Helping Employees Through Trauma

The U.S. workplace is filled with opportunities for trauma. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 27 percent of 888,220 nonfatal work injuries in the U.S. in 2019 (the most recent year for which statistics are available) were related to slips and falls. A recent World Health Organization study revealed that depression and anxiety cost the global economy over $1 trillion per year. Workers can, and do, experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from workplace conditions.

• After attending you will be able to define what is meant by trauma and wellness
• After attending you will be able to describe 10 principles to follow to help ensure wellness
• After attending you will be able to discuss with friends and family what you do for physical, mental, and spiritual wellness in the workplace—and outside the workplace
• After attending you will be able to explain why maintaining wellness and overcoming trauma is so important at a time when a mental health care crisis exists in America

Introduction

1.       Overview
2.       Objectives
3.       The organizational structure of the presentation
4.       About the presenter

Recognizing the Need and Importance for Wellness

1.        What is wellness, and what is trauma?
2.        Why are health and wellness so important?
3.        What are some facts and figures about trauma in the U.S. workplace?
4.        What are some facts and figures on how employers help employees through trauma in the workplace?

Overcoming Trauma Through Physical Fitness

1.          What is physical fitness, and how does that fit into a larger self-care regimen?
2.          What are the components of a physical fitness regimen?
3.          How do you formulate and implement a physical fitness regimen?

 Overcoming Trauma Through Mental Wellness

1.            What is mental wellness, and how does that fit into a larger wellness regimen?
2.            What are the components of a mental wellness regimen?
3.            How do you formulate and implement a mental wellness regimen?

Ensuring Spiritual Wellness

1.            What is spiritual wellness, and how does that fit into a larger wellness regimen?
2.            What are the components of a spiritual wellness regimen?
3.            How do you formulate and implement a spiritual wellness regimen?

Summary and Final Questions and Answers

Overcoming trauma in the workplace begins with awareness of what is needed to keep oneself healthy, happy, and feeling good. It means doing one’s best to recognize depression and find ways to keep one’s body, mind, and spirit healthy. This webinar focuses on how employers can help employees overcome trauma and achieve physical, mental, and spiritual wellness.

• Business owners
• Managers
• HR managers
• Professionals

William J. Rothwell, PhD, DBA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, CPTD Fellow, RODC, FLMI is a Distinguished Professor in the
Workforce Education and Development program in the Department of Learning and Performance Systems at the
Pennsylvania State University, University Park campus.
Work Experience
Dr. Rothwell worked full-time in human resources, training and Organization Development in both government (Illinois Office of Auditor General) and in a multinational company (American Brands, #48 on the Fortune 500 list) from 1979 until he joined Penn State University as a professor to head up a graduate program in Human Resource Development/Organization Development He has been a consultant for over 50 multinational companies. Among his many clients are Motorola University China, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Siemens, Sony, GM Shanghai, Phillips, Erickson, HP, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), the American Red Cross, Care, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Postal Service, and many more. He is President of two consulting firms: (1) Rothwell & Associates, Inc. (a firm that focuses on public speaking online and onsite) and (2) Rothwell & Associates, LLC (a firm that focuses on consulting with an emphasis on succession planning, talent management and related topics). He is also, with his wife, a business owner of The Rothwell Partnership, which controls 10 homes for rent. From 1997 until 2022 he and his wife also owned and operated a personal care
home (Greenhills Village and Assisted Living Residence) for the elderly that was licensed by the State of Pennsylvania for 54 residents and employed 27 full-time and part-time employees.
Education and Professional Certifications 
Dr. Rothwell earned his Bachelor’s degree in English with High Honors and Department Honors from Illinois State University; he earned a Master’s degree and completed all courses for the Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; he earned his Master of Arts in Business Administration (MABA) from Sangamon State University (a university since renamed the University of Illinois at Springfield); he earned his Ph.D. with a specialization in Human Resource Development from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and, in 2022 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) by the Alliance International University in Dutch Curaçao in the Caribbean. He has also earned multiple professional certifications: the Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) from the Human Resource Certification Institute; the Society for Human Resource Management Senior Professional in Human Resources (SHRM-SCP); the Registered Organization Development Consultant (RODC) designation from the International Society for
Organization Development and Change; and the Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD) Fellow (member of the Hall of Fame) from the Association for Talent Development. He is a Fellow of the Life Management Institute (FLMI) designation based on passing 10 graduate courses in the insurance field. (The latter is essentially a Master’s degree in insurance.)
International Work
Dr. Rothwell has been to China 83 times, to Singapore 32 times, and has visited every continent (except Antarctica) to do training, consulting, college teaching, and research. He has chaired 110 Ph.D. committees at Penn State, has served on doctoral committees at foreign universities in England, China, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates, and is still listed as a visiting professor at Nankai University in Tianjin China, a visiting professor at Shanghai JiaoTong University in Shanghai, and a special speaker at Renmin University in Beijing China. (He taught 10 MBA courses at Nankai University and 10 MBA courses at Beijing University.)
Awards
In 2022 Dr. Rothwell was named a Distinguished Professor in the College of Education, was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Organization Development Network, and earned the Global Lifetime Achievement Award by Penn State Global Programs (the university’s highest award for doing work internationally). He received the Distinguished Researcher Award from the College of Education in 2016 and was given the Graduate Faculty Teaching Award in the 2004-2005 academic year. (The teaching award is a single award given to one faculty member on Penn State’s 24 campuses each year.). In 2011 he was given the Association for Talent Development’s Distinguished Contribution to Workplace Learning and Performance Award; in 2016 he received the Best Global Training and Development Leadership Award from the World HRD Congress in India, and in 2014 he was named a Brandlaureate in Malaysia. In 2022 he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by The OD Network; in 2023 he was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame; in 2024 he was named to Marquis’ Who’s Who in America; and in 2024 he has been notified that he will be given the International Society for Performance Improvement’s (ISPI) Thomas F. Gilbert Distinguished Professional Achievement Award at the 2025
conference. 
Publications and Presentations

Dr. Rothwell has authored, coauthored, edited, or coedited 158 books since 1987 and has delivered over 2,000 professional online and onsite presentations over 30 years in 15 nations. His recent books since 2020 include Succession Planning for Small Business and Family Business, Rethinking Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, High-Performance Coaching for Managers, Organization Development (OD) Interventions: Executing Effective Organizational Change, Virtual Coaching to Improve Group Relationships: Process Consultation Reimagined, Adult Learning Basics 2nd ed., Increasing Learning and Development’s Impact Through Accreditation, The Essential HR Guide for Small Businesses and Startups, and Workforce Development: Guidelines for Community College Professionals, 2nd ed.