible business and supporting our wider community. You can set an example by helping support local services, which are under massive strain already - a lot of the budgets have been cut for charities that focus on this kind of thing now, yeah - so what can your business do to give back in and support in those ways?
It's a big step for somebody to actually phone the police when they're going through this kind of thing. You're really admitting that there's a very serious issue here. Talking to someone in a uniform can be very intimidating for somebody. But if you've got a good manager at work that somebody can reach out to, then they can take that burden off. Some people might not connect with or feel like they can trust someone in a uniform, but they may feel they can do that with their employer instead, who can hold their hand through the process.
What insights do you have that show people might be more comfortable and more likely to report a domestic violence situation to an employer rather than the police or the authorities?
CL: So with my background before working at Reward Gateway, I actually worked for the police in a 999 call handling role. I've spoken to so many victims of domestic violence before - I spent two and a half years doing that - and how it gave me a real insight into how domestic violence comes in so many shapes, forms and guises. It's not everything that you think, and things have changed a lot. When I took on that role, coercive control was only just being introduced as something that was illegal, because I think traditionally, people wouldn't think it was abuse.
So in that sense, some people who are being monitored all the time might not even be able to get to the phone to contact the police. Speaking to your employer might be your only opportunity to have access to talk to somebody - perhaps work is the only chance that they've got to be on their own.
Was there a particular tipping point that led you as an employer to say, ‘we need to do something’?
CL: We wanted to be proactive about it, especially after all the media reports showing domestic violence was on the increase during the lockdowns. Once it's happened, it's not something that tends to go away in a relationship. We were concerned there wouldn’t be enough support for those people. So we just wanted to remove any friction points for employees in terms of accessing things like legal services. Because for us, it's like, it's not even a we over A to the amount that we give to employees. It's actually a low cost benefit for us, but something that would be hugely impactful for anybody that does need it.
The interesting thing that comes with flexible working and telling people they can work from home, it's that then you have health and safety rules, which say that you're responsible for your employees’ physical wellbeing in their workspaces. So for anybody that's allowing flex work from home, then it should be under health and safety rules that you have got this in place as a mandate. I don't think enough companies have made that connection yet.
Are you able to say how many people have come forward since launching the programme?
CL: The expenses go through on our HR director’s credit card which stays completely anonymous, so no. But it isn’t just something that we just announce once and then hope everyone finds it. We thread it through our communications at least once every quarter. Over half our workforce is female and we have new starters all the time so this is really important.
More from me on corporate domestic violence support:
With This Company’s Support, Women Are Escaping Their Abusers: Brazil’s largest retailer is taking extraordinary steps to help employees impacted by domestic violence.
Employers should create support programs for domestic violence victims as homes have become workspaces, say experts: “Domestic violence is not just a problem within the four walls of your house”.
Why supporting victims of domestic violence is an employer’s concern: The number of cases rose significantly after the first UK lockdown. As remote working continues in many sectors, firms are being urged to do more to address the problem.