Business 

Employers can play an important part in raising understanding of family violence and providing support for employees affected by it.

Increasing understanding can be as simple as displaying posters around the workplace or making booklets or information available to staff. Employers who want to do more can get involved in supporting local community efforts; provide staff with information and training for developing workplace policies and procedures.  It makes good business sense. What a business does for its staff, their families and their wider community can impact on business performance and staff morale. People like to work for a company that shows it cares about them.

The campaign has developed an online toolkit, ‘Good for Staff - Good for Business' which is a comprehensive resource that helps employers to raise understanding of family violence and how to support employees affected by it. A set of posters and an information leaflet can also be ordered here.

SHINE, The Auckland based family violence prevention organisation provides a national programme that partners with employers to help managers and workers understand the nature of domestic violence and support employees as soon as they disclose the problems. For more information about the DVFREE programme, visit the Shine website.

Some local family violence networks have also developed their own business toolkits.  Tauranga has a DVD based package: ‘Family Violence: It's your business' and Christchurch has a programme called Igniting Change