Part 3 - how to build psychological safety in your workplace
A blog for leaders and managers
In this blog, you’ll find science-backed strategies on how to build psychological safety, the benefits of successfully implementing these strategies and key takeaways for managers and leaders looking to create a psychosocially safe space for your team and wider organisation.
Creating Psychological Safety
Creating psychological safety requires intentional practices and leadership commitment. We appreciate you’re working within real time constraints - including limited time and at times with sceptical management. Keeping in mind that these strategies are aimed to be practical and doable for your 'real' workplace culture.
Lead with humility
It’s crucial to show your team that it’s okay to get it wrong occasionally. Managers or Team Leaders who admit that they don’t have all the answers create permission for their team to do the same. Employees will tackle problems more creatively when they’re not waiting for directives and people within the department develop better communication through 'collaborative problem-solving' and 'innovation', which increases when employees feel safe proposing original or individualistic idea.
Managers example: be genuine and begin meetings with “I’m not sure about the best approach here, what are your thoughts or ideas?'. Start small by asking your employees / team open questions providing an opening and learning together in this way builds trust.
Establish strong communication channels
Psychological Safety in the workplace thrives when communication flows freely in every direction. We’ve all met managers in our role who have said, 'my door is always open' - yet employees still don’t speak up because they don’t fully believe or trust what they’re being told. You need to have intentional strategies, not just 'good intentions', which will show that your employees voices matter and their feedback is acted upon.
Managers example: Following a team meeting send a follow-up email to the effect of “Thank you for speaking up and highlighting your specific concerns”, furthermore letting them know of the specific actions you’re taking to address the feedback provided.
Measure and monitor psychological safety
As a manager you can’t improve what you don’t measure and concrete data allows you to track progress being made within your team, and importantly it also demonstrates your “value” to the employees or team members.
Using validated measures like the Amy Edmondson’s “Team Psychological Safety Survey” can help you to benchmark and understand progress over time, in relation to both your performance and the performance of your team members.
Behavioural profiling
Profiling can greatly enhance psychological safety by helping employees understand various communication styles and working preferences. When employees recognise that team members process information differently, or require varying levels of detail, they are less likely to misinterpret management behaviours as being dismissive or difficult.
This understanding creates empathy and reduces anxiety which comes from “misreading social cues.” Utilising this approach makes it safer for everyone to feel more comfortable contributing.
Prioritise face-to-face interaction
We know that while written communication, including emails and texts have their place, psychological safety flourishes with direct human manager and employee connection. Texting or Teams Chat can obscure tone and intent, which creates barriers to building trust and limits spontaneous conversational exchanges that create openness and creativity within your team.
Key take-away for managers: consider the person/employee you’re talking to, what are their preferences for communication? and how you can accommodate them?
Example: Start each week with a 15 minute “coffee chat” either in person or virtual, getting to know them outside the workplace, where work talk is off-limits. Getting to know your employees in this way builds interpersonal trust that in turn makes work vulnerability feel safer for your employees and your team.
How organisations can measure psychological safety
You can measure psychological safety through regular surveys, as previously referenced, and asking specific questions about:
Speaking up
Risk-taking
Anonymous feedback channels
Implementing tracking metrics including staff turnover rates, safety incidents and employee engagement scores are instrumental in measuring psychological safety.
What are the signs?
Signs of low psychological safety include employees staying silent during a meeting, a lack of questions or constructive challenges to suggesting ideas or people not admitting mistakes or asking for help when needed.
You may see high turnover rates, particularly with top performing team members or a lack of innovation or new ideas being shared.
Employees blaming work culture where they hide mistakes to avoid punishment or judgement is often Indicative of a “pervasive blame culture”.
Individuals and teams prioritising prioritize self-protection and image management over actual problem-solving, leading to ‘group think” and guarded communication with management.
The real cost of a low-trust psychologically unsafe workplace is far more than a “dip” in morale, it has a direct and significant drain on your organisation’s resources, innovation and profitability.
Who is responsible?
As an employer or manager, it’s your responsibility to take stock of these shifting dynamics in your workplace before it’s too late, in an era where emails and internet connectivity blur the boundaries between our professional and personal lives, it’s essential to understand your role and responsibilities in promoting psychological safety and upholding legal obligations in the workplace.
Management sets the tone for workplace safety, and they must model vulnerability and reward team members for speaking up.
Team leaders create day-to-day trust through their responses to mistakes and questions asked by their team members.
In Western Australia employers are required to perform through risk assessments for potential psychological hazards. The assessment should not only identify risks but also estimate the likelihood and severity of harm that could result from them.
Safe Work Australia has begun a complete overhaul of its Workplace laws, in recent years there has been a huge shift in focus towards mental wellbeing in the workplace to compliment the well-established physical health requirements.
The way forward for workplace psychological safety
In our digital era, psychological safety in the workplace has become paramount. As we adapt to complex modern environments, it’s become increasingly clear in relation with our investigations that prioritizing employee’s mental health is much more than a tick-box action, it’s a legal obligation and a vital component for enhancing productivity and maintaining a successful department or organisation.
It’s time that departments/organisations take a proactive stance in creating a safe workplace, but we understand that it’s not an overnight process.
Psychological safety is strengthened when employees know that their workplace concerns will be taken seriously, addressed fairly and investigated without bias.
It requires organisations to recognise concerns early and to respond to them objectively. When allegations of favouritism, unfair treatment or poor management arise, an independent investigation can provide the impartiality and structure to establish the facts, protect the integrity of the process and give employees the confidence that their concerns will be heard.
Creating a safer workplace
A workplace culture built on fairness, transparency and psychological safety doesn’t happen by accident; it requires departments to establish clear governance frameworks, to apply policies and procedures consistently within their teams, ensure workplace concerns are managed objectively and provide appropriate strategies regarding conflicts of interest or unfair treatment which may include independent assessment.
This has a particular relevance where allegations of bullying or preferential treatment arise within your organisation. A perception that decisions are being influenced by personal relationships, undisclosed conflicts or considerations unrelated to merit can undermine employee confidence in the integrity of the decision-making process and more broadly significantly affect psychological safety within the workplace. It’s also important to note that the existence of a perception by an employee doesn’t establish misconduct or wrongdoing by management, rather it highlights circumstances that may warrant objective examination of the facts, the decision-making process and the evidence upon which decisions were based by management.
In Western Australia, the importance of fairness and impartiality in the public sector is not merely a matter of good management practice. Section 9 of The Public Sector Management Act 1994 (WA), together with the current Public Sector Code of Ethics establishes principles of conduct for public sector employees, including acting with integrity and dealing with others courteously, considerately and sensitively. These obligations are reinforced by the Public Sector Code of Ethics, which requires decisions to be considered unbiased, based on merit, and for conflicts of interest to be declared and appropriately managed.
Key takeaway for government and private sector workplaces
This is why appropriately structured investigation processes are so important for Western Australia public sector agencies. While these obligations are relevant to the public-sector, the principles of “Fairness, impartiality, integrity and accountability” are not confined to government departments or public-sector organisations. They are equally relevant to private sector employers, particularly when responding to workplace complaints, grievances or allegations of inappropriate behaviour and psychosocial hazards within the workplace. An organisations policy within the private sector, in conjunction with their legal obligations, should inform the way management responds to workplace concerns and deals with employees across Western Australia.
These principles are significant when organisations are responding to allegations of bullying, discrimination, misconduct or other psychosocial hazards. Under the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 (WA), a person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) has a primary duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of its workers. Importantly, the Workplace Behaviour Code of Practice (WorkSafe WA) provides practical guidance for organisations to meet these requirements.
A benchmark for the private sector
There is a strong case for private sector employers to adopt mandatory internal workplace conduct standards that establish procedural fairness and management accountability. To achieve this the steps should be considered in all investigation processes when allegations of misconduct, discrimination or other serious workplace concerns are raised by an employee:
The complaint is formally acknowledged and recorded, ensuring the concerns are appropriately documented and assessed via a fair and transparent process.
The employee raising their concerns or allegations is informed about the steps and process that will be followed
Conflicts of interest are identified and appropriately managed to maintain the integrity, fairness and impartiality of the organisation’s decision-making.
Relevant evidence is properly gathered, objectively assessed by management, before any findings or decisions are made.
All parties involved are provided with a reasonable opportunity to respond.
Decisions are made on evidence, rather than assumptions, personal relationships or based primarily on the organisation’s convenience rather than applying a fair and objective process.
Confidentiality and protection against “victimisation” are always maintained.
Findings and decisions are clearly recorded, supported by clear reasoning and the evidence relied upon.
Appropriate action is taken where misconduct or wrongdoing is substantiated.
The process and outcome findings are capable of an internal review or independent review, providing an additional layer of accountability and confidence in the fairness and integrity of the investigation process.
Management is accountable for ensuring the organisation’s workplace policies and procedures are followed, which are supported by fair, transparent and accountable decision-making.
These requirements create an important distinction between workplace policies and legal obligations. While an organisation’s policies provide a framework for expected standards of behaviour and decision making, they must operate consistently with an employer’s broader legal obligations. A sound workplace investigation within the private sector, therefore, should be impartial, fair, evidence based and appropriately documented, supporting management decisions that are reasonable, defensible and consistent with the applicable legal requirements in Western Australia.
Key takeaway for managers
In this way Managers have a responsibility to approach workplace concerns, complaints, performance matters and grievances objectively, to provide their employees with a fair opportunity to be heard, and to ensure that management decisions are based on relevant and reliable information rather than making assumptions, personal preferences or their own preconceived views or opinions.
Applying these principles not only promotes procedural fairness and respectful workplace practices but it also strengthens an organisations accountability and confidence in the integrity in managements decision-making and very importantly the psychosocial safety of their employees in the workplace.
Where concerns arise regarding workplace conduct, including psychological risks an appropriately conducted independent investigation such as those undertaken by Brennan and Associates Workplace Investigations can assist in determining whether the conduct alleged occurred, and whether the circumstances give rise to breach of relevant policies, standards and legal obligations. We determine whether any conflicts of interest were appropriately managed or addressed, in conjunction with the decision-making process being fair, and capable of being objectively justified.
Our comprehensive investigation process provides a structured and accountable framework for establishing facts, ensuring all parties are treated fairly, supporting fair, lawful and defensible management decision-making, while reinforcing the organisations policies and procedures. A well conducted investigation can assist organisations to respond appropriately to an employee’s workplace concerns, strengthen accountability, which helps to promote a healthier workplace culture built on safety, fairness and mutual respect.
Our Role
An independent investigation can assist departments and organisations to objectively assess allegations, establish relevant facts and determine whether policies, procedures and applicable legal obligations have been met. With hundreds of investigations conducted and investigations continuing across a diverse range of organisations, our experience provides us with an informed and current understanding of the evolving landscape of psychological risks, and the increasingly complex workplace issues departments and organisations are required to identify, manage and respond to.
Where concerns involve recruitment, performance management, grievances, workplace conduct or alleged preferential treatment, the issue is therefore not simply whether an employee feels they have been treated unfairly.
Our investigation strategies are designed to go beyond simply identifying what happened, we examine all the evidence, the surrounding circumstances and how this has impacted your workplace culture. while maintaining procedural fairness, confidentiality and impartiality.
In the long term, using an independent investigator can profoundly affect workplace culture. When employees know their concerns will be taken seriously and investigated impartially, they are more likely to feel safe, respected and valued. This contributes to a positive, accountable and respectful workplace culture that helps both employees and the organisation.
Benefits of utilising an independent Investigator
Utilising an independent investigator provides a number of benefits to the organisation including:
Eliminates the perception of internal bias
An external investigator has no career stakes involved.
Being independent, the case is examined purely on the evidence.
Employee anonymity can be ensured when required.
Interviews can be conducted in a secure and confidential manner.
We offer a safe space for employees, which encourages honest and detailed testimony.
We gather unbiased evidence, review the data collected objectively, communication via interviews, emails and logs provide factual evidence.
An independent, defensible report assists to defend any appeals against investigation outcomes and demonstrates a good faith response to the allegations made.
We provide actionable recommendations by pinpointing specific systemic failures within the department and associated improvement suggestions.
Case Study
In a recent matter an employer had received numerous complaints regarding the conduct of a senior manager, which had resulted in increased absenteeism by staff and a high staff turnover within the department.
The Investigation identified that the senior manager’s conduct was well known to his manager and peers but had become accepted and normalised by them due to his key role and critical knowledge of the business. Due to this, staff working in the particular team had developed the view that the manager was “untouchable” and that their options were to tolerate the overbearing, abusive and inappropriate conduct or find alternative employment. To make their working life more bearable, those who chose not to leave utilised sick leave to provide temporary relief.
By accepting and normalising the senior managers behaviour, his manager and peers perpetuated the psychosocial risk he posed to his team, which resulted in numerous staff becoming mentally unwell or resigning, and which could have been prevented by appropriate action being taken to address the conduct rather than senior managers opting to ignore the behaviour in favour of the value placed on the managers business knowledge and experience.
Key takeaway
Poor behaviour in the workplace remains a live and complex issue and poses a serious risk to the mental health of employees resulting in psychosocial hazards and subsequent psychosocial injuries. But it’s equally important to remember that reasonable management action carried out in a reasonable manner does not constitute poor behaviour.
Employees’ feelings are valid, but a claim of poor behaviour must be tested against objective standards, the relevant legislation and the employers’ policies and procedures. It is therefore essential to ensure that allegations are properly tested and that conclusions are supported by factual evidence.
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