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survey results
Corporate Leaders and America’s Workforce
This survey commissioned by Safe Horizon, the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence, and Liz Claiborne Inc., which benchmarks two previous surveys, demonstrates that the number of corporate executives who cite the harmful impact of domestic violence on their companies has increased significantly since 2002 and 1994 when the first two corporate executives' surveys were completed.
Survey Results
The findings show that a significant majority of corporate executives and their employees from the nation's largest companies recognize the harmful and extensive impact of domestic violence in the workplace, yet only 13% of corporate executives think their companies should address the problem.
The attitudes of executives differ dramatically from an overwhelming majority of employees (84%) who believe that corporations should be a part of the solution to addressing domestic violence. Although nearly 2 in 3 corporate executives (63%) say that domestic violence is a major problem in our society and 55% cite its harmful impact on productivity in their companies, a majority of top executives have blinders on when it comes to seeing the reality of domestic violence victims working in their own companies.
On average, corporate executives estimate that only 6% of their full-time employees are victims or survivors of domestic violence, compared to employees who guess 3 times as many (18%). In fact, the survey provides stunning evidence of the pervasiveness of domestic violence among America's workforce-1 in 4 female employees (26%) identify as a victim or survivor of domestic violence. Nearly 1 in 4 employees (22%) also report that they have worked with a co-worker who was a victim.
The findings also uncovered that the vast majority (70%) of corporate executives believe that domestic violence has had a harmful effect on employee attendance at their company. While 91% of all employees state that domestic violence has a negative impact on their company's bottom line, only 43% of corporate executives agree.
Difference in Perception
Despite the fact that more corporate executives consider domestic violence a major problem than inadequate health care 60%, alcoholism 49% and racial discrimination 39%, they are still resistant to the premise that companies have a strong role in addressing the issue. A clear barrier to corporate executives taking action is their perception that domestic violence does not affect their own employees.
According to the survey, lack of communication between executives and employees is a critical issue that prevents corporate executives from implementing policies and assistance to help victims of domestic violence. Employees admit that the number one barrier to putting into practice programs in their companies is that they are not asking for it. More than 9 in 10 employees say their companies would be more likely to commit to addressing domestic violence if women in their company requested it. Similarly, nearly 4 out of 5 corporate executives (78%) say they would be more likely to implement programs if their female employees asked for it.
Resources
SafeWork 2010 is a national initiative to challenge 200 corporate leaders to recognize the impact of domestic violence on the workplace and take action to address it by 2010. For more information, please visit: www.safehorizon.org/safework
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