Governance is about so much more than just adhering to legal and compliance regulations. At Serco, it’s about managing our business in a way that aligns with our values – and the expectations of broader society.
We lead with good governance to support better outcomes for our people, our community and the future of Australia. One way we’re doing this? Tackling the domestic violence problem in Australia.
Today, 1-in-6 women and 1-in-16 men experience violence at home*, so statistically speaking we knew that this must be impacting some (or many) of our 16,000 staff across the country.
After noticing that the uptake of the current DV support services in place at Serco was low, we knew we had to do more. Provide more support. Create more awareness. Push for more change.
Serco established a family and domestic abuse working group to help raise the profile of the support available to all our people across the business.
Rachel Owens, Director, Strategy and Business Development for Justice and Immigration is also the Chair of the working group and was excited to make an impact through governance.
And that’s when the real change happened.
The number of days of family and domestic abuse leave available to our people was increased to 10 days per year and support for those who need it was strengthened through Serco’s employee assistance partner.
A module on family and domestic abuse and the support on offer at Serco was included in the induction process for all new team members, and an in-depth learning module for managers is being developed to help them better support team members who experience family and domestic abuse.
“We realised that by finding internal champions, educating new starters and managers and raising awareness through education, we'd have a better opportunity to have a positive impact,” Rachel says.
As an employer to thousands of people across the Asia Pacific, it’s important for us to have strong governance in place – not only as a business, but as an employer too. It’s our responsibility to play our part and support our people (and by extension our communities) to help make a stronger and safer society for everyone.