Dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking have effects not just in the home, but also in the workplace. Violence affects not only employees who are victims, but also co-workers, managers, and employee perpetrators. It also impacts employees' attendance, productivity, health care costs, morale, and safety.

A policy addressing the workplace effects of domestic and sexual violence is an important step in tackling these issues; it creates a roadmap for employers and managers to respond in supportive, safe and effective ways.

This tool will help you create a workplace policy by guiding you through a series of questions. It will offer you a choice of model language based on a promising practice (which has the most protective language for employees) or, if applicable, language based on the law in your state or locality. With either choice you will be in compliance with the relevant law. In some jurisdictions, specific laws do not exist for each issue this policy covers, then you will only see the "promising practice" as a choice.

It should take you about 15-20 minutes to complete, and you will be able to download the policy and save it on your computer at the end of the process. You will also receive a checklist of additional matters to consider.

First, we’ll need some information about your organization.