Psychological Safety at Work

For the most part, we all spend a good chunk of our time working. A question you may ask yourself occasionally is whether you’re able to be the most authentic version of yourself at work. Do you feel like you can be the same person at work as you are at home? Outside of work, most people are dealing with life’s challenges, whether it is financial, physical, emotional, relational, etc. Having a stressful workload and a demanding personal life can be exhausting and lead to burnout. You may even find yourself reaching a fork in the road where you have to prioritize work over personal life or vice versa. Many would argue that family comes first and work is not meant to be taken too seriously. But what if you were able to balance it all? Even if it meant taking a step back from either situation temporarily so you don’t have to make any life changing decisions? Unfortunately, many workers find it difficult to balance work and life and don’t feel like they have support from their employer, so they make the sacrifice. This is what happens when there’s no sense of security, or psychological safety, at work.

What is Psychological Safety at Work?

Psychological safety at work means as an employee, you feel safe being yourself at work as well as using your voice and taking risks without fear of judgement, rejection, or punishment. Today, many employers strive to support employee wellbeing, but the focus is more on financial and physical wellbeing. For employees, that additional component of psychological safety at work means you can trust and rely on your employer to be supportive during challenging times. Therefore, you’re more likely to be engaged, productive and loyal to your employer.

Why Should Employers Care about Psychological Safety?

Employers who provide psychologically safe environments create stronger bonds and loyalty. When company culture is strong, everyone wants to pull their weight, and then some. This results in higher performance/productivity, lower absenteeism/reliability, innovation, profitability, and employee retention. Alternatively, when there’s a lack of employer support for psychological safety, it impacts business continuity, operational costs, employer brand/reputation, and individual and organizational performance.

6 Ways Employees Feel Psychologically Safe at Work:

Because we spend a lot of time at work, job-seekers and employees are relying on their employer to not only support their financial wellness, but all other areas of wellness too. For employers, it is crucial to train and develop leadership to cultivate a safe space/work environment to foster psychological safety. So how can leaders achieve this? Below are six ways employees feel psychologically safe at work:

1) Having autonomy and the freedom to use their own judgement to complete their job.

When hiring, leaders select the best candidate for the job. With confidence in their choice, it’s important to allow employees to demonstrate their skills and abilities. Further, to have a say in how they do their work and their deadlines. Leaders are available to help with goal setting and providing direction as needed along the way.

2) Feeling valued as an employee.

It’s important to get to know your employees on some personal level. Employees need to know that they are safe going to their manager with concerns – even personal ones like mental health. Being open in communication and addressing the stigma around mental health goes a long way. In addition to leadership support, companies can benefit by offering support groups to address loneliness and isolation, as this is a very valuable resource to company culture and employee wellbeing.

At times, the stress and burnout we experience can be challenging to navigate alone. With leaders paying attention to employee needs and sharing resources such as Employee Assistance Programs (EAP), employees are more likely to feel seen, heard, and valued. In fact, according to Mercer, “62% of employees who can access mental health benefits through their employer feel well supported.”

3) Having their immediate manager’s support for work/life balance.

If you have an employee that is typically reliable and meeting performance expectations, it shouldn’t be an issue when they need to step away from work to tend to a personal matter. If an employee is making progress, meeting deadlines and resolving issues timely, support for personal time should not be a concern.

4) Having the ability to speak up and take risks without fear of negative consequences.

Leaders must regularly schedule times to check in with their team together and one-on-one. During this time, it’s important to not only touch up on reminders and expectations but listen to what’s on employees minds. Creating an open environment where employees can ask questions or share their experience, mistakes, and ideas without fear of being humiliated or punished keeps them engaged and motivated. A strong leader understands the importance of regular feedback, listening with an open mind and empathy, and stepping in for support when needed. Setting time aside to review things ensures all parties will be on the same page. The more consistent the meetings, the easier for communication to be open, honest, and productive. Making this a priority demonstrates not only that you value and are genuinely interested in your teams thoughts and ideas, but also your willingness to take feedback into consideration without negative consequences.

5) Trust and Respect.

Create more opportunities for feedback outside of meetings, such as surveys. Review feedback carefully and act on input or be transparent whenever you can’t take action as to the reason why. Building trust also means being vulnerable. As Seen@Work put it, vulnerability allows leaders to “discover problems faster, as people are more likely to bring issues forward and admit to mistakes if they aren’t afraid of doing so.” Moreover, “vulnerability stimulates collaboration, learning and growth rather than fear, cover-up and blame.”

6) Having a Manageable Workload.

It’s not healthy or impressive for someone to be losing sleep and breaking their backs to get their job done. Having too many priorities can lead to exhaustion and burnout. This inevitably leads to more errors, reduced productivity, work-related injuries, turnover, and/or damaged reputation. A sufficient amount of work will keep employees engaged and productive. Further, having a manageable workload means they’ll be more likely to participate in extra tasks outside their job duties such as culture and community initiatives. Leaders are encouraged to create space for employees to be honest about being overwhelmed without fear of discipline. Yes – manage performance and keep everyone accountable, but be realistic about abilities and expectations.

Action Plan

To summarize, integrating psychological safety management into your policies will be beneficial overall. The main component of psychologically safe environments, is leadership. Leaders can promote psychological safety by: empowering employees to use their own judgement, acknowledging external pressures impacting work, promoting and supporting work/life balance, reminding about the company’s mental health resources, encouraging experimentation and not always punishing setbacks, allowing space to voice things without fear of negative consequences, and regularly reviewing and adjusting workload as needed. While these ideas may be present throughout the handbook, a section specifically dedicated to psychological safety can make the expectation for leaders that much clearer, and your business that much more successful.