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A PCBU must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, workers and other persons are not exposed to risks to their psychological or physical health and safety.

A PCBU must eliminate psychosocial risks in the workplace, or if that is not reasonably practicable, minimise these risks so far as is reasonably practicable. 

lEADERS AND eXECUTIVE PROGRAM

Online Program

EMPLOYEE LEVEL PROGRAM

Online Program

Why Choose Us

PSYCHOSOCIAL HAZARD SUPPORT

On top of meeting your workplace health and safety (WHS) obligations, research shows that it can also increase productivity and morale; help you attract and retain good staff; and reduce absenteeism and workers compensations claims Diversity Australia can help you to navigate the psychosocial risk management process and keep your employees safe from psychological harm. With the expert guidance and support of a Psychosocial Safety Coach (PSC), combined with the necessary resources, we will equip you with the knowledge and tools that you need to effectively identify and manage psychosocial hazards at your workplace.

Our PSCs will help you understand how the work environment impacts your people and support you to successfully manage the risks to their psychological health, safety, and wellbeing.

HEALTH & WELLBEING

Our internationally accredited health and wellbeing program Health+ is a proactive intervention that supports employees by providing them with the tools that they need to make sustainable improvements to their health and wellbeing.

We combine our use of allied health and wellbeing coaches with a ‘check-in’ survey and dedicated survey program to help employees to identify any health and wellbeing concerns that may be present, provide education and personalised support, and empower positive and sustainable improvements.

Health+ is a holistic program that addresses all areas of health and wellbeing, including mental and physical health, lifestyle habits, and sleep and fatigue.

LEADERSHIP AND EMPLOYEE APPROACH

Positive team climate is the most important driver of psychological safety and most likely to occur when leaders demonstrate supportive, consultative behaviors, then begin to challenge their teams. Our consultative leadership approach has a direct and indirect effect on psychological safety, as leaders consult their team members, solicit input, and consider the team’s views on issues that affect them.
We engage supportive leadership which has an indirect but still significant effect on psychological safety by helping to create a positive team climate; it involves leaders demonstrating concern and support for team members not only as employees but also as individuals.

These behaviors also can encourage team members to support one another.

SYSTEMATIC APPROACH TO MEETING YOUR DUTIES

We use a systematic approach using the elements in the ‘Preventing harm’, ‘Intervening early’, and ‘Supporting recovery’ phases to methodically and comprehensively ensure your workers’ psychological health and safety. By using this approach we can help you meet your legal duties to implement controls that eliminate or minimise the risk of psychological injuries being caused by work but also over time improve your organisation’s approach to preventing psychological injury and supporting recovery.
Using a thorough and systematic approach can have significant business benefits including decreasing business disruption and costs from work-related psychological injury, improving worker motivation, engagement and job satisfaction so increasing productivity, reducing absenteeism and turnover, and ultimately helping your organisation achieve its business goals, and enhancing your reputation as an employer of choice.

FAQ

People come to work to make a contribution, with the aim of doing their best. When individuals don’t feel safe it’s hard to do their best work. It is one of the reasons why psychological safety is important.

The author Timothy Clark describes psychological safety “as an environment where you feel included, that it is safe to learn and contribute and that you can challenge the status quo – all without any fear of being shamed, embarrassed or marginalised.”

One of the key elements and cornerstones of psychological safety is feeling included. People all want to feel a sense of belonging. Humans crave social connection. There is research that suggests that being socially excluded is as painful as any physical pain that one feels.

Psychologically safe environment enables individuals to feel safe to learn. They can dive into the discovery process, make mistakes and occasionally fail knowing that the environment is safe to do so. People are encouraged by others in their learning. It doesn’t mean that they can keep making mistakes, it just means the focus is on learning so that mistakes and failures reduce over time. Learning and growing amplifies an individual’s self-worth and increases their sense of resilience. Both lead to positive mental outcomes.

Psychological safety doesn’t just help create the best conditions for positive mental health, it also makes good business sense. High levels of psychological safety leads to greater business performance, employee engagement and innovation. Without psychological safety individuals won’t feel comfortable in challenging the status quo, nor will they look for new ways of doing things. If an individual doesn’t feel psychologically safe, then they will stay in their comfort zone rather than take calculated risks. The result is less innovation and progression.

If the team’s focus is on learning rather than judging, on encouraging rather than marginalising, this will lead to enhanced psychological safety of the team. A team with a culture of learning is comfortable with raising difficult issues, challenging the status quo and asking questions. Team members would be comfortable with feedback both from inside and outside the team. Managers can encourage questions, see failure as an opportunity to learn and run experiments and learn from them.

 Managers that are comfortable with showing vulnerability in front of their team members are able to promote a sense of openness. Encouraging others to speak about challenges they were facing, their development areas and the struggles combining a busy work load with a busy personal life allows managers to lead by example. Creating a culture where managers display their real self can have positive flow on effects on team members as they feel that they are part of a psychologically safe environment. It allowed others to show vulnerability and increased the level of trust and safety in the team.

Managers can focus on relationships within their team. When individuals feel like they belong and can connect with others they are able to do their best work. Invest time in building connected relationships. Check in with team members on how they are going. Create an environment where team members feel they can approach members in leadership. Create a space to have fun.

A lack of consistent psychological safety at work is not just a “nice to have;” it impacts the organization’s bottom line. Having a higher level of psychological safety helps to unlock the contributions of all talent in the enterprise and ensures the organization is better equipped to prevent failure.

Research has repeatedly found that organizations benefit from diversity of thought, and groups of people with different life experiences are better able to recognize problems and offer up creative solutions than groups with similar life experiences.

But what if some team members don’t feel comfortable speaking up? What if they’re afraid to share their perspective, raise concerns, or asking challenging questions? What if they avoid suggesting new and innovative ideas because they’re worried about the repercussions?

While the benefits of psychological safety are well established, a new survey suggests how leaders, by developing specific skills, can create a safer and higher-performance work environment.  When employees feel comfortable asking for help, sharing suggestions informally, or challenging the status quo without fear of negative social consequences, organizations are more likely to innovate quickly, unlock the benefits of diversity, and adapt well to change—all capabilities that have only grown in importance during the COVID-19 crisis.

Leaders can build psychological safety by creating the right climate, mindsets, and behaviors within their teams. In our experience, those who do this best act as catalysts, empowering and enabling other leaders on the team—even those with no formal authority—to help cultivate psychological safety by role modeling and reinforcing the behaviors they expect from the rest of the team.

Our research finds that a positive team climate—in which team members value one another’s contributions, care about one another’s well-being, and have input into how the team carries out its work—is the most important driver of a team’s psychological safety.4 By setting the tone for the team climate through their own actions, team leaders have the strongest influence on a team’s psychological safety. Moreover, creating a positive team climate can pay additional dividends during a time of disruption. Our research finds that a positive team climate has a stronger effect on psychological safety in teams that experienced a greater degree of change in working remotely than in those that experienced less change during the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet just 43 percent of all respondents report a positive climate within their team.

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