We often talk about the expectation that employees should bring their whole self to work. But what happens when your employees feel unable to do this? In some organisations there are factors at play preventing people from feeling safe to contribute fully at work. This is also known as a lack of psychological safety. In this blog post, we’ll look at why employees need to feel safe at work, what kind of behaviours can lead people to feel this way, and examine the long-term business impacts when psychological safety cannot be achieved.
Why psychological safety matters
According to a survey by McKinsey, 89% of employees believe that psychological safety in the workplace is essential. The data cements the fact that feeling able to share your thoughts, ideas and opinions freely, and without fear of repercussion, is a basic employee need. Yet so many organisations get this wrong and are failing to create a culture where employees feel safe to speak up. Psychological safety has strong links with learning and development and high-performing people. Safety at work leads to growth, development and improved productivity. Organisations only perform strongly when their people are motivated to be at their best. 
For employees to do their best work they need to feel connected to, respected and trusted by, their colleagues and their leader. When employees feel able to speak up without fear, it creates a stronger, more diverse, inclusive, and innovative environment. If you want to get the best out of your people and create productive, effective teams, psychological safety is an essential workplace component.
What happens when employees don’t feel psychological safety at work?
When organisations fail to provide a safe working environment, negative actions and behaviours may quickly combine to produce a toxic workplace. People working in a psychologically unsafe or toxic culture may exhibit some or all of the following behaviours:
- A fear of going to work and feeling of vulnerability when at work
- Not feeling confident to speak or contribute to meetings and discussions
- Being frightened of the repercussions of making a mistake or taking a wrong decision
- Unwillingness to share their ideas or ask questions
- A preference to work alone rather than as part of a team
- Over-communication, e.g. copying the whole team on emails through fear of being in the wrong
As a result of these behaviours, employees may withdraw completely, skip work, suffer from mental health problems like anxiety, stress or depression, and ultimately seek to leave the business.
Toxic culture – a real-life experience
When an employee doesn’t feel safe in their work environment they tend not to speak up for fear of retribution. Feeling unimportant and unsupported can be a crushing experience. Read Alana’s* very personal story to discover the emotional impact. “Where I worked, I had no line management support, which left me feeling like I couldn’t voice my opinions, thoughts and feelings. I ended up staying quiet in team meetings and wouldn’t open up for fear of repercussions. 
I was in an environment whereby it was management’s way or no way. Anyone below management level wasn’t valued or appreciated. This led to me feeling disengaged, demotivated and not wanting to be a part of the team or the organisation. Eventually, my mental health began to suffer and I left for a new role. It was such a relief to feel valued, happy and safe at work again.” *Name changed to protect identity
What makes people feel unsafe at work?
When we feel under threat in any type of situation, our brains go into survival mode. Where psychological safety is lacking in the workplace, employees will either seek to protect themselves by withdrawing from being around certain people or situations, or by looking to leave the company. It’s our natural fight or flight response.
Losing key people is a genuine business risk. Research by the Boston Consulting Group released earlier this year suggests that risk is higher among women, people of colour, LGBTQ+ employees, those with disabilities and people from economically challenged backgrounds. Their study found that improving psychological safety drives positive outcomes for all employees, but the positive impact is greater for diverse employee groups.
There are several leadership behaviours that make employees feel psychologically unsafe at work. All behaviours that go against your company culture will have a damaging, lasting effect. Leadership behaviours that contribute to poor psychological safety include:
- Managing through fear, threats, bullying and intimidation
- Authoritative leadership
- Saying one thing and doing another
- Bureaucracy and making people jump through hoops to make progress
- Poor communication skills – not listening to feedback or valuing opinions that contradict their own
- Keeping information from others
- Micro-managing performance through a mistrust of their team
- Creating a blame culture, not responsibility for their actions and encouraging colleagues to do the same
- Lack of empathy, understanding and compassion
- Discouraging learning and development.
The long-term business impacts of poor psychological safety
When employees experience these types of leadership behaviour, they will lose focus, motivation, and become disengaged from their work. The long-term implications of this include:
- Reduced contributions and low productivity
- Problems not being raised or addressed
- A lack of creativity and innovation
- Projects stall because employees don’t feel safe to make decisions or take risks
- Employees don’t try new things for fear of making a mistake
- Reduced trust in senior leadership
- Lack of personal growth and career progression due to limited learning and development
- Mental health problems
- Increased sickness and absence rates
Creating a psychologically safe work environment
Leaders have a key role to play in creating a psychologically safe work environment and a company culture to match. Creating a shared set of values and being clear about the behaviours you expect from every employee (including leaders), every day, helps everyone to feel included, connected and supported.
A positive company culture encourages the behaviours that build a safe place to learn, contribute and challenge, without fear of backlash. Of course, changing a company culture is not a quick fix. It takes time, effort, resource and communication across the whole organisation, starting at the top. But, when employees see their leaders displaying genuine values and behaviours, it won’t be too long before they follow suit.
To discover the steps you can take to improve psychological safety at work, download our free guide: 10 steps to creating a psychologically safe workplace.
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