Going beyond compliance: Psychological safety in the workplace

While it's now a legal requirement in Australia, understanding psychological safety goes beyond mere compliance, according to Allisa O'Connell, Head of People and Culture at Flight Centre.

“I think a legal requirement is probably the foundational piece, not the driving piece.”

She stresses the critical role of employees as a company's most valuable asset and emphasises the need to create an environment where employees can truly flourish.

"Our team members are assets to our business, and we want to ensure that our people can work in an environment where they can produce their best work, day in and day out," said O’Connell, who will be speaking at HRD’s HR Summit Brisbane about the importance of integrating psychological safety into your workforce.

“We all spend an awfully large sum of money on acquiring talent; we want those people to be at their absolute best. So, it means creating the environment and the conditions for people to thrive.”

Keeping policies ‘alive and well’

Emphasising that it’s not enough to simply have policies on paper, O’Connell said lots of organisations go through creating a process or a framework or policy, “But does it actually happen?"

Having processes and procedures that employees can understand and rely on is of utmost importance to keep frameworks and policies “alive and well,” she said.

“What matters is that employees feel comfortable raising concerns and providing feedback. More importantly, is it alive and well? Can people raise concerns, can people speak out, can people feel free to express themselves in the workplace in a positive manner?”

Psychological safety needs to be genuine, O’Connell said.

“Psychological safety is a bit of a buzzword, but I think it's about how we genuinely create caring environments for our people.

“Embracing this means businesses can build stronger, more resilient teams and ensure a brighter future for their employees and the organisation as a whole. It's about creating a nurturing environment where employees can reach their full potential and contribute to the organisation's success.”

Psychological safety at HR Summit Brisbane

At HRD’s HR Summit in Brisbane on November 7 and 8, O’Connell will share insights and lessons learned from Flight Centre's experience in leveraging company culture to implement a psychological safety framework among its sales consultants.

“I hope people will take away how our culture created and then supported a framework that allows for psychological safety in a sales environment,” she said, while highlighting the value of HR industry professionals coming together to share experiences and insights.

“It's a really great opportunity to hear, learn, and take away wisdom to deploy in your own business. HR professionals are dealing with the same kind of issues, regardless of industry, regardless of what you're working on, or where you're working. It gives you a frame of reference of other people going through it, but you can always take away ideas, and it may not be directly applicable,” she said.

“I might be in a sales organisation, someone else might be in a government role, but thinking about how we care for people should be the same regardless.”