Health and wellbeing

Work-related stress is an important consideration when exploring the health and wellbeing of staff, and there are various elements of an individual’s role that may contribute to such stress.

78% of the specialist family violence response workforce reported that they experienced at least moderate work-related stress, and 33% experienced high, very high or severe levels.1

84% of those who experienced at least high levels of stress reported that this was due to a high volume of work / high demands of their role, whilst 48% also cited poor management or organisational issues.²

Figure 16 illustrates the frequency at which this workforce had experienced a range of factors that may contribute to workplace stress. Positively, over eight-in-ten respondents indicated that they:

• felt safe in performing their role (85% always or often); and
• received the respect they believed they deserved from colleagues at work (81%).

However, it should be noted that 15% also reported that they only felt safe sometimes, or less often, and 19% felt that they received the respect they deserved only sometimes, or less often.

In contrast, only half of this workforce (50%) reported that they usually had sufficient time to complete their tasks (consistent with the high volume of work / role demands noted earlier).

Figure 16: Frequency of various workplace wellbeing metrics. Base: All respondents

As outlined earlier, although high volume of work and poor management were the most cited causes of workplace stress, 43% of those who experienced at least high levels of stress also mentioned vicarious trauma.

For the purposes of the Census, vicarious trauma is defined as:

The experience of trauma that stems from indirectly living the experiences, thoughts, and emotions of those undergoing or recounting traumatic events.

59% understood that their organisation had processes or policies and procedures in place to recognise and manage vicarious trauma.³

35% felt that these measures were very or extremely effective in assisting them to recognise that they are experiencing vicarious trauma. A further 47% felt that they were moderately effective.⁴

31% felt that these measures were very or extremely effective in assisting them to manage vicarious trauma. Again, 47% felt that they were moderately effective.⁵

Overall, three-quarters of the specialist family violence response workforce indicated that they were satisfied in their current role (75% – see Figure 17). Positively, only a minority expressed dissatisfaction (10%), whilst 15% were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied in their role.

Figure 17: Overall satisfaction with current role

Base: All respondents (n=1,406)

Figure 17: Overall satisfaction with current role.

Overall satisfaction did not differ substantially by various demographic cohorts such as age, gender, number of roles held, organisation size or tenure. Results split by organisation type are presented in Table 6 overleaf.

Respondents were additionally asked to comment on how much difference they believe their work makes to people affected by family violence.

66% indicated that they felt that their work makes a significant difference to people affected by family violence, whilst 32% felt their work makes a moderate difference.[1]

There was not a strong correlation between overall role satisfaction and whether one felt that their role made a positive difference to people affected by family violence, suggesting that differences in satisfaction levels were driven by other factors.

[1] Q67. How much difference do you think your work makes to people affected by family violence? (n=1,352)

Perceptions of the difference their work made differed by some demographic cohorts, as follows:

• Gender – Females were more likely than males to feel as though their work made a significant difference to people affected by family violence (68% versus 53% of males).
• Organisation size – perceptions that their work made a significant difference to people affected by family violence reduced as organisation size increased: 69% of those in smaller organisations (1-49 staff) indicated that they felt this way, compared to 57% of staff in organisation with more than 200 staff.
• Organisation type – see Table 6 for details.

Key results by organisation type are presented in Table 6  

Table 6: Key results by organisation type

*n= indicates the range of the sample sizes across the three key questions.

When asked about various elements of their roles, the results suggested that the specialist family violence workforce were most satisfied with the nature of the work that they perform and working conditions (87% and 80% respectively – see Figure 18).

In contrast, the main areas for improvement where respondents indicated that they were least satisfied included:

• opportunities for advancement (48% satisfied, 27% dissatisfied)
• pay / compensation (56% satisfied, 28% dissatisfied)
• support and mentoring (61% satisfied, 18% dissatisfied)

In order to determine what was most important in influencing overall levels of role satisfaction, regression analysis was undertaken. The results suggest that the key drivers were having positive perceptions of:

• team leader / management support
• the nature of the work performed
• recognition for expertise
• working conditions
• workload and hours

Respondents were asked to explain what they felt to be the three most important changes that could be made to enable them to carry out their work more effectively. Free-text comments were coded into themes, with the main themes illustrated in Figure 19.