Psychological Safety Training to Create a Better Work Environment

Physicological safety is the concept of when an employee is not scared to speak their mind or when an employee isn’t afraid of being humiliated or yelled at by their boss by simply giving their opinion or asking a question. The quality of performance depends on the psychological safety of the workplace environment. 

Yet, improving the psychological safety of your workplace might be tough. Thankfully, in this article, you’ll receive a brief psychological safety training to help you and your employees. 

Find Out What’s Jeopardizing the Psychological Safety

Usually, managers and supervisors or any other senior leaders are unaware of the challenges that employees face in the workplace. Therefore, it would be good to collect information from the employees to see what issues they may be having. You can do this by having them engage in surveys, focus groups, and asking for feedback.

By doing so, you’ll gain a better understanding of how your employees feel. That way, you can find a solution to their struggles and help improve their performance. 

Implement Effective Leadership 

Those who have executive positions have the chance to promote psychological safety. Actively promoting practices that give employees a sense of belonging and that help them contribute to a culture of self-care will enhance their psychological safety.

Improve Workplace Culture

You don’t define a workplace culture simply by measuring the number of breaks each employee gets. Everything involved in the workplace, from the slogan to the physical places, contributes to the employee’s wellbeing. This also involves the types of insurance the job offers, the policies regarding mental health, and the tone in which you communicate.

Have People Participate

The definition of psychological safety also includes encouraging people to participate in a genuine, healthy manner. Sometimes, it may feel easier and safer for employees to shut down and keep things to themselves. So, it’s important to ask employees to be clear and direct with whatever they decide to say.

When they do take part, try to show humility and acknowledge your faults and mistakes. Listen with an open mind and, most importantly, be understanding of their feelings. Make them feel as if it’s safe to speak up and that their emotions are valid.

If your employees are still struggling to openly participate, create a system that allows them to share their thoughts anonymously. For example, you can have people write down their concerns and place it in a box.

Make Effective Responses

The way you respond to your employees is also something to consider. It doesn’t matter how much authority you have. You should always show respect towards your employees.

 Express appreciation for having them share with you their thoughts. Listen to how they feel and always thank them for their time. If your employee made a mistake, don’t highlight their failure. Rather, encourage them to correct their mistake or learn from them healthily. 

Get Psychological Training

It’s hard to make all these changes in your workplace from one day to the next. But sticking to the psychological safety training you’ve received in this post will benefit you and your employees. Once you do, you’ll notice a drastic improvement in the performance of your employees.  If you want to keep reading about how to improve work performance, browse through our blog!

David Griffin

David Griffin