Psychological protection

What is psychological protection?

Psychological protection is where workers’ psychological safety is ensured. Workplace psychological safety is shown when workers feel comfortable to put themselves on the line, ask questions, seek feedback, report mistakes and problems or propose a new idea without fearing negative consequences. A psychologically safe and healthy organization actively promotes emotional well-being among workers while taking all reasonable steps to minimize threats to worker mental health.

An organization with good psychological protection can state:

  • It is committed to minimizing unnecessary stress at work.
  • Leaders care about workers’ emotional well-being.
  • It is committed to preventing harm to workers from harassment, bullying, discrimination, violence or stigma, and effectively deals with such situations
  • Workers would describe the workplace as being psychologically healthy.

Why is psychological protection important?

When workers are psychologically protected, they show greater job satisfaction, enhanced team learning and improved performance. Workers are more likely to speak up, become involved, have increased morale and are less likely to experience stress-related illnesses. Psychologically protected workplaces also experience fewer grievances, conflicts and liability risks.

When workers are not psychologically safe, they feel demoralized, threatened, disengaged and strained. Workplace conditions are seen as unclear and unpredictable. The organization is at a much greater threat from costly and potentially crippling legal and regulatory risk. This can, in turn, ruin shareholder, consumer and public confidence in the organization.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Create a culture where psychological health and safety is valued, encouraged and promoted.
  • Ensure fairness in how workplace decisions are made and how procedures are carried out.
  • Ensure fairness in the outcomes of workplace decisions, such as promotions.
  • When communicating decisions to staff, do so respectfully, with sincerity, care and empathy.
  • Create a process where difficult workplace situations can be discussed and addressed safely and confidentially.
  • Assure that psychological safety is more than just a policy – it involves an ongoing process of education, implementation and evaluation, with revisions as needed.
  • Provide incentives and reinforcement for the active display of psychologically healthy and safe behaviour.
  • Provide ongoing orientation and training on policies and programs on conflict management and the prevention and mitigation of harassment, discrimination and violence at work. Train all leaders, including human resource providers and union personnel, to be knowledgeable and accountable for ensuring a psychologically healthy and safe workplace.
  • Provide training on identifying and dealing with psychosocial stressors in the workplace (training in assertiveness, problem-solving and stress management).
  • Ensure workers are up to date on existing policies on harassment, discrimination, violence and conflict management (both formal and informal communication).
  • Provide safe opportunities for team members to identify and take part in the remediation of psychological safety concerns.
  • Communicate the availability of resources, educational material and supports available to manage stress, including stress resulting from workplace crisis or trauma.
  • Comply with the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace.
  • Develop policies and programs that assess and address factors that cause harm to team members (harassment, discrimination, violence).
  • Regularly review and change policies and programs to reflect emerging case law and regulatory changes.
  • Ensure all staff follow organizational ethics, values and worker privacy statements.
  • Provide internal programs and benefits, as well as information on external resources (employee and family assistance programs, access to psychologists or other licensed mental health professionals, community services) to workers who have experienced harassment, discrimination or violence.
  • Conduct regular risk assessments and reviews to help understand and monitor factors that may negatively affect workers’ psychological health and safety.
  • Provide programs and services for those working in vulnerable situations or environments, including those working off-hours (debriefing, peer support, safe-walk programs, secure parking access, etc.).
  • Provide adequate rests and breaks or job rotations for particularly taxing mental or physical tasks (for example: rest period for night-shift workers).

Action

Next steps: Ensuring employees’ psychological protection

▸ Objective

A work environment where workers’ psychological safety is ensured.

▸ Benefits
  • Reduced costs from work absence (sick time, disability).
  • Reduced conflict.
  • Fewer job-related errors, incidents and injuries.
  • Fewer grievances and reduced legal liability.
▸ Reflection Questions
  • Do issues related to workers’ psychological protection pose a greater risk to specific groups of workers (new workers, certain jobs, shift workers, young workers, etc.)?
  • What are your workplace's strengths in terms of workers’ psychological protection? (what do you do well and what should you continue doing?)
  • What could your workplace do to improve in this area? (What could you do more of and what could you do less of?)