Domestic abuse affects more people than many realise. In the UK alone a woman is killed by a partner or ex-partner every five days.
October is Domestic Abuse Awareness Month, and we have developed actionable steps to educate colleagues on different forms of abuse, offer managers the tools to help colleagues who may be facing abuse, and create a workplace where everyone feels supported.
As signatories of the Employer’s Domestic Abuse Covenant (EDAC), supporting those affected by domestic abuse remains a fundamental pillar of how we operate as a business. Over the past year, we have strengthened our approach to supporting victims and survivors of domestic abuse through comprehensive education, leadership training, and practical resources.
Stalking awareness campaign
In April, during National Stalking Awareness Month, we launched a multi-faceted campaign to raise awareness about stalking and personal safety. We created screensaver resources demonstrating how to make a silent 999 call, a vital safety tool for those who may be in danger with a perpetrator present. We also shared information about a text-based emergency service for colleagues who are deaf, hard of hearing, or unable to speak.
We promoted StrutSafe, a late-night service that provides someone to talk to if you’re alone and feel unsafe. This resource is helpful for night shift workers and lone workers who may be travelling home late through car parks, station depots, and other vulnerable locations.
We shared information about the domestic abuse disclosure scheme, Clare’s Law. The safeguarding measures allow friends, family members, neighbours, and colleagues to request information from the police about someone’s history of domestic abuse. This “right to ask” and “right to know” empowers our colleagues to look out for one another and their loved ones.
We also promoted the BrightSky app, which provides practical advice for leaving abusive situations and navigating risk factors. The app also has features designed for friends, family, and employers to support victims through their journey to safety. It has now been added to all work mobile devices, so support and guidance are at our colleagues’ fingertips.
Educating our leaders
Creating harassment and abuse awareness at the leadership level is crucial for building a responsive and supportive workplace culture. In partnership with Wellity Global, we delivered insight leadership workshops on preventing sexual harassment in the workplace.
Following changes to UK law around preventing sexual harassment, we created a new policy and launched mandatory e-learning for managers and senior leaders. These next-step sessions and workshops help leaders understand what to do if a colleague discloses that they’ve been harassed or if they become aware that someone on their team is a perpetrator of domestic abuse at home. They teach leaders how to open the space for disclosure without directly asking if someone is suffering from domestic abuse.
Resource development
Beyond our domestic abuse policy, managers and employee relations (ER) teams receive resource guidance for handling disclosures. This features a discussion guide and escalation plan to ensure all angles of organisational support have been considered.
The guide also includes formal protocols on what to do when someone makes a disclosure, and explains what domestic abuse looks like in its many forms: not just physical abuse, but also economic abuse, coercive control, gaslighting, isolation from friends and family, and cultural aspects of abuse.
Many people don’t recognise these behaviours as abuse, particularly if they grew up in households where such patterns were normalised. The guide includes essential contact numbers and resources for those seeking support.
We have also created a pocket guide for colleagues on domestic abuse detailing what it is, how to respond if someone makes a disclosure, and what support is available. This is designed to be shared with colleagues and outside the workplace. While our ER teams and leaders receive specialist training for handling disclosures, this approach ensures that signposting help is easily accessible to everyone.
Supporting these developments is our Domestic Abuse Working Party, which was established in July. This team brings together employee relations and HR colleagues to develop mechanisms for both colleagues and line managers to make disclosures and share support options.
Company-wide sessions
To raise awareness across the company, we welcomed Sharon Livermore MBE, a domestic abuse survivor and founder of Domestic Abuse Education, to deliver an insight session. As someone who has lived through these experiences, Sharon could speak to the lesser-known elements of surviving domestic abuse, such as how court dates and perpetrator release dates from prison can be triggering events, even long after someone has left the relationship. Leaders need to understand these ongoing triggers to provide sustained support.
She also shared information on the phases of physical abuse, cultural abuse, financial abuse, coercive control, and additional risk factors on an intersectional level. This addressed what marginalised groups face and provided important statistics on prevalence, helping our leaders understand the full scope of domestic abuse.
Our strategy
Our ongoing strategy is centred on four aspects:
- Employer’s Domestic Abuse Covenant (EDAC) principles: Our pledge to support the covenant includes offering mentoring, training, and employment opportunities to survivors. These principles guide our bespoke plans, our HR policies and processes, and our participation in wider industry initiatives.
- Pathways to Potential careers initiative: We’re helping women enter and re-enter the workplace through our career scheme, including helping people transition from safe houses. We’ve also developed targeted vacancy campaigns to promote our flexible working arrangements.
- Practical support: We support various clothes drive initiatives, including support for Smart Works, a charity that provides interview coaching and dressing services to give women confidence as they enter or return to the workplace, which is open to people across the business.
- Ongoing training: Ensuring that our leaders have the tools to support those experiencing domestic abuse, and that all colleagues know which covert resources and structures of support are available.
Creating open conversations
Domestic abuse needs to be an open conversation in the workplace. By creating a culture of awareness, support, and action, we want to make sure no colleague faces these challenges alone.
If you’ve found this blog helpful, we encourage you to read our previous wellbeing blogs on Mental Health Awareness Week and menopause in the workplace.