7 ways to instill physical and psychological safety in your employee experience

Standard safety precautions protect workers, but instilling safety engagement in your company culture creates a stronger commitment for everyone's physical and psychological well-being.

Being safe and feeling safe at work are two different things that take training and a fundamental shift in behaviors. Thanks to organizations like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), general guidelines help businesses address physical safety. But often, psychological safety is left out of the conversation. Address the nuances of psychological safety by reviewing your employee experience.

Psychological safety is when workers can bring their whole selves to work without fear of negative consequences. Risks to psychological safety could look like discrimination based on identity, not being listened to, having boundaries crossed or being afraid to speak up. This impacts the overall work culture and can increase employee burnout and stress.

It's up to leadership to instill safety engagement in their work culture to support mental and physical wellbeing.

Embedding a robust safety culture is an investment, and it’s not always a quick fix, but it’s vital for a happy and motivated workforce. Per OSHA, “a safe workplace is sound business.”

1. Incorporate health and safety into the employee journey

From training to performance reviews, make health and safety part of employee growth. Managers can routinely review team members’ adherence and reinforcement of standard safety measures.

Managers can also use these moments to evaluate whether their direct reports are physically and psychologically safe at work. This might include guided one-on-one discussions, sending out anonymous surveys or reviewing mental health resources with the team.

Related: How to make safety engagement part of your organizational culture

2. Use a Behavior-Based Safety approach

Behavior-Based Safety (BBS) builds a more proactive, rather than reactive, safety culture. A BBS strategy reduces risks and hazards by observing how and why employees work. Using observations, managers can reevaluate processes to mitigate unsafe practices or inconsistent psychological safety practices. 

This can range from reviewing workplace standards for frontline workers to inspecting conflict resolution practices for peers and employees to direct reports. Leadership can influence their staff's behavior by positive reinforcement like employee recognition or up-to-date training for all levels.

3. Create open communication lines

Clear and open communication is essential to foster a positive safety culture. Establish channels for team members to report hazards, concerns and suggestions for improvement. Ensure team members receive regular updates on safety performance, new policies and procedures.

Clearly communicate where your staff can turn for support or help when they need it. Outline policies and enforce consistent treatment to psychologically support when employees speak for themselves or for others.

4. Engage leadership

Any organizational and behavioral shift must come from the top-down. Leadership sets the tone for workplace culture, and if managers and leaders prioritize physical safety and psychological practices, employees will follow suit. Leadership can start with consistency and promote dialog to effectively work with their teams. Fair responses to wins or even missed goals builds employee trust and encourages communication and ideas.

Leaders can also participate in employee engagement programming like employee recognition or wellbeing events and activities. Seeing managers involved in these programs spurs others to take part too.

5. Get everyone involved

Support diverse employee needs by creating more inclusive practices, like employee resource groups (ERGs), diverse hiring procedures or blind surveys. Leadership can create safer workplaces that cater to everyone's lifestyle needs by giving all groups an opportunity to improve their workplace.

By gathering feedback, then taking action, workers can see how their involvement makes a difference. It gives employees ownership of their work and environment. This builds trust and encourages employees to continue to speak up and offer ideas, even if they challenge the status quo.

6. Build a culture of continuous learning

Safety is not a one-time training exercise. There needs to be continuous learning as your business grows and develops. When an incident does happen, it’s vital to have a structured plan for recovery. Create a space to talk about how to avoid another incident but also how the incident might have impacted their emotional needs or safety at work.

Digestible and updated training can make instruction stay with employees. Training might range from role-specific precautions to conflict management with peers. Providing ongoing training enables everyone to feel confident and capable in their work.

Related: Learning and development as a culture catalyst

7. Recognize all wins

It's important to highlight positive employee behaviors. Teams use employee recognition to spotlight hard work. It shows support to the receiver and gives examples of how workers can put care and safety into action.

Recognize and reward employees who:

• Always remember to bring extra protection gear to a job site
• Consistently guide new hires and answer questions
• Notify leadership about unsafe conditions to prevent potential accidents
• Offer constructive feedback focused on solutions rather than criticism and blame
• Actively listen and encourage colleagues to communicate openly and honestly

Safety engagement means secure teams

Along with adhering to standard security measures, protecting physical and psychological safety is imperative to ensure that team members feel comfortable and bring their best selves to work. Honoring employees’ well-being also means that they’re more likely to speak up when there’s a physical hazard too.

By instilling safety into employee experience, organizations ensure that everyone takes safety measures seriously and prioritizes it every day.

There’s a lot that goes into building a robust safety culture at work. An employee-focused approach makes protecting physical and mental safety second nature. Learn more in our latest white paper, “Workplace safety: making it human.”