Family violence is the number one cause of homelessness for women in Australia and violence against women costs the Australian economy over $14 billion each year.
To create a better life for members,
Mercer is taking action by providing a best practice framework of training and practical resources for customer-facing staff in the superannuation industry.
Mercer Pacific’s Chief Customer Officer, Cambell Holt, told
HRD that the training is crucial to guarantee that customers in positions of financial hardship - particularly hardship as a result of domestic violence - receive the very best support possible.
“Being in a position of customer service when confronted with customers in these situations can be a very difficult conversation, challenging for not only the customers or the superannuation members, but also the employees that are required to support these customers,” Holt told
HRD.
“We felt we could deliver a much better experience for our members in these situations if we have staff who are specifically trained and equipped.
“With one-in-three women experiencing some form of violence, it is vital that we prepare member- facing staff for the difficult and traumatic conversations.”
Mercer has established workshop materials, internal training and member-facing documentation to better prepare staff.
“Member-facing staff who have gone through Mercer’s pilot program of training said that they felt far better equipped to have conversations with members experiencing financial hardship or family violence,” said Holt.
“I have been very heartened by the response to the training from all our staff.”
Mercer is also offering all of these resources at no cost to the superannuation industry.
Any superannuation fund expressing an interest can receive a free resource toolkit that will deliver Mercer’s best in class framework and resources to external super funds so that they may support their member service teams better.
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