Below are a few strategies you can use as an employer to prevent economic harm.
Confirm pay details when staff are signing a new contract or a new person is employed. You could create a tick box on the employment form.
Prevention Strategies
Prevention Strategies
Supporting financial wellbeing at work improves employee retention, productivity and work culture.
Your employees’ financial wellbeing and maintaining a successful organisation are intertwined.
Research on the Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission website that an average of 20 hours per employee, per month, is lost because of money worries and that women are more affected by financial stresses.
Women were more likely to hide or conceal their situation from family or friends (61%), feel ill or unwell (59%) or lose sleep (57%).
Below are a few strategies you can use as an employer to be aware of economic harm:
Check pay details
Confirm pay details when staff are signing a new contract or a new person is employed. You could create a tick box on the employment form. Some examples are:
E.g. wages split, a portion paid into another account or paid in cash?
Check email
Ask if they want to create a different one to use for payslips or other confidential information.
Provide information
Make sure you provide economic harm information during interview or as part of role induction.
For example: "As an organisation, we have a family violence and economic harm policy. We have strategies in place to support anyone experiencing it."
Open workplace culture
Create an open workplace culture that encourages communication and support to make it easier for employees to raise concerns.
Wellbeing programme
Implement a workplace wellbeing programme where workplace support is offered to address financial harm.
For example:
Staff intranet
Put family violence and economic harm information on the staff intranet.
You could include:
Decorate the office
Put notices, posters and pamphlets around the office to make economic harm more visible, raise awareness and provide support.
When hanging notices up, it's worth noting economic harm isn’t always associated with family violence - it’s often thought to be elder abuse.
It's also worth noting that the words abuse or violence can sometimes be a barrier; they are commonly associated with extreme physical violence - think about using the word harm instead.
Flexible working
Ensure that your employees are aware you have flexible working hours and conditions to access support if they need time off - as per legislation.
Staff training
Host a staff training that provides staff with basic knowledge around economic harm.
We provide tailored economic harm training to support your staff and clients.
Contact us to find out more.
You could also speak to your employee assistance service, such as EAP services
or Benestar to see what resources they may have available.
Develop a policy
Develop a workplace policy or regularly review your workplace policies, safety plans and procedures. Shine offers a DVFree accreditation programme that provides workplace policies, guidelines and a best practice response to family violence.
Related resources
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We are a not-for-profit organisation working to improve the financial and social wellbeing of New Zealanders.
The resources on this website are provided free of charge to make sure they are available for people who need them.
If your organisation found these resources helpful, please consider making a donation to ensure we can continue supporting those people who need our help.
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