Episode 95: Why Small Business Owners Need To Join The Conversation About Family and Domestic Violence - for themselves, for staff and for the larger community
In this special quick tip episode, Fiona focuses on discussing why every small business needs to include plans on making their environment safe from family and domestic violence (FDV). She also shares her tips on ways you as a small business owner, can help tackle this massive issue.
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
Getting Help
Family and Domestic Violence
How you can help in your small business
Look at the policies that you have in place
Familiarise yourself with domestic violence national dates
Look at the language that is being used in your business
Look at the visual marketing messages that you're putting out there
Have the awkward conversations
Conclusion
Where to get help
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Episode transcript:
Hello and welcome to episode 95 of My Daily Business Coach podcast.
Today, you are listening to a quick tip, tool or tactic Tuesday episode. And really what I do here is just sort of give you exactly a tip, tool or tactic. Now, today's episode is a little bit different and it's really something that I would urge every small business owner to consider even if you don't have a team yet, just to look at the way you're running your business, perhaps your marketing messages, the choice of, you know, visuals that you put out there, the language that you use around yourself as well as, you know, to your staff members if you have them.
But, yeah, today I want to talk about something super important, really something that's close to my heart that I do a lot of work in, but that I think every single small business owner around the world should be considering. So let's get stuck into it.
Now, before we get stuck into today's tactic that I'm going to discuss, I do need to put out a trigger warning. I am going to be talking about family and domestic violence. And if that is something that you find yourself triggered by or perhaps you're in a situation right now and you don't want to hear about this, then potentially it might be best for you to turn this episode off.
If you are in a situation where you urgently need help, please, please reach out to 1-800-respect. That is 1800 737 732 that has 24/7 phone services. And you can also find support services within your state or territory if you're in Australia by going to respect.gov.au.
So, yeah, today's tactic is about domestic violence now. Domestic and family violence is a huge issue across the world. Where I am in Australia, it is a massive issue which could be quite surprising to people outside of Australia, given we are such a prosperous country and it just really seems to be so backward in the way that we still have such a disregard for particularly women in this country. So I want to talk about it today, because if you're listening to this in real time, it is May 2021 and May in Australia, along with October the months where it's very much about family and domestic violence prevention awareness.
So this is really where charities, government groups, non for profits and a whole host of other businesses and brands will be doing whatever they can to try and spread the word about preventing domestic and family violence and really seeing equalities lined up between females and males in this country.
May 1st is actually a national day to remember those who have lost their lives as a result of domestic and family violence. And the first Wednesday of May every year is a candlelight vigil to remember those who have lost their lives as a result of domestic violence in October. It is also depending on, you know, what you're looking at. It is also another month where we look at domestic and family violence prevention. It's also Sexual Violence Awareness Month.
Now, again, if you're listening to this and you're triggered, please reach out for help. Whether it's Lifeline on 13 11 14 or, as I said before, 1-800-respect. And if you're in Australia, the number to call is 1800 737 732.
Now, you might be thinking or how does this relate to small business? And I came here for a quick fun kind of tip not to be kind of dragged down into this heavy conversation. But the fact is that in this country and according to statistics, a woman is killed every nine days by a current or former partner and on average, a male is killed every 29 days by a current or former partner. Domestic and family violence was the main reason why 82,000 people asked for help from specialist homelessness services in 2019-2020. And those are just the people that do actually ask for help.
Behind the scenes, there are far more people that are staying in situations because they do not feel that they have any other option. So the reason I want to talk about it is one - it is a cause that I support. I work with domestic violence charities. I do pro bono work with some of them, others at paid work. But it's also something that I think if we can all do the small things that we can do as small business owners, we can actually make a groundswell of change. We have seen here in Australia so much money poured into advertising by the government. And yet in small businesses across the country that I have had the pleasure of working with, there will be nothing like domestic violence policies for people that need to leave. We're not having the conversations with our staff. We're letting language or bullying or snide remarks about females go untapped or and noticed really by our teams or if we're lucky enough to have them - people, management managers. And we just sort of letting these things slide sometimes. And what I found is that small business owners, you know, we really can change the world. There's enough of us. The bulk of the economy is led by small business owners. So what could we do if we all started speaking about this issue, talking with friends, talking with our staff, allowing a place for people to be open and to know that there is support in our business if they do need to urgently leave, take some time off or even that we might have programs such as employee assistance programs like psychologists or other people that they can seek out.
So what can you do if you're a small business owner and you don't have staff or you have a small baby? And you're listening to this thinking, well, I don't have the means to put together an employee assistance program that's really for corporates, what I would urge you to do is to think about these five things that you could implement either today or you could, you know, spend some time working on to implement soon in your business.
1. Familiarise yourself with domestic violence leave policies, what is needed by companies, what is mandatory and what could you add to that to make sure that your employees, particularly female employees, feel supported and that they know that these policies exist? Because it's one thing to have a policy. It's quite another to make sure that everybody in the business knows that this exists.
2. Familiarise yourself with domestic violence national days. And this could be as simple as posting something on your social media account. It could be putting something in a newsletter. It could be potentially taking a percentage of a sale that you have in, say, the month of May and putting it towards a domestic violence charity or a cause that deals with domestic violence prevention.
3. Look at the language that is used in your office or your warehouse or wherever it is that you work even remotely. Now, are you letting comments slide? So these could be derogatory comments around other women? It could be comments around people's appearance. And you do find I find that a lot. You will hear a lot of comments around women's appearance that you don't hear those same ones around men. Are you allowing kind of bitchiness or gossip to happen and anything really that is keeping women down, that is seeing women as not equal or, you know, in the same vein as the straight your male colleagues or male members of staff. So, for instance, saying things like, “oh, God, she's being such a bitch today, actually being such a cow.” We often don't use those same terms. If we're talking about a man, we might say, “oh, he's being, you know, assertive” or using things that are less derogatory, said looking at the language that is used in your business around staff. It could be suppliers, it could be manufacturers and really calling it out when you say it.
4. Look at your marketing messages. If you are selling perhaps parenting products or you're selling other things similar to that baby products, baby clothes, anything in that vein. And you're using very stereotypical images. For instance, you are always using a woman in regard to the caregiving of the child or you're using a woman in the kitchen or you're using a woman in these roles as opposed to mixing it up and looking at all genders in those roles. These things, you might think, well, that's so small. Or you might think, well, predominantly women do buy the product that I'm selling. That's great. That's awesome that you know that data about your audience. But what would it mean if you if you mix that up a little bit, if you put a man in the kitchen in some instances, if you put a man creating dinner, all of these small things add up because all of the data that I've looked at, all of the charities that I've worked with so often, it comes back to this needs to start in childhood children, little boys, little girls, they need to be able to see each other as equal. And they don't see that if they're looking through social media or they're looking at their mom's phone or their dad's phone and they're flicking through and they keep saying the same repeated images that are stereotypical of a woman in the kitchen of a woman predominantly doing all of the caregiving. And yes, statistically, that may still be the case, but we're not going to change things if we don't change what we can. And one of those things might be the visual marketing messages that you're putting out.
5. Have a conversation to talk about this, to make it not such a taboo topic. Now, how you do this is entirely up to you. It could be a staff email that goes around. It could be a lunch and learn where you bring somebody in from a charity to talk about what's available for women who are going through this. And of course, men go through this as well, just not at the same rates, which is why I keep mentioning women, but have those conversations in my own personal life. I have sent messages to my friends. I have said, you know, hey, I'm here. I don't know if it's something that you experience, but if it is, please know that I'm here and we can have a chat.
Other things like if you have a book club in your business, potentially looking at books like See What You Made Me Do by Jess Hill, which is very, very confronting, but an incredible book that had to be written about the level and the depth of domestic violence in this country.
So those are the five tips.
1. Look at the policies that you have in place and make sure that you have a domestic violence leave policy, you know what is expected of you, but also you make sure that this is. Very much shown to your actual staff that they are aware that this exists.
2. Familiarise yourself with domestic violence, national dates, so that you can, you know, show up and support those on social media.
3. Look at the language that is being used in your business and the sort of comments that you'll let fly when it comes to, you know, people's appearance, particularly women's appearance or women being bitches or cows versus other language that could be used.
4. Look at the visual marketing messages that you're putting out there and really question if you're buying into stereotypes that continue to show women and men in unequal roles.
5. Have the awkward conversations, put it out there, know, and let your staff know. Let your friends know. Let your suppliers know that there is a safe space to talk about this.
And of course, if this has triggered anything, please do get in touch with 1-800-respect. If you're in Australia, again, that number is 1800 737 732. If you are outside of Australia, check out your mental health services in your area, including domestic violence, mental health, because it is such a huge problem globally. Now, again, I know a little bit different to my normal tip episodes, but I really hope that this gives you something to think about and that you look at your own business and think about how you will in the month of May and continuing on, really support domestic violence prevention. Thanks very much for listening. See you next time.
Thanks for listening to My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you want to get in touch, you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram at @mydailybusinesscoach.
