KUALA LUMPUR: Psychologically safe workplaces have become a necessity for building organisational resilience and sustainable success amid mounting pressures and unprecedented challenges across the globe, according to Workplace Options (WPO).
As the largest independent provider of customised and localised wellbeing services, WPO has deep insight on global psychological safety, derived from data via the human-to-human counselling its clinical team conducted with in nine countries, namely Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The findings comprise the ‘WPO Psychological Safety Study: Global Context for Organisational Success’, a website and multimedia content hub that presents information on how psychological safety affects employees in different countries.
“A culture built on psychological safety has immense value. Deep-rooted employee engagement leads to greater creativity, innovation, and an environment where people can be their authentic self in every aspect of their life.
“The results from this study will help leaders and organisations make a transformative difference in people’s lives by building resilient cultures focused on wellbeing,” said WPO president and chief executive officer Alan King in a statement.
Meanwhile, WPO Consulting group founding partner Mary Ellen Gornick said the study gives leaders the information they need to create inclusive cultures in the locations where they have operations, but they should also keep in mind that variances might exist in how strategies are implemented at the country level.
Individual country information has been derived from clinician engagement with customers, providing insight into workplace symptoms manifest in the employee’s emotions, cognitions, and attitudes toward work, which include workplace stress, anxiety/panic, low mood, job performance, conflict/tension with manager, and lack of recognition.
Leaders can utilise the data to understand the challenges their employees face. For example, in Australia, “lack of recognition” is the top issue on employees’ minds, and in contrast, employees in India identify “conflict/tension at work with manager” as their foremost issue.
A company with operations in these two nations/regions can utilise the study results to gain deeper insight into strategies and tactics that will build psychological safety and organisational resilience.
Given the constantly shifting global business environment, leaders must create workplaces centred on psychological safety, which is a cornerstone of inclusive leadership. Teams that feel psychologically safe are more innovative, productive, and resilient in the face of adversity.
Benefits of psychological safety include deeper employee engagement; improved team performance; enhanced problem-solving and decision-making; greater employee well-being; and improved customer satisfaction. – BERNAMA
