Psychological safety at work: 5 ways to tell if a company is getting it right

Mental health is a topic at the heart of everyone’s concerns—we’re all striving for work-life balance and trying to keep stress, burnout, and conflicts at work to a minimum. Knowing whether a company cares about your mental health before you set off for your first day is a good idea, but how can we assess the psychological safety climate of a new workplace?

“Post-pandemic, mental health has become an increasingly popular topic, especially among younger generations,” explains Christophe Nguyen, an expert at the Welcome to the Jungle Lab, occupational psychologist, and manager of a consultancy that helps businesses with the quality of their work life. Many companies are starting to address these new demands and looking into improving their employees’ well-being, but some are quick to turn it into a PR pitch. Obviously, it’s great publicity, and there’s a temptation for ‘great washing’, but, more than ever, “it’s about credibility and delivering what you promise,” says Nguyen.

“Candidates need reassurance,” adds Roseline Laloupe, an HR specialist and influencer. “They want to be sure they’re not wasting their time and won’t have to quit after a couple of weeks.” She believes that’s how it should be. With more and more people ‘exposing’ their employers’ poor practices online—usually through TikTok or even LinkedIn—it’s clear that candidates will no longer be won over by marketing speak. So how can you tell if a company is true to its word?

What do we mean by psychological safety at work

A proactive approach …

We all want to work in a place where we can feel calm and serene. According to specialists CSA, a psychologically safe, healthy workplace is, “A working environment that encourages the mental well-being of its employees.” No surprises there then. But what’s interesting is that the most important element is, “Preventing prejudice against workers’ mental health, whether that’s deliberate or through negligence or carelessness.”

In other words, mental health at work mostly suffers when companies are passive or unwilling to make changes. Negligence and carelessness can have grave consequences. When management refuses to listen, turns a blind eye, minimizes a situation, or tolerates unacceptable behavior, things can quickly take a turn for the worse.

Sometimes there’s a deliberate willingness to ‘deprioritize’ these issues and some companies maintain a culture of pressure, competition, and humiliation under the guise of market success, regardless of its effect on the well-being of their staff. Many industries have an attitude of, “If you’re unhappy about it, leave. There are plenty of people willing to take your place.”

… to combat psycho-social risks

A healthy work environment is one that actively avoids, minimizes, and combats anything that might harm the psychological safety and well-being of the people working there. It starts with looking at what are known as psycho-social risks—essentially focusing on the idea of stress and abusive relationships:

• Stress that’s caused by work and its consequences: An excessive workload, a lack of means or autonomy, short deadlines and constant interruptions, a lack of acknowledgment for a job well done, etc.
• Abusive relationships within the company: Conflict, discrimination, harassment, injustice, marginalizing, and abuse of power.
• Abusive relationships outside the company: Aggressive clients, having to perform embarrassing or thankless tasks, insults, and/or threats.

“What employees expect are concrete steps to improve working conditions when faced with an excessive workload, unfulfilling work, a lack of clarity in terms of roles, etc,” explains Nguyen. No matter where you work, things can deteriorate. Scrutinizing the internal set-up and structure both on a team and group level, is a good way to see how much importance a company places on taking care of staff’s mental health.

5 tips for assessing a company’s psychological safety climate as a candidate

Can you get a good idea about company culture and the mental health of their employees when you’re job hunting? Laloupe suggests it’s not that easy: “Wanting to understand a company’s stance on employee mental health before taking a job is rather idealistic.” However, there are some obvious signs you can spot during the recruitment process. The company’s corporate website, the way adverts are written, how interviews are organized and run, and communication throughout the hiring process are all opportunities to try and read between the lines and perhaps uncover any ‘red flags’.

Tip #1: Research the company online

Research by looking at the company’s website and social media accounts, or opinions about them on platforms like Glassdoor. These are great places to glean information on company values and the reality of working there. LinkedIn is a goldmine. What sorts of people work for the company? Who’s in charge? How do employees express themselves? How long do people stay at the company on average? What do their career pathways look like?

Alongside the company vision on their corporate website—which is often disconnected from reality—the way CEOs appear on social media can be telling. “I find it interesting to see how different key individuals, for example, the HR manager and CEO, communicate, especially on LinkedIn,” admits Laloupe. Who says the most? Are mental health and psychological safety highlighted? Through what prism and by what authority? The ability to admit errors and difficulties can be a sign of goodwill and sincerity. And that’s a good place to start!

One job hunter currently looking for work as a project manager, Aurelie, shares what she would find reassuring: “If I can see that there’s a willingness to take health matters seriously, then we’re off to a good start. But there needs to be some concrete examples.” In short, they need to practice what they preach.

Tip #2: Get as many points of view as possible

During the recruitment process, you want to hear opinions from all the different people you meet—recruiters, managers, peers—as it will help you imagine yourself working in that role for that company. Ask everyone about their experience in the company: what they like, what made them join, what makes them stay, and what they’d like to change or improve. An ability to be self-critical and challenge the status quo can be a sign of a healthy culture where there are no taboos, and all topics are up for discussion.

In addition to the people you meet during interviews, you can contact the company’s employees on LinkedIn or via your network. It can be helpful to get other insights through informational interviews. “The more time you spend talking to others the better,” explains Laloupe. She also suggests having several conversations, ideally off the books, before you sign a contract. Do any companies you’re interested in offer any kind of taster day or shadowing program? Why not give it a go? The more time you spend talking to people, the easier it will be to have the information you need to make your decision.

Tip #3: Ask the difficult questions

Job interviews are the perfect time to sound out any positive and/or preventative actions a company has in place to protect employees’ mental health. What are they doing to combat burnout, conflict, harassment, or even apathy? Formally asking the questions might not be easy, but there are diplomatic ways to do it. For example, by asking:

• How does the company manage employees’ workloads?
• What tools do they offer?
• How do they manage autonomy?
• What do they do to ensure the quality of internal and external relationships?
• How do they enable employees to look to the future?

“You’ll know you’re talking to a healthy company if they accept the reality of the situation,” psychologist Nguyen highlights. “A sincere company will be truly interested in the constraints and risk factors of a specific role,” which could include travel, long hours, stress, physical fatigue, etc.

Even though recruiters may find it awkward, this is the right place to ask about prevention. Defined rules and safeguards—such as days for recovery, overtime payments, and a no-contact-outside-of-working-hours policy—are signs that they take the matter seriously. Good intentions are great, but not enough. Aurelie learned this the hard way with an employer who gave their staff the total freedom to set their working hours, while still demanding that they be available for 9 am meetings with Japan and 6 pm meetings with California … “It’s easy to talk the talk, but sometimes the reality doesn’t match up,” she says sadly. She’s since left that job.

Tip #4: Trust your instincts

If something seems too good to be true or you feel uneasy when meeting employees or during the interview process, it might be wise to lean into it and ask some additional questions about the company culture. Beautiful words are great, but if they lack the conviction, willingness, or courage to act and concrete actions aren’t in place, there’s a sliding scale of authenticity behind them. A healthy workplace gives everyone the freedom to be true to themselves!

Don’t be sweet-talked by a few hasty preventative measures in the place of real impactive action. “Beware of smoke and mirrors designed to distract you from the important stuff,” says Nguyen. For example, giving an employee access to appointments with a psychologist is a stopgap if there’s no real willingness to change the working conditions. “Of course, employees never say no to additional support,” says our expert before adding, “but piling on the pressure while providing access to a psychiatrist to help you deal with it is almost like blaming the employee if they can’t cope.“

Tip #5: Take responsibility for yourself!

“You’ll never truly know exactly what another person or organization is thinking. You can’t plan for everything. Ultimately, we have to rely on our experience to know if we feel safe and well.” Laloupe shares. So, you need to be willing to leap into the unknown. And remember that even a great company or team culture can deteriorate over time. Balance is precious and should be preserved. Everyone has a role to play in creating a safe, healthy workplace. It’s easy to be complicit in a chain of pressure and conflict or lack the courage to call out the injustices we observe. Take responsibility and talk, alert, call out, offer solutions, and ensure that people listen. Nguyen says, “Many directors want to work to improve mental health and psychological safety, but they don’t know how to do it.”

It’s idealistic to expect companies to stop thinking in terms of productivity and performance and to only be interested in their employees’ mental health. Nonetheless, it’s rewarding to see that reducing the risk of mental health issues can also be seen as an investment in the company’s long-term success. As a candidate, daring to ask the question is also a way of shaking things up!

Translated by Debbie Garrick

Photo: Welcome to the Jungle

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