Creating a work environment where people feel safe to speak up, ask questions, and share ideas without fear is critical to business success.
By Simon Kent
The mental health agenda in the workplace continues to pose immense challenges for HR. Creating a psychologically safe workplace is a way to address these issues through organisational culture and overall employee experience, rather than simply reacting to each issue as it surfaces.
As Gina Battye, founder and CEO of Psychological Safety Institute, says, at its core, the psychologically safe workplace is about creating a place where people feel safe to speak up, ask questions, share ideas, challenge assumptions, and even fail—without fear of embarrassment or retribution. To this extent, it goes beyond being a feel-good concept, to proactively supporting great business.
“It’s not just about how someone feels in a physical space,” explains Battye, “it’s about the experience of being in that space or situation with others. It’s deeply personal, rooted in our interactions, and shaped by the environment around us. Put simply, it’s where people can bring their authentic selves to work and still thrive.”
But as with many initiatives, what appears a simple aim is not always simply attained. Battye says organisations need to start by putting psychological safety at the heart of their culture—not as a tick-box exercise, but as the foundation everything else is built on. This automatically extends beyond it just being an HR initiative because while HR might instigate and support the idea through training and development, psychological safety will only exist if leaders and everyone else behave appropriately.
“Psychological safety doesn’t happen by accident. It’s leadership behaviour. We embed psychological safety into our learning and development programmes, our team norms, and even our product design sprint because when people feel safe, they not only contribute more, they stay longer, grow faster, and bring others along with them.” — Kameshwari Rao, global chief people officer, Publicis Sapient
Training and encouragement are paramount to enabling leaders to adopt these traits which may be difficult for some. Some leaders are used to the idea of leading from the front and keeping everyone on a strict path. But using this technique can bring new ideas to organisations. “We embed psychological safety into our learning and development programmes, our team norms, and even our product design sprints,” says Rao, “because when people feel safe, they not only contribute more, they stay longer, grow faster, and bring others along with them.”
Ultimately, says Rao, the goal isn’t to create a workplace free of tension, but one where tension leads to growth.
“At its heart, a truly psychologically safe and healthy workplace feels like a space where people can just exhale,” says Roxana Dobrescu, chief people officer at shopping tech company commercetools. “They don’t have to come in every day wearing this invisible armour, constantly anticipating judgment. It’s the kind of environment where someone feels comfortable enough to voice a seemingly ‘obvious’ question, to bring up the elephant in the room, or even to throw out a completely unconventional idea, all without that nagging fear of repercussions for their reputation or their career trajectory.”
Dobrescu is also clear that creating this culture isn’t a one-off or independent act. “It’s the daily grind, it’s in the subtle ways feedback is given and received in a team huddle, it’s in how we as leaders respond when a project hits a snag,” she explains. “It’s fundamentally about whether people see their contributions actually shaping the direction we’re heading.”
Dobrescu also describes how commercetools has woven this approach into how they evaluate leadership because their culture recognises that it’s not enough to just hit business targets. “Leaders are expected to create an environment where others can thrive too,” she says. “We also deliberately set performance goals that encourage smart leaps and bold experiments, not just safe bets. Because let’s be honest, real breakthroughs rarely happen without a few stumbles along the way.”
Teams with psychological safety don’t just work better; they work braver. Dobrescu cites McKinsey research teams with high psychological safety are 76% more likely to drive strong innovation while Workplace Options found 93% of business leaders believe psychological safety directly boosts performance and productivity. It challenges old ways of thinking, makes change move faster, and helps people stay resilient when things get hard. “In today’s world, that’s not a nice-to-have, it’s the difference between companies that get stuck and companies that keep evolving,” she says.
“Workplace pressures haven’t disappeared over the past 25 years, they’ve simply evolved,” notes Sharon Scortis, chief people officer at book-keeping platform Dext. “This ongoing shift makes it crucial for every organisation to implement not only a health and safety policy, but a mental health and well-being policy as standard.”
Workplace Options finds 93% of business leaders believe psychological safety directly boosts performance and productivity.
A psychologically safe culture means making this policy work doesn’t just fall to HR—it becomes part and parcel of sharing the load and creating an organisation that automatically supports its people as part of its work and existence. “Leaders have to play a vital role,” explains Scortis, “not only by understanding the human and financial costs of burnout, but by also staying alert to signals of mental strain amongst their teams. Crucially, they need to be active role models in building a culture of openness. By discussing areas they struggle with personally, it normalises vulnerability and creates a psychological safety across their teams, which in turn helps employees feel safe enough to share their struggles and in turn, allow organisations to effectively respond and support.”
“We also can’t underestimate the importance of prioritising social connection,” adds Scortis. “Well-being initiatives need to extend beyond surface level perks and instead focus on fostering a sense of belonging and community.” Scores adds that the rise in remote and hybrid work makes this more challenging, but also more important. Whether through in-person gatherings or creative virtual events, bringing people together boosts energy, collaboration, and community.
As Battye says, breakthrough performance doesn’t happen in fear-filled rooms but when people feel safe enough to be their real selves at work: “quirks, questions, ideas, and all.”
The psychologically safe workspace certainly means being self-aware, communicating and collaborating, but, says Battye, “When humans show up fully and work better together, the whole culture shifts. That’s where the magic is.”
