Gershon Goren

Between artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, it’s becoming increasingly important to address very real privacy, security, and compliance issues that come with them. If compromised, organizations can be facing major legal, financial, and reputational consequences. It's why cyber and physical safety have become huge topics of conversation over the last several years, and for good reason. 

However, as organizations scramble to safeguard their data and trade secrets while battling external threats, IT sprawl, and simply keeping up with best governance practices, there’s one vital area that’s been largely overlooked—psychological safety. According to Harvard Business Review, psychological safety can be defined as a shared belief that it’s OK to take risks, express ideas and concerns, speak up with questions, and admit mistakes without fear of negative consequences. 

The goal of creating a psychologically safe work environment is to help people challenge the status quo and perform their best. Not only is this good for talent development, but it fosters a culture of innovation and progress for the organization. 
And according to research from McKinsey, 89 percent of employee survey respondents said they believe that psychological safety in the workplace is essential. 

There is no question that psychological safety is a major factor in employee retention—something that became increasingly important in the age of worker shortages. Pew Research Center found that feeling disrespected at work is one of the three major reasons for employee quitting, on par with low pay and lack of advancement. To summarize: psychological safety is good for businesses and the individuals who propel them. 

So, why do we so rarely hear about it? For one, other areas of workplace health, like data security, privacy, and compliance are far more cut and dry. It’s a matter of putting processes and tools in place and finding people to make sure they’re up to date. With psychological safety, much is left to interpretation and management styles. In other words, there’s a lot more gray area. 

While this is trickier to navigate, there’s a bright spot: there are several best practices and new technologies to help prioritize psychological safety and it can start as early as the hiring process. Here are three research-backed tips for establishing psychological safety, starting with the first interactions with a candidate. 

1. Prioritize Powerful Questions
The hiring process is filled with questions, but are you asking the right ones? It seems straightforward, but asking the wrong questions can stunt professional growth and alienate candidates and employees. Here’s where it gets hard: not all questions are created equally. Surface-level questions, such as “yes/no” or “check-in” questions, will not foster psychological safety in the same way powerful questions will. 

A powerful question is one that provokes thought. It can broaden the understanding of a situation, spark creativity, and evoke more inquiry. It’s the difference between, “How did you handle the situation?” vs. “If you could do it over again, what would you do differently?” It’s a small shift that encourages the respondent to think more critically and see things from a different perspective. This can go a long way in fostering acceptance and diversity. 

2. De-stigmatize Failure
Failure is inevitable, but due to its association with poor performance, is often difficult to accept. While striving for success is always the goal, too much success can actually breed complacency. While it seems counter-intuitive, research has shown that failure may even cultivate success. High-performing teams embrace failure because they see it as growth potential and choose to learn from it. The now infamous  “move fast and break things” attitude adopted by high-growth tech companies was a step in the right direction from the perspective of making it okay to fail. What it got wrong, however, is a flippant attitude towards the consequences of a failure and its possible impact on others. 

De-stigmatizing failure and focusing instead on taking responsibility and learning from failure can make candidates and employees more comfortable and give them the opportunity to showcase instances when they have thrived off the heels of a mistake or setback. It also allows employers to demonstrate resilience and innovation—two highly desirable traits in a team. 

3. Practice Humility
Like most organizational initiatives, breeding a culture of psychological safety starts at the top. Situational humility is a practice created to demonstrate appreciation for employees' strengths and professional contributions. In other words, it refers to a leadership team that promotes respect and equal accountability (i.e. not just rank and file, but all the way to the top leadership). According to Indeed, humility in the workplace leads to increased productivity, job satisfaction, and loyalty, among other positive outcomes. 

In the face of stressful work environments and increasingly demanding interview processes, situational humility can mean the difference between acquiring and holding onto talent and missing out. Consider this: the hiring process is time-consuming for everyone involved, and it doesn’t end with an accepted offer. Favoring traditionally advantaged candidates and employees can perpetuate inequities in the workplace. When we approach hiring and nurturing talent through the lens of situational humility, we set people and the business up for success. 

Feeling heard, being comfortable taking risks, and having clear expectations are pillars of a strong workplace culture. Keeping psychological safety in mind and deploying practices and technologies to help promote this is the single most important thing organizations can do to find and retain the right talent. So, let’s apply the same rigor we do for data protection to protecting our employees’ mental health by ensuring they have a safe, supportive workplace.