Psychological Safety and New Employees

It’s great to have teams where psychological safety is high, and if you’ve been reading this newsletter, you’ll know how many benefits there are when this happens.

But what about when new members join the organisation? You want them to benefit immediately from being a member of a team where psychological safety enables high performance.

So how can you ensure that psychological safety remains high? And how do you make sure that those who may not have been in psychologically safe teams before understand what this means??

The Hiring Process

We’ve spoken in this newsletter before about a Charter for Psychological Safety, a formal document committed to at the highest levels of the organisation, that sets out the rights and responsibilities of all regarding psychological safety.

As part of the recruitment process, all those applying to work at the organisation should be made aware of this Charter, and they must abide by both the spirit and the letter of the Charter before we can consider them for employment.

This helps to “filter out” those candidates who may not want to lead or be members of teams where vulnerability, honesty and shared accountability are part of the team culture. It also gives new hires a better idea of how we will expect them to work with others, and what they can expect of those they work with or those who they will lead.

But what can leaders do to ensure that when new team members come on board, they can share in the benefits and responsibilities of a psychologically safe team?

Leaders: A psychologically safe first impression

As a leader of a psychologically safe team, you are used to being open and honest, vulnerable and candid. Your new staff member may not be used to leaders like you!

We suggest that you be especially careful to model psychological safety when you first meet with the new hire. Talk about why you needed that person on the team and how pleased you are that they joined. Let them know a little about yourself on a personal level, but don’t expect them to reciprocate.

You could even talk about how you expect to be addressed, and how you welcome their views when given in the right context (This might be a good time to talk about Respect for the Person, Place and Process, as in our Psychological Safety Framework for High-Performing Teams).

But what are some of the specific things that you could talk about concerning their role in the team in a way that helps to ensure psychological safety? I recommend you make sure you cover the five aspects of working in teams that we teach in our psychological safety training: Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Equity (fairness), and Significance (status).

Certainty

Make sure that the new employee clearly knows what you expect of them. Talk about performance standards and goals, normal communication channels, up-stream and down-stream reporting expectations, and everything else that makes up the day-to-day expectations of this person and their role.

Check their understanding and make sure they know who to go to for help if anything needs clarification - on day one and beyond.

Autonomy

Hopefully, in your psychologically safe team, there is plenty of room for team members to decide for themselves when, where and how they perform their role and deliver the required performance. Now is the time to be clear about the level of autonomy they have (hopefully a lot!) and what are the constraints on this autonomy (such as mandatory policies, government regulations, health and safety requirements etc.).

Again, this is a good time to let them know how and with whom they can check their choices if they feel they need to - as this can be a new experience for many employees.

Relatedness

This is all about helping the new team member to feel that they belong. Make sure they meet (virtually or in person) the others in their team and ensure that there is plenty of opportunity for further discussion.

If you normally hold some kind of welcoming event (from a casual coffee meeting to a team lunch), check in on how they feel about this. A more introverted (or neurodiverse) employee might find this overwhelming, so don’t make them feel more uncomfortable than they already might be at meeting a lot of new colleagues.

As well, make sure their sense of belonging extends beyond the team itself - help them understand how their team contributes to the wider purpose of the organisation. Let them know about ‘suppliers’ and ‘customers’ (both internal to the organisation and outside it), and perhaps even help them meet some of them.

Equity

A feeling of equity, or fairness, is an essential building block of a psychologically safe team. New team members need to feel that they are being treated fairly, so that even if they are neurodiverse, disabled, or have other special needs, they are assured equitable access to all the facilities and events that the rest of the team enjoys.

This also includes ensuring that their ‘voice’ is heard, even if their preferred (or only) means of communication are non-verbal.

In some workplaces, new team members may have some constraints placed on them during a probation period. If this is the case in your team, ensure that the new team member fully understands the reasons for and conditions of such constraints.

Significance (or status)

Most teams have some kind of hierarchy of status, either based on position, seniority, ability, task performed, or something else. Often these hierarchies do not appear in any official organisational document. Whatever their place in the hierarchy, new team members need to feel that what they do and who they are is important to the team.

Their status needs to be recognised and celebrated—whatever their role in the team, they are there because the team needs them!

Keep it up

Make sure to regularly check in on new team members to see how they are going, and to reinforce the messages of high psychological safety. After they have been there a week or two, it can be good to show your willingness to listen and seek feedback on their first impressions of their new workplace. And if it’s something you can take action on, then be quick to do so. And if not, continue your practice of open and honest communication and explain why.

A few small actions can make a big difference to new team members, and help to maintain and strengthen the psychological safety of your entire team.

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Build highly engaged and high-performing teams by boosting psychological safety in your workplace. BOOK a 30-minute free consulting session with me to find out how I can help.