Safe & Well - Wellbeing at Work
Fostering mental health and wellbeing through teamwork and leadership
Imagine your team is thriving. What does that look like?
Are your people engaged and productive? Does each and every person feel safe to speak up, raise concerns and even express disagreement? Is every voice heard respectfully? Do team members trust each other and your organisation?
With the stresses of work and life increasingly overlapping, frustration is close to the surface, along with a growing lack of empathy and often a sense of unfairness. As a result, poor wellbeing and employee experience rates directly impact engagement, productivity and performance in the workplace.
Indeed, in 1999, when Dr. Amy Edmondson coined the term “team psychological safety” (a shared belief held by team members for interpersonal risk-taking), she could not have predicted its future significance.
So today’s leaders face a new challenge: mastering the art of managing team psychological safety and nurturing well-being, trust, and belonging. But whether from a lack of time, skills, or confidence, many leaders and managers need help to maintain these all-important connections with their direct reports and teams.
We need purpose-built solutions to equip leaders with the necessary skills and tools to nurture wellbeing and safe one-on-one and team conversations.
Psychological Safety
"a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes, and that the team is safe for inter-personal risk taking"
In a recent study, HP surveyed over 15,600 respondents across various industries in 12 countries. The results indicate our relationship with work is near breaking point.
- 27% of knowledge workers say they have a healthy relationship with work.
83% of knowledge workers today are willing to earn less to be happier at work.
As leaders, we must always reject the false choice between productivity and happiness. The most successful companies are built on cultures that enable employees to excel in their careers while thriving outside of work.
For organisations struggling to attract and retain staff, fostering an environment where everyone feels they can safely engage and contribute their ideas is critical.
How do you help people manage stress and fatigue?
How can you encourage employees to feel safe asking for help or revealing errors?
Or ensure respectful and amiable relationships?
According to Kate Molloy, Director at WEIR Workplace Consulting, there is a pressing need to increase psychological safety and reduce negative judgment. This requires us to focus on:
- Increasing empathy, generosity of spirit, and tolerance for different opinions, expectations, experiences, etc.
- Finding a way to accept that we are all human and deserving of both dignity and respect.
Tapping into this level of connection will help create an environment where problem identification and solving become safer. However, it is important to note that sometimes you will not be able to agree on a solution. In those cases, it is helpful to transparently reach that conclusion together and develop ways to minimise and protect against the risks.
Safe & Well brings together our very different expertise
Fostering mental health and wellbeingthrough teamwork and leadership
WEIR’s specialist expertise in wellbeing and workplace culture supports leaders and teams as they navigate complex workplace issues and build actionable outcomes.
Hargraves‘ Collaboration Framework and Question Canvas approach is a proven process. When adopted by WEIR, it results in wellbeing tools that stimulate conversations and build on ideas.
Thriving teams are built on a foundation of trust, common purpose, equal voice, diversity of thinking, shared values, accountability, respect, and psychological safety.
Where do you start?
The Safe & Well @ Work Placemat has been created as a first step for leaders and managers who find it challenging to start a conversation about wellbeing in the workplace. How? By starting with one of WEIR’s culture questions from the Deep Dive Question Canvas.
First, choose the most relevant question, then work through WEIR’s 6-step process to identify actionable outcomes towards creating a safer and healthier workplace.
For complex workplace issues
Delivered by the experts at WEIR, the Safe & Well @ Work Program addresses complex workplace issues and priorities, including:
- Psychological safety
- Psychosocial risks at work
- Bullying
- Harassment
- Discrimination
Are wellbeing or workplace issues keeping you awake at night?
It’s not just about your team. You need to “fit your own breathing mask before helping others”. So get in touch to learn more about WEIR’s solutions or Hargraves’ People-First Approach.
Safe & Well @ Work resources created through collaboration with WEIR Workplace Consultants. Your Safe & Well Program will developed and delivered by WEIR’s workplace specialists.