Corporate Sector Response to Domestic Violence

The study used three broad strategies to examine this issue. Interviews were conducted with corporate professionals in a variety of positions to examine the level of awareness and attitudes toward the issue of partner violence and its potential impacts on employees' work lives. Second, a survey of employee assistance professionals was used to obtain a broader view of current responses to domestic violence by the corporate sector. The project also included a case study of the Polaroid Corporation, which has been particularly proactive in responding to domestic violence as an issue both for employees and within the community. This report presents highlights of findings from each of the study components. The survey of Employee Assistance Programs (EAP's) found that a large majority have dealt with specific partner abuse scenarios in the past year, including an employee with a restraining order (83 percent) or an employee being stalked at work by a current or former partner (71 percent). Although policies or guidelines on workplace violence apparently have increased, similar documents that address domestic violence and the workplace are rare. There is an increasing awareness that domestic violence is a problem employees may bring to the EAP. Suggested action steps of companies are to acknowledge the problem; provide educational outreach to employees; provide supervisors and managers with information on the warning signs of abuse and how to handle suspected cases; review current personnel policies and guidelines to determine how they can be applied to assist employees for whom abuse is an issue; and consider developing an ongoing alliance with a shelter or other domestic violence program. For the summary report see NCJ-166616. 6 tables; 6 figures; 41 references; and appended EAP survey results, Polaroid guidelines on family violence, and Polaroid CEO project materials