OPTIONS FOR ACTION –

BLUEPRINT FOR ACTION

Executive (CEO) Engagement

MAKING THE BUSINESS CASE

• Legal mandates

• Liability

• Employee engagement

• Corporate responsibility

• Economic equation / business cost

Managing the Workplace Environment

EMPLOYER RESPONSIBILITY FOR WORKPLACE SAFETY

• Meeting legal mandates and acknowledge their value

• Human quotient (employees)

• Productivity (business)

• Disclosure issues (for safety of co-workers) versus confidentiality

• Security policy and plan

• Should be clear and available to all employees

• Example: Posting in common areas (as critical as “Exit” signs)

Managing the Workplace Environment

DEVELOPING & IMPLEMENTING A COMPREHENSIVE DV POLICY

• Defined accountabilities (HR, Legal, Security, EAP)

• Incorporating all aspects of Workplace Violence

• Integrating DV as part of Crisis Planning

• Addressing the entire employee population

• Includes part-time, transient and contract workers

Managing the Workplace Environment

DEVELOPING & IMPLEMENTING A COMPREHENSIVE DV POLICY

• Policy Implementation/Training

• Clear identification of who is trained (senior HR executives, managers to what level)

• Engaging the EAP in management consultation and training (how to deal with potential victims)

• Policy review procedures (to keep up to date)

Managing the Workplace Environment

POSITIONING THE EAP IN THE WORKPLACE

• Promote use for all quality of life issues (to de-mystify it, make it accessible for DV victims)

• Making EAP “present” and visible in the workplace (EAP personnel visiting, being “real people”)

• Building more expansive relationships with the EAP

• Who needs training?

• Value of providing it?

Managing the Workplace Environment

COMMUNICATION

• Changing the way we speak about the issue; modeling the communication for the positive

• Changing from speaking to the person with the “problem” to presenting healthy options/framing it as health promotion

• Workplace wellness context

• Communications process

• How information gets to executives, managers, co-workers, employees

• How conversation is taken to all levels and maintained

Managing the Workplace Environment

COMMUNICATION

• Promotional materials

• More than the new employee handbook

• Show value of EAP

• Put DV resources in context of all EAP offerings

• Increase frequency of promotion to employees

Community Involvement

INVOLVING IN THE COMMUNITY

• Integrate community-based/non-profit DV agencies into the resource mix

• Part of the referral network

• Part of the promotion (options offered to employee – EAP or the local DV shelter or agency)

• Example: Poster could include both the employer’s EAP information plus Hotline number

Collaborations

BUILD BROAD COLLABORATIONS WITHIN COMMUNITY

• Local DV agencies

• Law enforcement

• Criminal justice system

GOAL: MORE INTEGRATION OF EMPLOYER, EAP AND COMMUNITY RESOURCES

Opportunities

• Shared assessment tool, used by all EAPs and community providers, to address all concerns the EAPs are seeing – holistic assessment

• Training on how to use it

• Collaboration with community providers/agencies

DATA FOR REFERENCE

• Maine Dept. of Labor – study on perpetrators

• Ref: If batterer is using work time to batter (texting, phone, computer, etc.), it is workplace theft of time and resources

• Reeves, C.A. & O’Leary-Kelly, A.M. (2007), The Effects and Costs of Intimate Partner Violence on Organizations. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 22(3), 327-344.

DATA NEEDED

• Data sharing between EAPs and employers

• To track

• Local and/or industry-specific DV incidence statistics (by zip code/geography)

• Employer/EAP response should be appropriate to the population

• Collaboration with SHERM for national surveys

30 DAY ACTION PLAN

• Capitalize on new administration / moment of opportunity

• Call Joe Biden

• Enhance training for managers to include handling workers who are batterers as well as workers who are victims

• Understanding EAP role and interface

30 DAY ACTION PLAN

• Working Women’s Magazine – top 100 company survey – add a question regarding DV focus to survey

• Would help encourage other companies’ involvement

• 24 x 7 live answer for EAP hotline calls, not a recorded message