New report reveals workplace concerns that undermine psychological safety at work
Employers across Australia are being urged to harness the power of open conversations in the workplace amid persisting factors that undermine psychological safety at work.
The latest Psychological Safety Study from Workplace Options recently revealed a wide range of workplace concerns that consistently undermine psychological safety in 18 countries.
In Australia, the top workplace concerns are job performance, work-life balance, and workload.
Alan King, president and chief executive officer of Workplace Options, said their findings do not represent a single diagnosis across Australia.
"It's very different in different organisations," King told HRD.
He also underscored that their findings do not just reflect a small portion of an organisation, but represent people from the front line up to leadership.
"What we reported on was the cumulative result of that," he said. "So, stress in the workplace isn't just limited to one issue, but oftentimes stress in the workplace impacts an executive as much as it impacts someone on the front lines."
Addressing these workplace concerns will require organisations to have open conversations with their employees, according to King.
"Try to better understand what exactly within the workplace and where within the workplace those stressors may happen," he said. "Being able to have an open conversation about the problem is what allows solutions to begin to happen."
Some of the measures that employers can take include reaching out to consultants or implementing employee engagement measures, such as carrying out surveys.
"Once you then begin to pinpoint the areas of concern, the single most important thing to do in the beginning is to address it outright and address it clearly," he said.
But King warned against being too "one directional" in communication.
"Oftentimes, the lack of communication, or communication that appears like it's one directional, gets in the way of people both understanding and trusting," he said.
"So, if you're an employee and you feel that the communications are disingenuous — you're getting them, but what you're feeling is as though you've heard this before. You keep getting communication, but nothing changes."
To resolve this, King reminded employers that communication is not just talking, but actually understanding and creating a conversation about what the organisation is trying to accomplish.
"So, the best engagement efforts we've seen are the ones that say number one: this is our goal. We're doing this because we want something to happen. We want to impact positively on the culture," he said.
"But we would like you to be involved in your suggestions. And what we're also going to do is we're going to come back to you with how well we've done on each of these on a regular basis so that we then can steer properly if we find that we're not doing the right thing."
Neglecting these workplace concerns will lead to burnout, according to King. He noted that there will be employees who will stay, but will be mentally checked out.
"We certainly see that in the workplace. There are individuals who don't leave but actually have that burnout experience to them, so they basically become unable to work and go out involuntarily because the situation has put them into poor, poor mental health," he said.
Failing to address persisting workplace concerns will also only make them worse.
"If there's something in the workplace that is causing stress and that's not addressed, or individuals are experiencing something and they're not given the right resources, that rarely will those problems go away," he said.
"And if they don't go away, they become exacerbated."
Overall, King advised that organisations need to have an "ultimate goal" when implementing strategies aimed at addressing workplace concerns. Without it, employers only end up addressing the symptoms, but not the actual workplace concern that needs to be fixed.
"Don't do things that are stopgap. Don't do things that are partial answers," King said. "Actually take the time to listen, take the time to articulate the strategy and the vision, and then engage employees in how collaboratively you can work to build towards that vision."
