(Finance) – When those who are part of an organization feel confident in being able to express themselves freely, to take risks without fear of being judged or harshly criticized, to admit their mistakes by appearing authentic, they find themselves in a condition of safety psychological. A condition of balance between the possibility of expressing oneself freely and the ability not to damage the safety of others, which has positive consequences on capacity innovative corporate and the performance financial as well as the development of fair, just and inclusive working environments.
Creating such a virtuous condition within an organization requires lines guide very precise, as well as a leadership model and culture based on respect and empathy. The role of the leader therefore becomes even more important, because psychological safety can only thrive through his guidance. As he states Giulia Airaghi, Principal at BCG, “When leaders use empathy and expertise to build psychologically safe environments, employees can get a significant boost in motivation. Feeling valued and respected, as well as empowered to reach your full potential, also improves your sense of inclusion, a key lever for attracting and retaining a broad spectrum of diverse talent.”
This is confirmed by the data from the research conducted by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Psychological Safety Levels the Playing Field for Employees, based on a survey which involved approximately 28,000 employees in 16 countries, including Italy. Comparing the answers of the interviewees, it emerged that in psychologically safe environments, Italian workers experience a reduction in the risk of abandonment within a year of 2.7 times (versus the global figure of 3.9x). In fact, 6.9% of workers with the lowest levels of psychological safety declared that they were inclined to leave their job within a year, but when psychological safety is high, only 2.6% are at risk of leaving. There research it also shows that, in the psychologically safe environmentsItalian workers experience a 3-fold increase in the feeling of being able to reach their full potential (vs. 3.3x global), a 2.4-fold increase in motivation (vs. 2.1x global), a 2.9-fold increase in overall happiness at work ( vs 2.7x global) and 3.4 times the feeling of feeling valued and respected (vs 3.2x global).
“The impact on the business is clear: turnover costs are lowered and productivity not only rises, but quality improves. Attracting and retaining talent with different skills represents a boost to innovation and creativity and therefore guarantees the right type of competitive advantage in uncertain business environments.” continues Matteo Root, Managing Director and Partner of BCG. “The key to success lies in a leadership style profoundly different from that of the past, whereby direction and control were expected from the leader: to unlock this potential for creativity and ingenuity it is now necessary to know how to bring out the perspectives and ideas of all personalities and orchestrate them harmoniously, taking into account even very different needs.”
The positive effects of psychological safety are particularly evident for women womenfor community members BIPOC and LGBTQ+, for people with disabilities and for those coming from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Research data shows that those in these categories said they were much more likely to leave their jobs in environments with low psychological safety than their more advantaged colleagues in the same environment.
For example, in low-safety settings globally, 18.3% of workers belong to the community LGBTQ+ is inclined to resign within a year, while the percentage drops to 11.6% for heterosexual and cisgender employees. As safety scores increased, the attrition risks for the two groups reduced to 3% and 3.3%, respectively. More specifically, the risk of abandonment in environments with low psychological safety increases 6.2 times for members of the LGBTQ+ community, 5.1 times for people with disabilities, 4.5 times for women and 4.2 times for members of the BIPOC community: particularly eloquent data if we consider that, in the same context, colleagues who are men, white, without disabilities and not belonging to the LGBTQ+ community reported a much smaller increase in risk (about 2 times).