Workforce Resilience emphasizes the importance of attending to people's psychological and emotional well-being in maximizing their preparedness for entering, re-entering, and advancing in their careers. The Workforce Resilience Enhancement Project develops resources and tools to strengthen the capacity of job readiness and workforce development professionals to understand and respond to how the cognitive, psychological, emotional, and behavioral effects of trauma can impair an individual’s abilities to develop the skills, attitudes, and habits needed for successful employment.

Image by Luca Bravo

How Trauma Affects Your Clients

Attending to trauma is central to your work as a job readiness and workforce development professional. 

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Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the psychological and emotional trauma was quite prevalent across the US, and now in the aftermath of COVID-19, the overwhelming majority of Americans are coping with some level of psychological and emotional trauma. 

 

Most if not all of the clients who are coping with long-term underemployment and unemployment are attempting to recover from or manage ongoing traumatic life experiences and if left unaddressed they will struggle to succeed.

 

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Rainbow and Waterfall

Brief 1: Talking With Clients About Trauma – Q&A

It is important that as a workforce development professional, you learn how to supportively talk with your clients about traumatic life experiences. ... To effectively identify clients who are coping with the trauma you will need to ask sensitive questions and utilize a screening questionnaire. Read more>>>

Mountain Range

Brief 2: Strengthening Clients’ Emotional Capacity to Meet Workplace Expectations: Strategies for Managing Emotional Distress in Customer Service Work

Explicitly teaching your clients how to manage the emotional aspects of customer service interactions in ways that will enable them to remain calm and professional in the face of emotional triggers is key to helping them succeed in the service industry. Read more>>>

Image by Marita Kavelashvili

Brief 3: Anger Management Techniques for Clients Who Have Experienced Trauma

Expressing anger in the workplace can come at a cost for both the individual and the organization or company. Problems for clients who struggle to manage their anger include lack of advancement, colleagues being less likely to work with them, vendors or customers avoiding them or even being fired. Read more>>>