In this episode, Jamey talks about creating trauma-informed workplaces. He highlights the significant shift in organizational culture over recent years, emphasizing the need for companies to allow employees to bring their whole selves to work, including any trauma they've experienced. He outlines the urgency of developing a trauma-informed workplace as a key component of a prosperous, inclusive, and supportive work environment.

He also breaks down the steps to establish a trauma-informed workplace, starting with understanding trauma and its long-term impacts. He stresses the importance of empowering employees to be authentic and developing supportive policies and practices. He also discusses the need for training on behavioral expectations to mitigate trauma and prevent re-traumatization.

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Key Topics Discussed:

• Introduction to Trauma-Informed Workplaces
• Shifts in Organizational Culture
• Impact of External Events on Workplace Dynamics
• Understanding Trauma and Its Effects
• Empowering Employees to Bring Their Whole Selves to Work
• Developing Supportive Policies, Processes, and Practices
• Training on Behavioral Expectations and Trauma Prevention
• Importance of Intentionality in Trauma-Informed Initiatives

I'm Jamie Applegate, senior director of DEI at Equity at Work. And this is your DEI minute. Your go to podcast for leaders looking to navigate the ever evolving landscape of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. Whether you're just starting out with DEI or looking to sustain your long term successes, each episode will provide you with actions you can take to move DEI forward at your organization, all in 15 minutes or less. Join us every other week as we break through the noise and help you do DEI right. Let's get to it. Today, we are gonna talk about trauma informed workplaces. So recent years, we've seen a significant shift in how organizations approach workplace culture.

Out are companies asking employees to check their personal lives at the door. That's just not realistic. Saying, please come in and just do your job. People are bringing with them everything that they are dealing with and facing outside of work. So in is companies focusing on inviting people to bring their whole selves to work and prioritizing workplaces centered on employee engagement and well-being. This shift was already occurring before the COVID pandemic that started in early 2020, and it's only been accelerated by increased attention on continued societal inequities, violence, a polarized and aggressive political climate. We just had a big election, more frequent and severe environmental disasters, and wars like those currently occurring in Europe and the Middle East. On top of all of this, people are receiving news faster and faster.

I get tons of notifications constantly on my phone about the latest updates on who the incoming administration is going to appoint to specific positions. And also society is evolving quickly. Norms are changing. People's expectations are changing constantly. It is very, very challenging to adapt to this new world. But we've also seen that it makes it more acceptable to talk about any topic that we've discussed in just about every situation, including the workplace. People expect to be able to talk about what they're feeling and experiencing both in and out of the workplace at work. And the result is that people are facing actually more and more mental health challenges, including increased rates of anxiety and depression.

So the best companies are seeing the shift, and they are taking proactive steps to support their employees and their people, and that includes establishing a trauma informed workplace. And so today, we're gonna talk through how do you create that trauma informed workplace, what are some of the things that are available to you, resources that you can do. So number 1, you can learn about trauma and trauma informed workplaces. So according to the US Department of Health and Human Services, trauma results from an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or life threatening And that has a lasting adverse effects on the individual's functioning and mental, physical, social, emotional or spiritual well-being. So what that means is that someone experiences something very negative and then is dealing with the ramifications of that for a very long time throughout the rest of their life likely. And that includes in the workplace. So the workplace can be a place that causes them to think about the traumatic event that they experienced. It can put them in situations that are reminiscent of the traumatic event, and it can exacerbate those feelings of trauma.

So author and expert Katharine Manning defines a trauma informed workplace as an organization that operates with an understanding of trauma and its negative effects on employees, clients, and the communities the company serves while working to mitigate those effects. So step 1 is just understanding trauma and understanding that trauma has a very negative impact on people, on clients, on communities, and then also working to mitigate those effects. So taking proactive approach, taking a proactive approach. So taking a proactive approach to policies, processes, procedures in ways that reduce the instances of new trauma being enacted upon people and reducing the opportunities for there to be re traumatization or exacerbation of existing trauma for your people. So you can take time to advance your knowledge about trauma, where it comes from and how it impacts people, and explore what you can do to transform your organization into a trauma informed workplace. One resource that we have used is, a trauma informed approach to workforce from the National Fund For Workforce Solutions, which we will link to and is linked to on our blog. Number 2 is to empower people to bring their whole selves to work, including the trauma that they may have experienced in their lives. Again, this idea that you want to ask people to just show up to work, check check themselves at the door, and just do their job, it is 1, not realistic.

People cannot do that. And 2, it's self defeating. People are going to feel the thing, and so you're just telling people to do something that they are not able to do, setting them up for failure. So encourage people to bring themselves to work. Ask people how they're doing and what they need to be successful. So this includes communicating that employees are encouraged to show up as their authentic selves and creating spaces specifically for team members to connect with their peers and share about themselves and lived experiences create a lot of connection spaces. It might seem counterintuitive that you want to set aside time where people are not being quote, unquote productive for people just to connect, but those moments of connection and team building and community building actually make people better at their job. And it also makes them more likely to use discretionary effort and sort of go that extra mile or put in a little bit above a 100% on a given task if need be.

Who people work with is just as important as the joy that they get out of doing the task. So these practices help foster a culture of care, support, trust, and psychological safety. It allows employees to know that it's safe to show up to work as themselves and that if they are experiencing trauma or the impacts of trauma, that they will be met with support and not face judgment or reduced career opportunities. Again, if we say to people it is okay to be who you are, we we appreciate and accept the your whole self, people are more likely to show up and want to buy in to the culture and the organization that you're building. Building. So number 3, develop policies, processes, and practices that support people who may have experienced trauma. So develop organizational infrastructure that complements the focus on psychological safety, equity, and inclusion. So this can be done through some policy recommendations such as expanding health benefits to include mental health supports, providing PTO days specifically for mental health, contracting with an employee assistance program.

You might have heard people talk about EAP. Creating on-site wellness rooms and offering flexible and hybrid work arrangements. So if someone's having a really, really tough day or if they've had a moment where they've maybe experienced something that kind of brought up issues related to trauma they may have experienced, allowing them to work from home, that's feasible, is really powerful because they're still doing the work. They're just able to do it in a more maybe comfortable environment that's gonna be more conducive to their success on that day. And number 4, implement training on behavioral expectations that can help prevent and mitigate trauma and re traumatization. So offer professional development to all employees. Doesn't necessarily have to be mandatory, although it can be really valuable for especially for leaders that is focused on education and expected behaviors and activities. So these can include DEI 101 or inclusive leadership and fostering psychological safety, trauma 101, what it is, how it impacts people, how it can show up at work.

Another one would be identifying, preventing, and mitigating trauma and retraumatization, and then finally, deescalation and mental health crisis management. So these are some trainings that you could offer to leaders or to your entire staff or the entire team around how to support people and how to become a trauma informed workplace. So trauma is a sensitive, complex, and challenging topic. It requires acting with care and sensitivity constantly. Moving too quickly without a guiding strategy or the necessary organizational capacity can cause harm to the exact people a trauma informed workplace is designed to support. So you don't need to do everything all at once. Be very intentional with the strategy because the act of building a trauma informed organization can actually retrigger some of the trauma that people have experienced. You have to be very, very careful.

So, again, be intentional, be thoughtful. A trauma informed workplace has become a necessity. It is no longer a nice to have, not only for your people, but also for your organization's long term success. So go out there, do some trauma informed work, develop a trauma informed workplace, and reach out to us if you need any help. Thanks so much. That's a wrap. I'm Jamie Applegate, and that's your DEI Minute for today. Thank you for listening.

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