Psychological safety and continuous feedback
By Peter Crush on 1 July 2022
It’s a little known fact that it wasn’t coronavirus that directly caused the most lost work in the UK last year. According to data from the Mental Health Foundation, the culprit was squarely people’s deteriorating mental health; accounting as it did for a whopping 19% of all working time lost.
Poor mental health pre-dates the pandemic; and pandemic has worsened it; but what many argue is the root of it is the concept of poor ‘psychological safety’.
At its simplistic level psychological safety refers to people’s sense of ‘mental safety’. Typically defined to as the extent to which employees feel able to speak candidly without risk of punishment or humiliation it’s clearly a DE&I issue too – to the extent good psychological safety is also reflective of a inclusive culture, and where staff feel safe to be true to themselves without fear of rejection based on their differences. The problem, of course, is that while specific interventions – such as hiring from a wider pool of people – may bring about greater diversity, it’s not a given that inclusiveness and therefore psychological safety follows. Not all could still feel included. Something more is needed. But what?
Belonging matters
To some, the answer has to be continuous feedback. With managers responsible for at least 70% of the variance in their employee’s engagement [according to Gallup], experts say psychological safety is squarely the product of regular communication. Says Gary Cookson, author of new book HR for Hybrid Working: “One of the more critical roles for leaders to focus on is feedback; feedback on performance but also on employee’s ideas and contributions.” He adds: “This isn’t just about catching people doing exceptional things, but acknowledging that they are doing their job, doing what is expected of them, and that this is appreciated.”
With feedback, argues Cookson, comes perhaps an even more important DE&I concept: ‘belonging’. He says: “Feedback forces better inclusion for specific groups that previously might have felt excluded.” He adds: “Belonging matters because it’s fundamental to our ability as human beings to thrive and survive. The creation of a psychologically safety in the workplace through regular feedback helps this. It’s even more important for remote and hybrid workers as without regular and timely feedback they may feel isolated and be tempted to withdraw.”
Ranjit Kirton, founder of The Behaviour Garage and who previously spent 28 years at the NHS in various leadership roles goes so far as saying psychological safety can ‘only’ be influenced by feedback. “It’s our behaviours at work that impact psychological safety,” she argues. “Regular feedback creates a culture of marginal gains, where psychological sickness is reduced” She adds: “We all need to feel included, but without feedback, this feeling cannot be created.” She says: “Checking-in on people also allows for people’s own contributions – a factor which again promotes a feeling of inclusion.”
Frequency and quality
Desire for more constant feedback is certainly growing – especially in our more remote/hybrid working landscape. A recent study by PwC found 60% of staff now want feedback on a daily or at least a weekly basis. This increases to 72% amongst the Generation Z cohort. But if it largely stands to reason that regular communication is what matters, how regular should regular be, or is inclusion not just about frequency but the quality of feedback too?
It’s a question Nick Gallimore, director of innovation at software company Advanced says he’s personally reflected on. He says: “Generally more feedback is better, but for true psychological safety I believe it also has to be fair.” And he also introduces another important thought: “Managers should consider that at first, introducing more feedback will feel odd to people, especially if they are not used to it.” He adds: “In this scenario, feedback could temporarily increase people’s anxiety.” He says: “I think it’s only when continuous feedback is ingrained culturally, and becomes expected by staff that the psychological safety aspect of it comes into its own.”
In his own company, Gallimore says managers now understand that frequent feedback [rather than what he calls the ‘dead corporate ritual of once a year feedback’] is what fosters mental wellbeing. At Mumbai-based translation company, Cactus Communications, its chief HR officer Yashmi Pujara agrees: “We realised once or twice a year feedback was outdated, and have moved to a continuous feedback model over the last three years,” she says. “In reality we ask for staff-manager conversations at least once a month.” She adds: “We absolutely agree they create for a more trusting work environment. We even use a tool that captures key messages in conversations, so they can be shared with others. The aim is for psychological safety to be rooted into our values; that’s it something we are all conscious of.”
The good news is that only a few years ago, ‘psychological safety’ would have been a little-known concept. The Covid-19 pandemic, and ensuing conversations about mental wellbeing have all thrust it far higher on organisations’ radars. In fact, in the last 12 months a new ISO standard (ISO 45003) has been introduced which specifically looks at the concept of psychological health and safety. All of which means creating inclusion through feedback shouldn’t be so alien.
As Liz Sebag-Montefiore, co-founder of consultancy 10 Eighty says: “Knowing your team means knowing what works for them; knowing how each of them prefers to be supported and the work-style that makes them most productive.” She concludes: “Psychological safety is so important. We all need to encourage employees to engage in candid and productive dialogue and a real time knowledge exchange. It’s this that creates an atmosphere of trust and collaboration.”
STATS:
• Staff that have managers who regularly communicate with them are three times more engaged than those with managers who do not.
• Some 43% of highly-engaged employees say they receive feedback at least once a week
(Source Gallup)
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