Mercer takes action on family violence
Mercer has created a best practice framework of training and practical resources to assist customer-facing staff in the superannuation industry hep members who are experiencing financial hardship due to family violence.
The resources consisted of workshop materials, internal training and member-facing documentation to help prepare staff not just deal with potentially traumatic conversations themselves, but also offer the best advice possible to members.
Mercer would provide these resources free of charge to any superannuation fund.
Mercer Pacific’s chief customer officer, Cambell Holt said that the superannuation industry had a responsibility to care for members suffering family violence.
“With one in three women experiencing some form of violence … it was crucial to ensure that staff were provided with the necessary resources to effectively assist and support vulnerable members,” he said.
“As an industry we have a responsibility to help these women – our members. By taking action now, we can offer some hope where there may be despair.”
Holt said that over the past two years, Mercer had received over 6,000 calls from customers seeking financial hardship claims, 40 per cent of which were from women.
Mercer would also shortly release employee support packages to assist staff who are experiencing family violence themselves.
AUTHOR
Hannah Wootton
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