psychological safety and workplace investigations
As an independent workplace investigator, I can usually get a read on the culture of the organization fairly early on in the process. I’m also pretty good at sensing whether a company has a culture and work environment that is rooted in psychological safety — and that makes an enormous difference in the ease and outcome of the investigation.
What is psychological safety?
In 1999, Harvard professor Amy Edmondson first identified the concept of psychological safety. In a workplace, psychological safety is the belief that the environment and culture are safe for and support interpersonal risk-taking. When people feel psychologically safe, they are able to bring their whole selves to work, to trust that they can contribute their ideas without being shut down, to ask questions without fear of feeling judged, and give open and honest feedback without fear of retaliation.
When psychological safety exists, there is a foundational commitment to respect, and an agreement as to how people will interact and communicate every day and in times of stress.
You can start to see how a psychologically safe environment would make an investigation much easier to conduct, but let me share the other benefits.
The benefits of a psychologically safe workplace include:
Better communication and sharing of knowledge
Openness to learning (including from mistakes or failure)
Better performance, more creativity, more innovation and more initiative
Increased commitment and loyalty to the organization
Happier employees
A psychologically safe environment doesn’t mean that people don’t disagree, or that everything is always rainbows and unicorns, it means that people feel safe enough to share their concerns, ask for help, give candid feedback, openly admit to making mistakes without feeling like they have to start looking for another job.
In organizations where psychological safety exists, people are committed to living the values of trust, respect, vulnerability and transparency. There is more trust and collaboration (over competition) between team members, people address conflict in a healthy, constructive and respectful manner, and the culture encourages and supports open and transparent communication.
And yes, employees can still act inappropriately in a psychologically safe workplace! Though the incident rates are usually lower and there’s less of a chance of issues escalating because of the culture of open, honest communication.
Here’s how psychological safety shows up in workplace investigations.
In organizations where psychological safety exists, people are more likely to confront or call out inappropriate behaviour, they are more likely to report an incident of discrimination, harassment, violence or misconduct and there is more trust and confidence that the managers and leaders will do the “right” thing and address the issues head-on.
When I’ve conducted workplace investigations in organizations where psychological safety exists, people are more willing to participate in the investigation process and share information transparently because they feel safe in doing so and genuinely want the culture to improve and be restored to a harmonious state.
In organizations where psychological safety doesn’t exist, the work environment feels heavier and more toxic. The work environment is peppered with feelings of heightened stress, fear, disrespect, “me first, last and always” | “cover my ass” behaviours and ostracizing (lack of inclusivity and belonging) behaviours.
In these environments, people do not feel safe to bring their concerns forward or to file a complaint if they are experiencing discrimination, harassment or violence at work — which means misconduct could continue to escalate before being reported, and may even continue to escalate further even after the initial issues are reported or a complaint is filed. People may be reluctant to participate in workplace investigations because they fear retaliation and do not trust that leaders will act from a place of integrity, from a duty of care, or lead with empathy because they have seen similar issues and concerns dismissed in the past.
These factors make it much more difficult for the investigator to conduct a full and fair workplace investigation and ultimately determine “what happened”.
So, how do you create psychological safety in workplace investigations?
1. Build trust consistently
One of the most important preconditions for workplace investigations is trust in leadership. Trust that concerns or complaints will be taken seriously and won’t be dismissed. Trust that the process will be fair to all parties. Trust that leaders will do the “right” thing vs. the easy thing. Trust that swift (and appropriate) action will be taken. Trust that acts of retaliation or reprisal won’t be tolerated, for any reason. Trust that workplace culture and psychological safety are seen as mission-critical priorities. Leaders can only demonstrate trustworthiness through consistent action. It’s not about what someone says; it’s about the actions that follow. Leaders need to model the right behaviours to build this trust. They need to be approachable, honest, inclusive, empathetic, transparent and vulnerable in the right moments consistently. And when good leaders make mistakes (because every human does), they take accountability, they apologize, and perhaps most importantly, they make sure they don’t repeat the same mistake. Because that’s trust in action.
2. Use External Investigators
External workplace investigators are often seen as more neutral than internal investigators because they don’t have pre-existing relationships with the parties to the investigation, they aren’t influenced by the same interests and agendas and they don’t have the same stakes in the outcome of the investigation. For example, if the internal investigator in a workplace investigation complaint was known to be best friends with the complainant (the person who filed the complaint), the respondent (the person accused of the misconduct) would likely feel that the investigation process was unfair from the outset, that the outcome was predetermined and that they were never given a full and fair opportunity to defend themselves. Using an external investigator can help to safeguard the investigation process against allegations of procedural unfairness. If a workplace investigator is (or is perceived to be) biased or negligent, it can result in serious consequences (financial, legal and emotional) for everyone.
3. Create a safe space
A good investigator will invest the time, energy and empathy at the beginning of an investigation interview to establish a safe emotional space for participants. This can be done by outlining the steps in the process, giving the participant time and grace to ask questions (and provide truthful and transparent answers) and it may even mean allowing (and encouraging) a participant to bring a support person to the interview to help them feel more comfortable. (Note: the role of the support person is to provide physical, mental and emotional support during a stressful circumstance; the role of the support person is not to interfere with the process or to answer questions for the participant).
While it may seem obvious, investigation interviews should be conducted in a safe, confidential physical space as well, away from prying eyes. The global pandemic has made this easier from a logistics perspective, with many people still working from home, but it’s still an important consideration.
One time, I was conducting a workplace investigation at a company and I had set up the interview with the complainant in what I was assured was a very private room. It was private (in that the room had four walls, a ceiling and a door) but the room was located IN THE MIDDLE of a busy floor of offices and cubicles and the walls were made of glass! True story. Not kidding.
Hot tip: a fishbowl is NOT a private space!
“If we want people to fully show up and to bring their whole selves including their unarmored, whole hearts so that we can innovate, solve problems, and serve people, we have to be vigilant about creating a culture in which people feel safe, seen, heard, and respected”
May 13, 2021
Saira Gangji is an independent licensed Workplace Investigator at hrology in Calgary, AB. She investigates allegations of discrimination and human rights, harassment, violence and misconduct in the workplace. For more information about hrology and our process, see the work with me page.