Supporting Employees Through Divorce and Separation
The complete guide for Employers
Helping workplaces support their most important asset.
Creating Supportive and Compliant Workplaces and Communities to better support and guide those going through separation, divorce, and/or at risk of experiencing domestic and family violence.
From small businesses to corporate boardrooms, frontline teams, community groups, schools, and sporting bodies, we deliver guidance and training that is effective, practical, highly supporting, and compliant.
Our Most Sought-after Consultation Services:
- Compliance and Risk Management Support
Policies, procedures, staff manuals, compliance checklists - Workplace Training Delivery
Effective, easy-to-implement education programs for the Board, Management, Team Leaders, HR, payroll and staff - Implementation Support
Step-by-step guidance through program rollout - Coaching
Coaching and counselling for employees requiring assistance (internally or externally provided support) - Resource Creation
Employee handbooks, manage guides, and reference materials
- By Stander and Respect in the Workplace education
- Behaviour Management Change Programs
- Domestic and Family Violence Support Programs (education, evidence gathering, documentation and court support, and crisis support resourcing)
- Leadership coaching
- Employee wellness support and programs - counselling and workshops with topics including menopause, oncology, grief, anxiety, and sleep assistance, which have proven to have direct impacts on employees' personal relationships and work outcomes.
- Culture change
- Our own Konnect Conga-line program– reconnecting teams and staff connections
- Attendance at Speaking Events, Conferences, Seminars, and Workshops.
Divorce and Domestic Violence Impacts Every Workplace
The impact of stressful separation and divorce processes, domestic and family violence, or coercive control can impact a person’s wellbeing, safety, attendance, performance at work, leadership skills, and teamwork, affecting businesses in turn commercially, financially, culturally, ethically, and legally.
Many employees also have legal rights and financial entitlements in their workplaces during these times, and the government and courts look for organisations to adopt internal policies and procedures, as well as education and support programs to help provide the appropriate support to employees.
When the business owners are directly involved in their own divorce, we offer guidance on the realm of risks they may be facing psychologically, operationally, financially, legally, and culturally.
Without the right support, business owners can experience lengthy and expensive legal processes, the need for costly business valuations and financial experts, morale issues, and loss of confidence from staff, suppliers, and customers, and of course, potential cash flow issues.
In some cases, the business is considered a marital asset that may need to be sold to satisfy a property settlement, especially if there isn’t enough cash flow to buy out the other spouse.
We help these businesses understand the key steps to take and assist with strategies to mitigate these potentially onerous impacts.
Understanding the Impact on Your Business
The Psychological Toll
The psychological consequences of divorce and/or domestic and family violence are huge, leaving most people feeling deeply affected in all areas of their life, including their work.
In many cases, both partners are highly distracted, mentally exhausted, grieving/angry, often needing to take time off to attend to legal matters, may start to rely on medication or abuse substances, sleep deprived, financially strained, and physically unwell due to the ongoing toll it can all take on their health. Add to this weight the potential that an employee is also experiencing violence, planning to escape the violence, or has escaped and is now trying to remain safe….the psychological toll is overwhelming.
If employers are able to have effective education and insight into how to identify, assist and appropriately support their employees during these highly stressful periods of their lives, it may not only be life-changing for the employee, but culturally, financially, legally, and ethically beneficial to businesses in the short and long term.
The Financial Cost to Business
The costs of relationship breakdown aren’t borne only by the participants.
The Relationships Foundation’s ‘Cost of Family Failure Index’ in the UK recently showed that the burden of break-ups on the taxpayer stands at an annual £51 billion.
The cost to business specifically from separation and divorce typically refers to the financial, legal, operational, and productivity impacts on a business rather than including the flow on more indirect costs, such as culture, staff morale, turnover and safety which can also be very onerous and sometimes more difficult to address in the long term for a business.
Legal & Ethical Obligations
If businesses have staff who are experiencing high levels of stress caused by separation and divorce and/or domestic and family violence and they are made aware of this, the legal and ethical obligations on a business can be onerous.
This includes compliance with obligations arising under Australian legislation, including the Fair Work (including DV leave, unfair dismissals), Workplace Health and Safety, Privacy (employee’s sensitive information) and Anti-Discrimination Acts.
Recently a large Australian organisation breached their obligations under the Fair Work Act when they not only originally denied domestic and family violence leave after incorrectly thinking the person was entitled to the leave, then breached privacy laws as part of their investigations, but then when legally directed to approve the leave, worryingly made an error through payroll which appeared on the applicants payslips being monitored by the perpetrator, placing her at high risk.
Trained personnel and appropriate policies and procedures would have avoided the non-compliances and the risk they then inadvertently caused their employee. Culturally, it caused a lot of damage internally as staff were outraged and the PR was ugly.
Why Divorce is Bad for Business
There is a clear detrimental impact for individuals going through divorce, but the specific ways it impacts businesses include:
Reduced Performance
Lower confidence and motivation, leading to reduced creativity, innovation or productivity
Emotional Instability
Mood swings and emotional volatility that impact teamwork, customer service and communication
Poor Decision Making
Reduced focus and concentration leading to poor decisions, accidents or errors
Health Problems
Increased physical symptoms like insomnia, fatigue, headaches and dramatic weight changes, impacting absenteeism and turnover
Behavioral Changes
Employees uncharacteristically being late, withdrawn, unproductive or negative
Substance Abuse Risk
Creating dangerous employee scenarios that need careful management
In one study, 9% of employees either had to leave their jobs as a result of divorce or separation, or knew a colleague who had done so.
Recognising the Warning Signs
Performance Indicators:
- Sudden decline in work quality or increased errors
- Missed deadlines or difficulty concentrating on tasks
- Uncharacteristic forgetfulness or disorganisation
- Decreased participation in meetings or team activities
- Significant productivity drops on baseline performance
- Increase in complaints from customers or other staff
Behavioral Changes:
- Increased absenteeism or frequent short-notice leave requests
- Emotional volatility - mood swings, irritability, or tearfulness
- Social withdrawal from colleagues, team meetings or events
- Arriving late or leaving early more frequently
- Using all their leave and requesting unpaid leave regularly
- Appearing distracted, anxious, or overwhelmed
Physical Signs:
- Noticeable weight loss or gain
- Signs of fatigue or sleep deprivation
- Frequent headaches or other stress-related symptoms
- Changes in personal grooming or appearance
- Increased sick leave usage
- Signs of bruising or injury
Communication Patterns:
- Receiving personal calls or texts during work hours
- Mentions of legal appointments or court dates
- References to financial stress or housing changes
- Difficulty making decisions or seeking excessive reassurance
- Conversations about childcare arrangements or custody issues
- Request domestic and family violence leave
The Current Support Gap
Despite the high personal and business cost, there is relatively little in the way of explicit support in the workplace for people who are separating or divorcing or genuine training on how to identify domestic and family violence or support staff who have bravely sought help when experiencing domestic and family violence.
Whilst some companies will have general procedures in place to process an employees request for domestic and family violence leave, many have no procedures in place to effectively and safely assist or to know how best to support a person who has trusted the organisation with their highly private and painful information regarding their relationship breakdown.
How businesses, leaders and staff respond to these highly sensitive disclosures can have an a huge impact on the employee and the business in the short and long term.
As one client recently said “I saw the red flags and radical changes in her behaviour but I didn’t know what to say or how to say it….the training has really helped me understand DV, what to say and how, and how to offer the right support for staff.”
Susan Crain
Separation and Divorce Coach, Corporate Governance advisor, workplace education trainer, and lawyer.
Susan is the Founder of the Separation Support Network.
She has worked as a lawyer in Australia and New Zealand for over 30 years and still holds a legal practising certificate in Queensland, Australia. She studied law, majored in psychology, and alternative dispute resolution, and later completed additional studies in corporate governance through the Chartered Governance Institute. Whilst working in commercial organisations, she volunteered as a separation and divorce counsellor and coach for hundreds of clients and worked with many not-for-profit organisations.
She is an author and has written many support resources and programs primarily for Australians and New Zealanders going through separation, divorce, and/or domestic and family violence. For decades, these regularly updated resources and programs have proven highly effective in Susan’s mission to significantly reduce the confusion, overwhelm, stress, expense, , and hardship for many going through these challenging times. Susan is dedicated to improving people’s safety, financial recovery, co-parenting success, and their ability to more confidently emerge from hardship and rebuild their lives.
She has 20 years of corporate governance, compliance, risk management, and complaints management experience, and has been awarded numerous workplace training awards for her board and organisational education programs. Susan has worked with, advised, and/or sat on the board of numerous organisations, including Mater Hospital, Royal Brisbane Hospital, Gold Coast Community Legal Centre, Act for Kids, Caxton Legal Centre, Rize Up, Golden Casket/Tatts, Radford HR, QPF Finance, Daimler Chrysler, Greening Australia, and Open Haven.
She is also proudly aligned with the dynamic and highly regarded Be There Group, a group of passionate Australian psychologists, mediators, and human resource consultants dedicated to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as Leadership expert Kathryn Maggs.
A recent client on working with SSN
Testimonials
Stephanie Rascoe, Radford HR
The professional and expert team at Separation Support Network have provided really invaluable training for many of our corporate clients – offering employers and their teams with more effective tools on how to more confidently and effectively support employees through difficult chapters in their life, including separation, divorce, and/or domestic and family violence, as well as to ensure the organisation’s culture, PR, ethics and legal and compliance obligations are upheld. Separation Support Network has provided invaluable training for many of our client’s leadership teams on how to provide more effective guidance and support for employees who are experiencing domestic and family violence and/or going through a separation or divorce, and to also ensure the businesses have legally compliant systems in place
Ready to Support Your Employees Through Life's Challenges?
With a background in law, psychology, counseling, leadership, human resources, mediation, compliance, risk management, and training, the team at Separation Support Network have the expertise to support businesses, board, employers, and community group leaders to equip them with the knowledge and tools they need to provide genuine and effective support and guidance and avoid the very significant flow-on effects it can have on their businesses.