Measuring What Matters: The Role of Psychological Safety Metrics in HR
When it comes to running a successful business, many organisations focus on measuring tangible metrics such as revenue, profits, and customer satisfaction. While these metrics are certainly important, they do not paint the full picture of an organisation's culture. To truly thrive, businesses must also prioritise measuring and promoting psychological safety. But how can we identify the core metrics that measure psychological safety, and how can HR teams utilise these metrics to drive positive change within their organisations?
Understanding Psychological Safety
Before discussing psychological safety metrics, it is important to understand what this term actually means. According to Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, psychological safety refers to:
“A shared belief that the environment is conducive to interpersonal risks. Like asking for help, admitting a mistake or criticising a project and that can be challenging to do.”
This concept was first introduced by research scientist William Kahn in 1990, who described psychological safety as being able to show and employ oneself without fear of negative consequences of self-image, status or career. It is essentially the opposite of a toxic work environment where employees feel afraid to speak their minds and take risks for fear of retribution.
There is an abundance of research that demonstrates the close link between psychological safety, trust, collaboration, innovation, and overall team performance. Research has also found that, along with higher levels of performance, teams with high psychological safety display lower levels of interpersonal conflict.
However, as we delve deeper into normalising remote and hybrid work models, ensuring psychological safety amongst our disparate teams is becoming increasingly challenging. Especially when it comes to our DEIB initiatives. In fact, a recent survey from Catalyst found that nearly half of female business leaders face difficulties speaking up in virtual meetings, with 1 in 5 reported feeling overlooked or ignored during video calls.
But we don't just have hybrid and remote work hindering our psychological safety efforts. With the introduction of AI in the workplace, we must consider how this technology can affect employee trust and psychological safety. However, given the sheer importance of enhancing AI-human collaboration, the workplace must foster psychological safety to avoid AI resistance.
The Need for Measurement
As the saying goes, "What gets measured gets managed." Clear metrics are critical for promoting and improving psychological safety within an organisation. However, unlike traditional metrics such as retention, cost to hire, or absenteeism, psychological safety can be more difficult to quantify.
The thing about psychological safety is that it is a subjective experience that can vary among individuals and teams within the same organisation. Cultural norms and values may influence perceptions, and some employees may be hesitant to provide honest feedback due to fear of repercussions or a desire to maintain a positive image. Therefore, establishing universal metrics can prove challenging.
However, despite these challenges, measuring psychological safety is necessary because it provides a quantifiable way to hold the organisation accountable for fostering a psychologically safe environment. Accurate measurement can identify key areas of strength and weakness, enabling targeted interventions and improvements. Plus, it can help align organisational policies, HR strategies and practices to support psychological safety in the workplace.
Key Psychological Safety Metrics
When assessing psychological safety metrics, it is worth reflecting on Timothy Clark's four stages of psychological safety:
Inclusion Safety: the feeling of being seen and included by others.
Learner Safety: the feeling that learning and growing in front of others is safe.
Contributor Safety: the feeling that one's voice will be heard and valued.
Challenger Safety: the confidence to challenge assumptions, beliefs, and behaviours without fear.
But before you start exploring these four stages, it is important to determine your why. Why are you looking to measure psychological safety?
Essentially, the clearer your reasoning, the more purposeful and impactful your measurement will be. Once you have established your why, here are a few key psychological safety metrics to consider:
Surveys and Questionnaires
Regular employee surveys are a primary tool for measuring psychological safety. These surveys should include questions that assess employees' perceptions of safety, trust, and openness within their teams. Example questions might include
"Do you feel safe to speak up with ideas or concerns in your team?"
"Do you believe your opinions are valued by your colleagues and leaders?"
"Do you feel comfortable taking risks without fear of negative consequences?"
Behavioural Indicators
Behavioural indicators can also be used to measure psychological safety. This involves observing team dynamics and interactions to identify behaviours that indicate a psychologically safe environment. Examples of positive behavioural indicators might include:
Frequency of idea sharing during meetings
Openness in feedback loops
Willingness to admit mistakes and learn from them
Taking risks and experimenting with new approaches
Engagement Scores
Engagement scores are another valuable metric for measuring psychological safety. High levels of employee engagement can indicate a psychologically safe environment, as employees feel comfortable and motivated to contribute their ideas and take risks. On the other hand, low engagement scores may indicate a lack of psychological safety in the workplace.
Turnover and Retention Rates
High turnover and low retention rates can also be indicators of low psychological safety. When employees do not feel safe and supported in their work environment, they may be more likely to leave for a more welcoming and inclusive workplace. Monitoring these rates can provide insight into the overall psychological safety within an organisation.
Implementing Psychological Safety Metrics
Once you have identified the key metrics to measure psychological safety, it is essential to implement them effectively. Here are some tips for implementing psychological safety metrics successfully:
Data Collection
Here, it is advised that you combine data from various sources, such as surveys, collaboration tools (e.g., email, chat, video conferencing), performance management systems, and employee feedback platforms, to gain a comprehensive view. While you may have separate systems in place to collect data such as employee sentiment, collaboration data, and performance evaluations, it may be worth investing in a data lake or platform that can centralise and analyse data from multiple sources to provide a holistic view of psychological safety within the organisation.
Analysis
Then comes the fun part - analysing the data. This is where you can identify patterns and trends related to psychological safety within your organisation. Look for potential areas of improvement and compare results with previous time periods to track progress. Here, it is advised that you:
Develop predictive models using machine learning algorithms to identify factors that influence psychological safety and predict potential risks or areas of concern.
Analyse communication patterns and collaboration networks to understand team dynamics, information flow, and potential silos or exclusions that may impact psychological safety.
Use advanced sentiment analysis techniques to gain deeper insights into employees' emotions, attitudes, and perceptions related to psychological safety from unstructured data sources.
Identify groups or segments of employees with similar psychological safety experiences or perceptions, enabling targeted interventions and support.
Reporting
Let's be honest. All our efforts will be futile if we do not clearly communicate the results and insights gained from our measurement. It is important to report on psychological safety metrics regularly, share progress with key stakeholders, and highlight potential improvement areas. This can help drive accountability and spur action towards creating a psychologically safe workplace.
Essentially, you want to develop interactive dashboards that leaders, managers, and employees can easily access to monitor the organisation's psychological safety. Use visualisations such as graphs, charts, and heatmaps to present data in a digestible format that can help identify critical insights at a glance.
However, as each of your stakeholders will have different priorities and needs, it is important to customise the reporting for each group. For example, leaders may be more interested in high-level trends and overall progress, while managers may need more granular data to identify areas of improvement within their teams.
The art of effective reporting is storytelling. We have a couple of courses on storytelling with people analytics that you may benefit from checking out. In a nutshell, the goal is to communicate the data and insights in a way that resonates with your stakeholders and motivates them to take action.
Leveraging Metrics for Improvement
At the end of the day, the ultimate goal of measuring psychological safety is to drive improvement within the organisation. Therefore, using the insights gained from these metrics to implement meaningful changes that foster a psychologically safe workplace is essential. This might include policy changes, training and development opportunities, or team-building exercises.
Equally, you should regularly reassess and adjust your metrics as needed. As the organisation evolves, so will the factors contributing to psychological safety. By continually monitoring and adapting your metrics, you can ensure that your measurement efforts remain relevant and effective.
Case Studies and Examples
To better understand how psychological safety metrics can be applied in real-world scenarios, here are some examples of organisations that have successfully implemented and leveraged these measurements.
Google's Project Aristotle
One prominent example is Google's Project Aristotle, which sought to identify the key elements of high-performing teams. By examining data from hundreds of Google teams, t researchers discovered that psychological safety was the paramount factor influencing team effectiveness. Teams with high levels of psychological safety significantly outperformed their counterparts, resulting in greater innovation, improved decision-making, and enhanced overall performance.
The Impact of Psychological Safety on Healthcare Teams
This case study is a perfect example of using multiple metrics to better understand psychological safety within an organisation. Studying psychological safety in four healthcare teams (physiotherapists, nurses, speech and language therapists, and a multidisciplinary team) within the same hospital, the researchers used a mixed-methods approach, combining observational data, surveys, and interviews.
Despite finding varying levels of psychological safety across the teams, influenced by factors such as team dynamics, leadership support, and familiarity between members, the study found that high psychological safety was consistently associated with the quality and safety of patient care.
How Measuring Psychological Safety Boosts Team Performance and Organisational Success
Measuring psychological safety is crucial for cultivating a healthy work environment where employees feel secure, valued, and empowered to voice their ideas and concerns. By incorporating psychological safety metrics into people analytics strategies, HR leaders can gain a holistic view of their organisation's culture and identify areas for improvement. This, in turn, drives better team performance, innovation, and overall organisational success.
As the field of people analytics continues to evolve, future technological advancements will allow for even more sophisticated measurement of psychological safety. By continuously monitoring and utilising these metrics, organisations can foster a psychologically safe workplace where employees thrive and reach their full potential. So, staying updated on the latest research and best practices is important to measure and improve psychological safety within your organisation effectively. With this knowledge, you can create a culture that values open communication, collaboration, and inclusivity, ultimately leading to happier employees and better business outcomes.
So, analyse data, report insights, and drive positive change towards a more psychologically safe workplace.
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