Paul La Vigne | |
During the last decade or so, business leaders have really begun to embrace the idea of creating “psychologically safe” work environments. This means fostering a group dynamic in which everyone feels comfortable taking risks, expressing ideas and concerns, asking questions, admitting mistakes, and continuing to grow.
However, it seems like a lot of people are missing a key fact:
It’s not possible to feel psychologically safe with your work team if you feel physically unsafe in your workplace—and team members in different roles often have very different perspectives of how physically safe a workplace is.
Workplace Security Expectations and Perceptions
Workplace security refers broadly to the measures that safeguard employees, assets, and intellectual property from both physical and digital threats. This involves a multi-faceted approach to protect employees, whether they are in-office or remote, along with securing all assets, data, and networks. A secure workplace has robust systems in place to prevent security breaches, protect sensitive areas, and ensure employees’ overall safety and well-being.
Prioritizing workplace safety is essential for maintaining a positive and productive work environment. According to AlertMedia’s latest State of Employee Safety Report, 96% of US and UK workers say their physical safety is important, but more than a third (36%) don’t believe their managers take their feedback on safety issues seriously.
Psychological Safety: What It Is and Why It Matters
Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson coined the term “psychological safety” in 1999. She defined it as the “shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking … [and] a sense of confidence that the team will not embarrass, reject or punish someone for speaking up.”
Edmondson clarified that this is specific to the group dynamic, not the individuals within the group. Even confident individuals with lots of grit could have difficulty speaking up if the group dynamic is threatening.
In her early work in the 1990s, Edmondson found that psychological safety in the workplace fosters a culture of continuous learning and improvement, where team members feel comfortable sharing their mistakes and learning from them. Over time, she and other researchers determined that a psychologically safe workplace leads to more engaged and motivated workers, and can lead to better decision-making for the business as a whole: More voices and more perspectives mean fewer blind spots and missed opportunities.
Edmondson has been talking about workplace psychological safety for more than 20 years, but what really catapulted this idea into the spotlight was a large-scale study at Google in the early 2010s. Google wanted to determine why some of their engineering and sales teams fizzled while others did amazing work. They took a deep dive into the dynamics of nearly 200 separate teams at Google, ranging in size from three to 50 members.
Google found that many assumptions about what made good teams— empowering “rockstar” team members, getting the right mix of experience levels, finding the right team size, favoring a consensus-driven decision-making process—made no difference at all.
What did matter was psychological safety: Teams that fostered a sense of psychological safety were consistently more effective.
The Importance of a Secure Workplace
Now that psychological safety is in the spotlight, you can find plenty of tips for creating “psychologically safe teams.” Lots of business coaches are willing to come in to help you lay the groundwork for a psychologically safe workplace.
Their tips for fostering productive group dynamics are generally good: Practice active listening, make space for all members to speak up, and quickly address problematic behavior. But they almost always gloss over what we find is the number one issue: Plenty of employees still have good reason to worry about their physical safety at work. They aren’t going to ever feel psychologically safe if they feel physically unsafe.
Broadly speaking, violent crime has been on the decline in the U.S. for decades—but workplace violence has continued to climb. According to the most recent statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are more than 58,000 reported incidents of workplace violence each year resulting in injury or death. Women are targets of this violence more than 70% of the time, the same research shows. These trends are especially pronounced in some sectors, like retail and healthcare. Workplace violence is the leading cause of retail worker deaths by a high margin. More than 80% of nurses experience workplace violence each year. Domestic violence can also spill over into the workplace: More than 70% domestic violence survivors report that it followed them to work.
Three Steps To Address Physical Workplace Safety
The most common mistake organizations make is rushing toward a solution before they’ve clearly identified the problem. The following three-step process will help you not overreact to a low-probability risk, while more meaningful hazards may go unaddressed.
1. Evaluate Security Risks
Start with a thorough risk assessment. Ideally, this will be conducted by a reputable outside security consultant. In many cases, organizations can get an assessment from their local or state law enforcement free of charge. For example, in many communities, local law enforcement or sheriff's departments make trained officers available to schools, houses of worship, and nonprofits to help guide safety and security assessments.
Make sure this assessment includes a survey of your staff, or conduct such a survey on your own. The people who spend the most time in your building almost always have useful insights. Many can be addressed at little or no cost, while meaningfully increasing physical security. Is there a door with a sticky hinge that tends not to close and latch properly? A dark corner in the parking lot that would offer cover to a potential attacker? Overgrown hedges blocking sightlines as you leave the building?
Taking the time to talk to staff about their concerns, experiences, and observations doesn’t just help you determine what needs to be addressed in your security upgrades. It sends a powerful message about how seriously you take their personal safety. Conveying that message lays the foundation for creating psychological safety and forms the bedrock of a truly successful business.
2. Evaluate Safety and Security Solutions
With your risk assessment in hand, you’ll usually find there is a fair bit of low-hanging fruit your facilities team can address themselves: trimming back shaggy hedges and trees, replacing exterior lighting, improving key handling, or upgrading to an access control system with swipe cards or keypads.
Most assessments will also include recommendations about hardening exterior windows and doors, or adding a bulletproof barrier system to protect receptionists and better control how people access sensitive areas. There are many options for these, and the right combinations of components can net multiple wins. For example, choosing the right doors and window glazings can add ballistic security while also improving fire safety or better securing your facility against extreme weather or civil unrest.
At this stage, it’s best to partner with an expert in physical security systems who can help you explore your options.
3. Foster a Continuous Culture of Safety
The human element is always the biggest challenge to maintaining good security. You can spend $100,000 on the best possible combination of access control technology, security cameras, and reinforced ballistic barriers—but it does no good if people prop the doors open on a sunny day, or hold the door without being sure if the person coming in should actually be there.
Training employees is vital for ensuring they have the knowledge to use, adhere to, and effectively respond to established security systems and protocols. Training should cover understanding your security systems, emergency response procedures, and adherence to access control protocols, as well as data security policies. Regular drills and refresher courses can keep teams alert and familiar with procedures for various scenarios. Employees should know how to report safety concerns or potential threats confidentially or without fear of retaliation.
TSS Has the Experience To Secure Your Workplace
Employees are the backbone of any organization, and their safety and security should be top priority. Taking physical security seriously is an excellent first step toward fostering psychological safety, because it sends such a powerful message. One study published in the International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research among hotel employees found that those who worked in places with strong security measures were happier, performed their jobs better, and were more proactive about customer satisfaction. They specifically noted that “physical security has the highest influence on employee loyalty [and] that employees place significant importance on physical security measures when evaluating their loyalty.”
By taking workplace violence and physical safety seriously, we can create a strong physical security culture in the workplace, creating a “virtuous cycle” where employees know they are physically safe, fostering a culture of further psychological safety. Employees in a safe environment are more able to support their coworkers and more willing to make themselves vulnerable for the greater good of the team. This supports a culture of continuous improvement and growth that underpins every successful organization.
Investing in physical security promotes employee confidence, well-being, and engagement. At TSS, we’re pleased to make free materials available to support good, comprehensive security planning. Our free 5 Steps to Improving Corporate Security guide is a great place to start.
If you have any questions or are ready to begin moving forward with a project, we’re here to help. Simply send us a message online to get started today.
Interested in more no-pressure, no-obligation insight and advice on safety and security? TSS CEO and co-founder Jim Richards offers a free quarterly security newsletter drawing on his decades of experience in the bullet-resistant glass and physical security industries.
Paul La Vigne is the Total Security Solutions Chief Marketing and Information Officer. He is passionate about community service and making sure everyone has all the information and guidance they need to make the best possible security choices for their organizations and communities.
