The Importance of Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Black, Racialized and Marginalized Employees
When we express our thoughts at work or open the floor for thoughtful discussions, we require the reassurance that our colleagues will listen with an open mind. The feeling of safety to speak your mind is the essence of psychological safety. The emphasis on diversity, inclusion and equity in the workplace propelled the importance of psychological safety for racialized employees.
For a long time, racialized and marginalized employees have always felt fear for speaking their minds. The backlash from co-workers, consequences from management, and the inability to advance in their roles – these employees who are underrepresented have much more to lose.
So how can companies cultivate a working space where the most marginalized employees feel psychological safety? Below, we'll run through the meaning of the term, the importance it holds in the workplace, and how employers can create a work culture that cultivates psychological safety.
The Difference Between Psychological Safety and Trust
The brief introduction to psychological safety may sound similar to the idea of trust. However, it's important to distinguish between the two.
When you think of psychological safety, think about dynamics and the environment among a group of people. In this scenario, the marginalized employee is concerned with how their colleagues and managers will view them as an individual. Psychological safety is when someone feels safe among the group to freely express their thoughts because they believe others will not hold anything against them.
As Laura Morgan Roberts and Anthony J. Mayo point out in their article, Towards a Racially Just Workplace. “Executives will need to think deeply about their ethics and corporate culture and exert extra effort for a cause they may not consider central to their business. But the reward will be great: maximizing the human potential of everyone in the workplace.” This does not imply that all co-workers need to be best friends. In a psychologically safe work environment, there is an interpersonal climate that is characterized by trust and respect, in which people are comfortable being themselves and are respected.
Now let's examine the meaning of trust. Trust revolves around the ideas that an individual has about another person. It's the expectation that one person will behave the way the other person believes they should. We have all trusted people in our lives: trusting our partner won’t betray us or trusting our parents will pick us up at the right time.
To distinguish psychological safety and trust think about it like this: with psychological safety, you’re wary of how a group of people will perceive you. With trust, the focus is on whether you give others the benefit of the doubt.
The Importance of Psychological Safety
Psychological safety is especially important for racialized employees who continue to face racism and microaggressions in the workplace. These can appear as “jokes” or “playing devil's advocate.” These comments are completely unacceptable. These are just a few common issues that Black and marginalized employees face:
Microaggression including micro-assaults, micro-insults and micro-invalidations.
Lack of opportunities for advancement
Inability to express themselves
And these are glaring and concerning issues. According to nearly 2/3's of Black HR professionals, they believe their companies are not providing enough opportunities for their Black employees. Alternatively, one in five Black adults believes they've been treated with less respect than their co-workers.
If no one speaks up about these issues, employees will continue to work in hostile environments. One where there is no sense of belonging, growth, and sense of feeling valued. This is precisely why psychological safety plays a pivotal role in the workforce. In Canada, a Black class-action lawsuit has been filed by former federal government employees who felt forced to resign due to systemic racism and ongoing discrimination. This YouTube video is one example of ongoing treatment.
When racialized employees feel safe in the presence of their colleagues to express themselves, to bring up concerns, the workplace progresses towards a more just and inclusive work environment. This includes topics surrounding racism and microaggressions occurring in the workplace.
How Employers Can Develop Psychological Safety
All of this is much easier said than done. Ensuring a workspace that includes psychological safety means developing a work culture rooted in compassion, empathy, and trust. Even if that means starting from scratch, it's a necessary step. Here are few things you should consider when cultivating a psychologically safe work environment.
1. Embracing diverse narratives in the workplace
Embracing different experiences and diversity at the workplace will ensure that racialized employees feel valued. Welcoming differences creates a work culture that treasures the different opinions and ideas of racialized workers.
When this is done, employees feel safer in their work environment – they feel appreciated by their peers and management. A few ways it shows that your team embraces diversity includes:
Making a Holiday Calendar – and being purposeful in scheduling meetings and events around non westernized holidays
Including everyone's thoughts on company changes and strategic objectives
Management team composed of people of diverse backgrounds and experiences
Offering ongoing education around equity, diversity, inclusion and anti-racism.
2. Involved Upper Management
Upper management plays a huge role in the work culture and environment. When executives and managers make themselves more accessible, they reaffirm commitment to addressing equity involved in diversity and inclusion efforts, this reflects on the nature of the company.
This active involvement from managers may take away some barriers for racialized and marginalized employees to open up about racism and microaggressions in the workplace. In any case, they will feel protected by their employers.
3. A Sound Structure of Resolution
When racialized employees bring up any issues or concerns, there needs to be an organized structure of resolution in place. Alternatively, a safe space needs to exist during team meetings where they can freely express themselves.
For example, when employees bring up issues, is it common for managers to throw the issue to HR without a second look? Are there ways to ensure employees who speak up are protected when concerns are brought to the table? These are some questions to consider when constructing a system of resolution in your company.
4. Open Conversations
No one should face consequences for wanting change or improvements to current company systems and practices. Encouraging and embracing open conversations among employees where employees can learn from each other's experiences is a great way to cultivate an environment that centres on belonging and respect.
This can prompt racialized employees to feel psychological safety when they see colleagues listen and welcome everyone's narratives and perspectives, especially when they differ from others. As such, they'll feel safer bringing up topics such as racism.
5. Showing a Willingness to Change
A company that asks for feedbacks shows they value input from everyone. What’s more important is when this feedback then leads to fundamental systemic changes.
It shows that the company is not stagnant in its traditional and possibly outdated views. When racialized employees can express their feedback, this makes it easier for them to feel safer expressing their thoughts and opinions. This is especially the case when they know their words can lead to substantial changes.
Within the organization, there are always opportunities to increase diversity and inclusivity. This includes ways to make sure employees feel psychologically safe when expressing their opinions and thoughts. When everyone feels safe in their work environment to speak on racism and a need for change, what unfolds is a chance for the company and its employees to improve and grow.
All companies should be highly mindful of their discussions on anti-racism, equity, diversity and inclusion. Are they positively impacting your racialized employees, or are they helping your white employees live with the discomfort of racism?
The blog is curated by Colleen James, Principal and Founder of Divonify Incorporated. Colleen’s work is centered around the dismantling of oppressive systems by working with organizational leadership to address issues of systemic racism, equity, diversity and inclusion. If you enjoyed this blog, please share with others you feel would gain value from it.