Designing a Trauma-Informed Workplace: From Principles to Practice
Designing a Trauma-Informed Workplace: From Principles to Practice
A practical, hands-on workshop to build safer workplaces through better management, policies, processes and organisational design.
Duration: 3 hours (including a 10-minute break)
Format: Interactive online workshop
Facilitated by: Chayn
Who should attend: HR and People teams, organisational development professionals, wellbeing leads, policy and compliance teams, Trust & Safety professionals, and organisational leaders.
What does it actually take to design a trauma-informed workplace?
Many organisations are committed to supporting employee wellbeing. They've invested in mental health awareness, employee assistance programmes and training managers to respond with empathy.
But what happens when the systems themselves create barriers to safety?
When an employee needs flexibility but cannot safely explain why. When a performance management process demands personal disclosure. When a grievance procedure removes someone's sense of control. Or when workplace technology inadvertently exposes sensitive information.
Trauma-informed practice isn't just about how we respond when someone discloses trauma. It's about how we design workplaces that protect safety, dignity and agency — even when someone chooses not to share their story.
This three-hour interactive workshop moves beyond awareness into application.
Building on Chayn's survivor-centred, trauma-informed design approach, participants will examine real workplace challenges, practise difficult management conversations, stress-test organisational policies and identify opportunities to embed trauma-informed principles across the employee lifecycle.
This isn't three hours of presentations. You'll be actively working through scenarios, reviewing policies, making decisions and developing practical changes you can take back to your organisation.
What we'll work through together
1. FOUNDATION — Understanding trauma-informed organisational practice
We'll establish the foundations of trauma-informed practice, exploring how power, agency, privacy, predictability, choice and capacity shape people's experiences at work.
We'll examine what survivor safety means in practice, why trauma-informed management isn't therapy, and how organisations can maintain accountability without requiring people to disclose personal experiences.
2. SEE — Understanding survivor safety in the workplace
What might an employee be experiencing that isn't visible to their manager or colleagues?
Using a detailed fictional workplace scenario, you'll explore how trauma, abuse and coercive control can affect someone's working life.
You'll conduct a Workplace Safety Scan, examining physical, digital, information, emotional and employment safety, and identifying where everyday organisational practices could unintentionally increase risk.
You'll take away: A Survivor Workplace Safety Scan.
3. RESPOND — Practising trauma-informed people management
How do you respond when someone's performance or capacity changes, but they don't want to explain why?
Through a practical management scenario, you'll explore how to recognise changes without diagnosing, discuss needs without demanding disclosure, offer meaningful choices, communicate confidentiality boundaries and maintain fair expectations.
You'll also examine where a manager's responsibilities begin and end, including when and how to connect employees with appropriate support.
You'll take away: A Trauma-Informed Manager Conversation Guide.
4. REDESIGN — Making workplace policies safer
Policies that appear neutral or fair on paper can sometimes create unintended risks for people experiencing trauma or abuse.
Working in small groups, you'll review a fictional workplace policy covering areas such as absence, performance management, hybrid working, grievances or domestic abuse.
Using Chayn's trauma-informed policy lens, you'll identify where the policy may compromise safety, privacy, agency, equity or access — and then rewrite part of it to demonstrate how the policy could work differently.
You'll take away: A Trauma-Informed Policy Review Checklist.
5. EMBED — Bringing trauma-informed practice into the employee lifecycle
Trauma-informed practice shouldn't depend on individual managers or isolated policies. It needs to be considered throughout the employee experience.
We'll map the employee lifecycle, from recruitment and onboarding to everyday management, development, absence, performance, grievances and exit.
You'll identify where routine organisational processes might unintentionally increase risk, remove choice or require unnecessary disclosure — and where practical improvements could make a meaningful difference.
You'll take away: A Trauma-Informed Employee Lifecycle Map.
You'll leave with more than awareness.
By the end of the workshop, you'll have:
A clearer understanding of how trauma and survivor safety intersect with everyday workplace systems.
Practical tools to assess physical, digital, information, emotional and employment safety.
Greater confidence navigating sensitive management conversations without demanding disclosure.
Experience reviewing and redesigning a workplace policy using trauma-informed principles.
A framework for identifying risks and opportunities across the employee lifecycle.
A personal action plan: one immediate change, one policy or process to investigate, one internal conversation to initiate, and one longer-term organisational priority.
Who is this workshop for?
This workshop is designed for people who influence how organisations operate, including HR and People professionals, managers, organisational development and wellbeing teams, policy and compliance leads, Trust & Safety teams, and leaders responsible for workplace culture and employee experience.
You don't need specialist knowledge of trauma to participate. You do need a willingness to question familiar practices and explore how they might work differently.
No one will be asked to disclose personal experiences of trauma.
Why learn with Chayn?
Chayn is a global nonprofit working to make healing accessible to survivors of gender-based violence through trauma-informed, multilingual and feminist technology.
Our approach brings together survivor-centred design, organisational practice, technology safety and an understanding of how power operates within systems.
We work with organisations to translate trauma-informed principles into practical changes in policies, processes, services and workplace culture.
From good intentions to safer systems
A trauma-informed workplace isn't one where everyone knows how to respond when someone shares their story. It's one where people can experience safety, dignity and choice — even when they choose not to share it.
Join us to move beyond the principles and start putting them into practice.
Facilitator: Manpreet Dhillon, Director, Operations
Manpreet Dhillon is a passionate advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) in the workplace, particularly within the realm of artificial intelligence (AI) and the Future of Work. Before joining chayn, with over 20 years of experience in HR and DE&I, she founded Veza Global to empower organizations across government, tech, non-profit, and the UN to build more equitable and inclusive workplaces. Her expertise extends to consulting with startups and small businesses on leveraging AI to streamline operations, cultivate inclusive environments, and optimize people management.
Manpreet's leadership journey encompasses coaching, HR, change management, internal audits, and community development. She brings a unique perspective as a settler in Canada, born to Indian immigrants, and living with an invisible disability. This lived experience fuels her commitment to systemic change that dismantles institutionalized inequalities and ensures authentic representation.
Manpreet's achievements include ranking #15 globally on the 2020 EmPower Ethnic Minority Future Leaders list. She holds a Master's degree in Organizational Management and is a Certified Human Resources Professional, Gender Mainstreaming Specialist, and Certified Internal Auditor. Manpreet is also a published author, contributing to Chicken Soup for the Soul, Forbes, Thrive Global, and CHRP People Talk.
If finances are an issue, please contact us · 180 minutes · Open to HR, Wellness, Organisational Development, Policy, and Trust & Safety teams