A global provider of personal, commercial and speciality insurance, RSA Insurance Ltd became a member of EIDA in 2021 following an increase in calls to the National Domestic Abuse Helpline during lockdown. EIDA spoke to Gemma Jackson, Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at RSA to learn about RSA’s journey in tackling domestic abuse.
How it all started
In April 2021, we realised there was a gap in the support provision we were offering our people. Initially we created a guide called 'Support for those experiencing domestic abuse' which outlined the support and resources available including signposts to internal resources such as our employee assistance programme, and HR and Mental Health First Aider contact details.
The next steps
By September 2021, we had extended our guide further for both employees and leaders and launched our membership with EIDA. We then sought representatives from across our UK business to act as Domestic Abuse Awareness Champions. Following training from Women’s Aid, we established a network of 21 Champions serving our 12 locations. Our Champions meet once a month to discuss training dates, new resources, legislative guidance and so on.
Specific initiatives
We developed and launched a specific training called Domestic Abuse Awareness for Leaders in June 2022. This 90-minute workshop focusses on understanding the scope of domestic abuse and provides examples of the many ways it can present itself, signs to look out for in the workplace, how to respond to an employee in a needs-led way and resources that leaders can highlight should an individual disclose – alongside some tips on the best ways to support someone who does disclose.
In July 2022, we launched our Domestic Abuse Leave Policy, which offers paid leave for individuals impacted by domestic abuse, to be used in situations such as needing to flee, seeking accommodation, attending court, etc. This is processed as compassionate leave and is not registered against their personal record as leave taken because of domestic abuse, to maintain an individual’s confidentiality.
In November 2022, as part of the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, we held activities each day and launched our Domestic Abuse Toolkit and Policy Template, which is our internal guidance repurposed for an external audience (both available to download here). Our membership of EIDA has helped us develop these resources, and Sharon’s Policy was the catalyst for our own. In turn, we want to pay this forward to support others in developing their own resources.
The impact so far
The response from our people has been overwhelming. We post regular articles on our internal intranet page, including employee stories and interviews with our Domestic Abuse Champions. Two employees courageously shared their stories of experiencing domestic abuse and these received the highest engagement rates ever seen on our intranet platform. Our training sessions are over-subscribed each time we launch a new date.
We have also seen an uptick in disclosures since we started this work, leading us to believe that it is making a real difference.
Measuring and reporting
We do not track the use of our policy, but we do keep track of the volume of disclosures made. In addition to our network of Domestic Abuse Champions, domestic abuse is a workstream within one of our Employee Resource Groups, RSA Balance. This is a group which centres on striving for gender balance within our business. It has an executive sponsor and updates are regularly shared with our Board and Executive Team.
Plans for the future
We are looking to work more closely with Respect in the coming year, to consider how we respond to perpetrators and to children and young people using violence in family and intimate relationships.
Three takeaways for other employers
-
Whilst we can’t and shouldn’t make decisions for those impacted, what we can do is make it easy and comfortable for our people to disclose and seek help.
-
Rather than being an ad-hoc activity or one-time initiative, make your work on domestic abuse a continuous cycle of support for your people.
-
Meet up with peers in your industry to share learnings and spread the word. In December 2022, I held a cross-insurance sector panel discussion, which EIDA kindly attended, and you can access the recording online.
Discover the stories of other employers in the EIDA network who are taking action on domestic abuse
Resource created: February 2023
