Guidelines for Domestic Violence Advocates

Adapted from the Family Violence Prevention Fund, "The Workplace Responds to Domestic Violence: A Resource Guide for Employers, Unions and Advocates," edited by Donna Norton, Esq., Stephen T. Moskey, Ph.D. and Elizabeth Bernstein (January 1, 1998)

TIPS FOR PARTNERING WITH EMPLOYERS

Accessing Employers

The proverbial “foot in the door” can be best accomplished by locating people in the positions that are relevant to the service you are offering. Some large companies have internal Employee Assistance Programs, with licensed professionals whose responsibility it is to respond to employee s’ individual and family problems. Other companies rely on Human Resource professionals or other Employee Services professionals, such as Occupational Health or Security/Safety staff, to respond to the more personal aspect of employees’ needs, often by referring employees to external resources.

In addition, many larger employers have professional training departments that coordinate all internal training. Starting with Human Resources, make an investigative call to determine how their employee services are structured and which people in which positions you should contact. Overlooking the correct contact, i.e., the person whose job it is to handle your call, may prevent you from successfully opening the door.

In small to mid-size businesses, the key contact may be the owner or CEO (Chief Executive Officer) or a Division or Operations Manager. Very small businesses are unlikely to have internal employee services personnel. When approaching the executive management in a mid-size to large business, you may want to encourage the Executive Director of your organization, or perhaps a board member with connections to the company, to make the initial contact.

If you “know someone who knows someone” at the company, use this contact to discover the right person to talk to. It always helps to be personally introduced to the organization. Through networking with the local Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Clubs, Junior Leagues or local officials like the mayor, you may discover a “business champion” – or someone who will assist your organization in making connections to other businesses.

Marketing Products

Whether you offer free training services or request a fee or honorarium, from the business perspective, you are still marketing a product to the employer. You need to know your customer, discover how your product will best meet their goals and represent yourself in a business-like manner that meets their expectations for a good business relationship.

Recognizing Their Needs

What are their current goals? Are they concerned about absenteeism, safety, or work and family stress? Does your contact indicate that the employer is progressive and open to new issues or somewhat conservative? What are their current training agendas? Consider how increasing their awareness of domestic violence will help the employer.

**Exploring Options That Meet Your Organization’s Needs**

If they are interested in working with you, explore how the company might be able to meet your organization’s needs. If you provided a free sample seminar, would they pay a fee to train additional employees? Would they consider making a donation to your organization? Do they have a community development department that has specific criteria for donations and, if so, can they be involved in the planning? What about donating used computers or office equipment in exchange for the training services? There may be any number of creative ways of accomplishing mutual goals in the process.

PREPARING TO PRESENT THE TRAINING FORUM

Training Context: Mandatory or Voluntary Attendance

There are possible costs and benefits to structuring the training as either a mandatory employer event that employees are required to attend or a voluntary event that employees choose to attend. First, it is unrealistic to expect a large number of employees to voluntarily attend a seminar on domestic violence, especially if the training is held on their own time. Employees may believe that choosing to go to a domestic violence seminar is a sign to others that they are victims of abuse.

Attendance will increase dramatically if the employer schedules the event during the workday as an official training or regularly scheduled staff meeting that all employees are expected to attend. This may also increase the employees’ perception of the importance of the information being shared. Yet, some employees, including those who have experienced abuse, may feel that they should not be forced to attend. Employees should be allowed to choose to not attend, even if the training is an official employer training with attendance expected.

Determine Who Is Attending

Most organizations are diverse, with multiple departments, work units and positions. Whatever you can learn in advance about the people that will attend will be a benefit to you and to the participants. Are the attendees from several departments or from one or two departments? Are they likely to know each other well or are they unfamiliar with each other? Will they have similar work or career backgrounds? Will the audience be primarily women or men or mixed? Will the audience members be coming from work, going to work or on break from work? All of this information will assist in customizing your approach to the specific audience.

Including Key Workplace Professionals in the Training

Including key people from the organization in the training may increase the employees’ perception of the importance of its message. Human resource representatives, Employee Assistance professionals, or other Employee Service representatives are logical choices, as are people from upper management, including the CEO. These professionals could introduce the session or even co-present the components related to workplace responses, adding their expertise regarding company policies, procedures and services to the training. These professionals may or may not have experience with domestic violence issues.

Prepare Materials To Fit the Audience

If your audience will be bilingual, or multicultural, consider how to adapt the training content and handouts to reflect the language and culture of the audience. As always, be conscious of the effects of racism and discrimination in the local community, as some employees may have had negative experiences when seeking help for domestic violence in the community in the past. When possible, include information about diverse referral resources with the handouts.

Time and Space Limits

Most workplaces are time- and space-pressured. If a hour and a half is allotted for your training, find out if that includes the amount of time that it takes for employees to take a shuttle bus from one office to the other or to walk from one building to another. Is another training occurring immediately before or after your training, which requires room set-up or breakdown? Be conscious of the hectic schedule and limitations of the company and request confirmation of the arrangements in advance to avoid confusion.

As the training is interactive, it would be best to limit the attendance to about 50 people at a time. If time and space resources are limited you could stretch this amount to as high as 100 people, but audience interactions may suffer. Before agreeing to train all employees, remember that it may require scheduling several sessions around the clock to accommodate their work schedules.

Major Organizational Issues

Doing any kind of training during a merger or major layoff will be difficult. Employees are likely to be preoccupied with job security and less likely to focus on positive workplace changes. Undercurrents of tension may surface during any training, especially when addressing the employer’s benefits or policies. Being aware of these issues beforehand and acknowledging them during your introduction may help diffuse these feelings during the training.

Past Events

Find out if there have been any violent events in the workplace or if any employees were murdered by their spouses at home in the last few years. If so, employees may have a greater sensitivity to the topic of domestic violence. It may be best to have the key organizational contact acknowledge the shared trauma of the violent event during the training introduction, rather than to avoid discussing it.

CREATING A LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP

Maintain Regular Contact with Your Key Contacts

To begin an ongoing relationship, you need to be connected to individuals within the company. As in any organization, people change positions often. Regular contact with your key contacts will keep you updated on who is working in what position and any changing responsibilities. Reasons for contacting them could include new literature or brochures, changes in your staff contacts, information on new community resources, etc.

Encourage Ongoing Education

Encourage employers to incorporate the topic of domestic violence in other related employee and management training sessions, such as Violence Prevention or Work/Family Stress. Offer to be a source for information, videos, brochures or other domestic violence resources.

Unique Partnerships

Once you discover the needs of the company, you may find some reciprocal matching of needs between your organization and the employer. The following is a list of unique relationships that some domestic violence advocates have arranged with employers to the benefit of both:

Advocate Activities:

• Provide sample articles for employer newsletters
• Provide consultation on company policies related to domestic violence
• Be a resource for employers with questions about specific employee situations
• Offer speakers or trainers as needed.
• Distribute safety cards or brochures with local resources
• Provide volunteer opportunities for the company’s employees

Employer Activities:

• Make financial contributions or grants to domestic violence community programs or shelters
• Donate computer hardware, software or user training, and printing or photocopying
• Offer job training, employment and business opportunities to women in shelters
• Provide training workshops in business skills, public speaking, or other administrative skills to both shelter staff and residents
• Throw a holiday party for women and children at the shelter
• Involve employees in fundraising activities
• Participate in the National Work to End Domestic Violence Day

(The above list was adapted from Polaroid Corporation’s Partners Against Violence: The CEO Challenge).