By Lesley Cooper
When the workplace environment emanates an atmosphere of trust and respect, when colleagues are self-aware enough to communicate in effective and meaningful ways, when egos are removed as self-confidence grows, then employees are more likely to make good decisions, speak up when issues loom, and express how they feel as pressure builds.
This adds up to a climate of what’s known as psychological safety. When people feel psychologically safe at work, they feel protected and able to be themselves, safe from the threat of negative consequences if they speak up. This perhaps doesn’t sound as if it would be all that significant until you consider how costly it is in energy and performance terms to feel unsafe and how likely it is that feeling constantly unsafe will lead to stress. It works in the other direction too. If an employee feels even remotely stressed at work, they can’t feel psychologically safe – these are mutually exclusive cognitive states.
The lack of psychological safety is an expensive loss for a business on multiple levels. When people are not encouraged to share their insights or feel that their input is unwelcome, companies miss out on valuable perspectives that could help drive innovation, improve processes, and tackle challenges more effectively. In addition, this absence of communication can lead to decreased employee engagement. When workers feel that their voices and opinions matter, it can build up their sense of belonging and trust in the organisation’s leadership, increasing motivation and commitment to work. This in turn can generate a noticeable boost in performance, as employees become more invested in their roles and more likely to contribute their best efforts. As a result, companies experience enhanced productivity, higher morale, and, ultimately, greater profitability.
Psychologically unsafe workplaces also intensify stress levels among workers. When they are unable to raise concerns when demands exceed their ability to cope, it creates an atmosphere of tension and anxiety. This fear of speaking openly can cause a constant underlying pressure, as people try to navigate a culture that discourages openness. Over time, this pressure can contribute to burnout, chronic stress, and mental health issues, all of which heighten the risk of stress-related sickness absence. High levels of absenteeism can disrupt team dynamics, delay projects, and increase the strain on other employees, exacerbating the problem even further.
To create an environment where people can manage pressure in ways that work for them, leaders need to model behaviours that support employee sustainability. They also need to create the conditions that allow workers to effectively manage their personal energy resources and in so doing, build their resilience and capacity. This includes but is not limited to: encouraging regular breaks and intentional recovery to recharge energy throughout the day, promoting boundaries between work and personal life, encouraging employees to fully disconnect after work hours, and providing flexible working arrangements.
What’s more, when employees don’t feel safe to express concerns about workload, interpersonal conflicts, or ineffective management practices, these issues often go unresolved and worsen over time. This can result in higher turnover rates as they seek healthier work environments, further adding to the cost of recruitment, onboarding, and training new staff. In this way, the initial loss of open communication snowballs into broader organisational issues that impact both the financial bottom line and the overall work culture. When psychological safety is fostered, it enhances employee retention, as people are more likely to stay in a place where they feel heard, valued, and supported.
Creating a climate of psychological safety throughout an organisation can be tricky – you can’t do it as a solo operation. It requires the involvement of everyone and for all stakeholders to be accountable for their role in the process. But it’s not inherently difficult. The behaviours involved are intuitive and sensible and psychological safety grows organically when these learnable behaviours accumulate among leaders and their team members.
With today’s relentless pressure of doing more with the same or fewer resources, psychological safety is not just a nice-to-have – it’s a critical element for building healthier, more productive workplaces. Above all, it allows people to drop the work mask, feel able to be themselves, and bring all that they are and have to offer to the work challenge.
When psychological safety is low businesses lose out from reduced innovation, less effective collaboration, and therefore lower performance and increased stress-related sickness absence. These lost opportunity costs can be difficult to quantify as they may not be obvious at the time. However, when companies get psychological safety right, they can innovate faster, reduce waste, and beat off the competition by staying at the cutting edge. When employees feel psychologically safe, they are empowered to bring all that they are to their work and in so doing ultimately drive organisational success.
About the Author
Lesley Cooper is a management consultant with over 25 years of experience in the design and delivery of all elements of employee well-being management programmes. In 1997 Lesley founded WorkingWell, an award-winning specialist consultancy that helps companies manage workplace pressure in a way that facilitates growth and development. She is also the co-author of Brave New Leader: How to Transform Workplace Pressure into Sustainable Performance and Growth.
