An inclusive workplace is critical for fairness and DEI, but it also fosters employee engagement, increased productivity, and organisational commitment. The bigger question here is, how do you help employees to feel like they belong in your organisation? A simple answer is to focus on creating psychological safety within your team.
What is psychological safety?
Psychological safety, in summary, is a climate in which people are comfortable expressing and being themselves without the fear of being punished or having a negative impact on their self-image (Edmondson, 2004). However, it is important to note that there is a difference between psychological safety and trust. Psychological safety focuses on self, whereas trust focuses on others (Edmondson, 2004). Therefore, trust does not always equate to psychological safety and vice versa.
Why is psychological safety important?
Various research has shown that a psychologically safe workplace helps foster a culture of respect and learning among colleagues and leaders. As stated by Edgar Schein, the feeling of being able to speak up with relevant ideas, questions, or concerns helps people cope with uncertainty and anxiety at work. It also helps in overcoming the defensiveness and ‘learning anxiety’ they may face, especially when something doesn’t go as they’d hoped or expected.
On the contrary, when fear is present within a workplace, people tend to be less supportive of each other and hold back ideas, which in turn causes productivity to suffer. Alleviating any concerns or anxieties for speaking up may be even more important if you’re a remote manager, but it should be a priority regardless of whether your team works under the same roof or is scattered across the globe.
3 tips to create psychological safety at work
Psychological safety is an integral part of developing productive teams and demonstrating effective leadership skills. It is very much shaped by leaders at work. As a start, here are three tips to build a psychologically safe workplace.
- Communicate with employees
- Invite engagement
- Respond productively
Reducing turnover starts with hiring and developing great leaders
Although many believe unwanted turnover is difficult to fix, there are very clear ways to understand how it impacts your organisation and what can be done to reduce it.
Organisations who have “solved” this problem do several things differently than their counterparts – and they all center on effective leadership. As we all know, there are many reasons why employees leave. And some of this turnover should actually be categorised as “good turnover” (e.g. managing out poor performers).
However, as we research unwanted turnover, there is a common thread underlying the reasons people leave and it is directly tied to their relationships with their manager and other leaders within the company.