There is so much domestic abuse in Estonia that it directly or indirectly affects every Estonian inhabitant. Until now, the prevention and dealing with consequences of domestic abuse have primarily been funded and overseen by the state. The potential of employers has so far been untapped in Estonia, even though employers could play an important role in prevention, detection, and support.
Nearly 700,000 people are employed in Estonia, including both perpetrators and victims of domestic abuse, who experience mental, physical, sexual, or economic abuse at home. Although domestic abuse mostly occurs outside of the workplace, it also affects employers, the work environment, and colleagues.
How does domestic abuse affect work life?
Research shows that domestic abuse has a direct impact on the victim’s work performance, as well as on teams and organisations as a whole. Therefore, an organisation and its results are affected by whether its members suffer from domestic abuse.
Impact on the employee: The consequences of domestic abuse for an employee include increased anxiety, mood and motivation declines, withdrawal, sleep disturbances, exhaustion, and reductions in creativity, performance, and work commitment. All of these factors affect employee’s work performance.
Impact on the organisation: The individual impact of domestic abuse on an employee will sooner or later affect the entire team and organisation. It negatively impacts team dynamics, relationships at work, and the work environment, as well as the overall productivity, work quality, and effectiveness of the organisation.
Impact on society: As a result of domestic abuse, society as a whole becomes less safe and healthy – its consequences are felt by every member of society and the nation as a whole.
What does the initiative Employers Against Domestic Abuse do?
The initiative Employers Against Domestic Abuse guides employers who wish to contribute to the prevention and reduction of domestic abuse.
Our goals are to:
- Increase awareness of domestic abuse among employers and employees, including the various types of domestic abuse, how to recognise it, and how to respond and take action;
- To create work environments that are domestic abuse aware, where systematic and consistent attention is paid to the topic from both the victim’s and perpetrator’s perspective.
- Lead public discussions on domestic abuse within society.
To achieve these goals:
- We provide guidance, counselling and training for employers who wish to make their organisation domestic abuse-aware;
- We create a toolkit for employers that includes various educational and communication materials, such as online training courses, self-assessment questionnaires, and information materials;
- We build a network of employers to inspire each other and share best practices;
- We provide our members with important news, research findings, national developments, and more;
- We collaborate with universities and the public sector to conduct researches.
If you or your organisation would like to contribute and think of ideas how employers can address domestic abuse at workplace and create a safer Estonia, please get in touch!