White Ribbon Day-Get Involved and Avoid  Declining Workplace Performance

November is one of those months when there are so many important Awareness Days that you can get dizzy trying to keep up. They are all important and no one small business could proactively support all of them. Thinking about your team and how they relate is a great way to choose the right Awareness Days to consider in your business.

One reason why White Ribbon Day on 20^th November resonates with so many organisations is that whether we know it or not, a woman you know has experienced violence. How can I say that with confidence? One in two women have experienced sexual harassment in their lifetime. That’s a frightening number.

In the Australian workplace it means that over 60% of women experiencing violence from a current partner are working? (www.whiteribbon.org.au) That’s a lot of people! Enough women to fill Sydney’s ANZ stadium … ten times over. And it has a strong and lasting effect on the health and wellbeing of employees, your productivity, workplace culture, business reputation and bottom-line profit and loss.

As the largest global male-led movement to stop violence against women, it engages and enables men and boys to lead this social change. In Australia, White Ribbon is an organisation that works to prevent violence by changing attitudes and behaviours. The prevention work is driven through social marketing, the Ambassador Program and initiatives with communities, schools, universities, sporting codes and workplaces.

If this is an Awareness Day that suits your team and your business, the ROI will be the promotion of respectful relationships and gender equality within the workplace. In tangible terms, employees who are victims of domestic violence, are likely to exhibit declining workplace performance, poor concentration and performance and higher levels of absenteeism than their colleagues so any effort to change it will address these issues.

How you can get involved…

• Ask your employees to wear something white and donate to support the cause.
• Download the White Ribbon Day social media tiles HERE or HERE and HERE to spread the word
• Purchase a white ribbon for every staff member to wear to work on Friday 20 November
• Decorate your office with white balloons or ribbons.
• Project a white ribbon onto the side of your office building.
• Consider the Workplace Accreditation Program to create ongoing change in your business. The program provides you with tools to develop a culture of respect and gender equality at all levels of your business, assisting you to respond to and prevent violence against women – whether it occurs inside or outside your company.
• Check out and potentially share the White Ribbon Day video

If you have a question about workplace entitlements for employees experiencing domestic violence you can contact our Impact HR experts. We are here to help you.

For more information about the White Ribbon Campaign you can visit https://www.whiteribbon.org.au/
If you or someone you know are in immediate danger, call 000 for Police and Ambulance help.
Violence and abuse counselling and support is also available by contacting 1800RESPECT.