Amie Courtney, Human Resources Director, Cranberry Township.
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Gallup recently released its State of the Global Workplace 2022 report, which identified that "60% of people are emotionally detached at work and 19% are miserable." A quick search on any internet platform will identify mental health and well-being as a main priority for employers and another quick search can find a long list of ways to improve your employees' mental well-being. However, despite this increased focus on employee mental health, well-being and efforts by employers to offer support and services, employees continue to struggle. The question to each of us across all leadership roles in business needs to be: Why? Why, despite these efforts, are employees continuing to remain emotionally detached in record numbers?
The Importance Of Trauma-Informed Workplaces
I believe that what is missing is education and training to allow employers to become trauma-informed workplaces. Now you may be thinking, "What does that even mean?" Or you may think, "Trauma only exists for a small percentage of my employees."
To provide context, a recent article in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry estimated the total economic burden of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for 2018 at $232.2 billion, with $42.7 billion of that burden resulting from civilian unemployment. Trauma-related symptoms that can impact an employee’s ability to perform at work may include anxiety, depression, lack of motivation, intrusive thoughts, emotional dysregulation, poor memory concentration or focus, or high sensitivity to criticism. These impacts alone demonstrate the importance of employers becoming a trauma-informed workplace.
In order to address the impact trauma has on the workforce and become trauma-informed, employers must first understand what trauma is. Trauma is an emotional response and impact left on a person after living through a distressing event. However, it is important to remember that trauma is based on how an individual experiences an event and has nothing to do with anyone else's determination about whether that event is distressing.
Individuals who have experienced trauma may demonstrate a sudden decline in their performance or may have areas that are repeatedly identified as needing improvement but do not improve, even with performance improvement plans or specific goals identified for them. Employees demonstrating trauma symptoms such as those identified above will continue to struggle with meeting performance standards until the underlying cause of lack of performance is addressed.
How To Become A Trauma-Informed Employer
Trauma-informed employers will be well-equipped to recognize the underlying cause of these difficulties and to provide support and guidance for that underlying trauma. The CDC has identified guiding principles to help create a trauma-informed approach in a variety of avenues, which is applicable to employers. Those six principles are:
• Safety
• Trustworthiness and transparency
• Peer support
• Collaboration and mutuality
• Empowerment and choice
• Cultural, historical and gender issues
As any business leader is aware at this point, it is imperative that employers develop policies and trainings directed at informing and supporting their employees' mental well-being. Those looking to incorporate trauma-informed education should focus on establishing a culture that supports the physical and emotional safety of their employees, recognizes the signs and symptoms of trauma on physical and mental health, builds trust and promotes collaboration among all levels of staff, promotes empowering all employees and provides an environment that is sensitive and supportive of employee racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds and gender identity.
By doing so, employers will ultimately improve employee engagement, resulting in increased employee retention and productivity.
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