Psychosocial Safety: How to Get People to Speak Up Early

by | Jun 23, 2026 | HR Compliance, Managing People

Photo image of a person wearing a jacket with Psychosocial Support written on the back

If you’re running a small to medium-sized business (SME), there’s a reasonable chance that when someone mentions the term psychological or psychosocial safety, you’re thinking it’s a load of corporate fluff.

Regardless of whether or not that’s the case, psychological safety is not something you can afford to ignore.

Psychosocial hazards: what are we actually talking about?

Psychosocial hazards are aspects of work design, work environment, and workplace interactions that can create stress and psychological harm.

Examples can include:

  • excessive workloads or unrealistic time pressure
  • low role clarity (people don’t know what “good” looks like)
  • poor support from supervisors
  • poor organisational change management
  • lack of control over how work is done
  • exposure to traumatic events or distressing content
  • remote or isolated work
  • bullying, harassment, discrimination, sexual harassment
  • conflict and poor workplace relationships
  • violence or aggression from customers/clients
  • poor reward/recognition or unfair treatment

Psychosocial hazards are real workplace hazards, and they need to be managed like physical and any other WHS-related risk.

Why SMEs should care (even if you hate the term)

You have Legal Obligations:

Changes to WHS legislation over the past few years impose an explicit duty on employers to eliminate or minimise workplace psychosocial risks.

And for businesses operating in NSW, these obligations expand further from 1 July 2026, when the NSW Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work Code of Practice becomes a legally enforceable benchmark under the new section 26A of the WHS Act 2011 (NSW). In practical terms, that means the Code of Practice becomes a clearer reference point for what “reasonable” looks like when it comes to managing psychosocial risks.

There’s a Business Case:

Psychologically-safe workplaces deliver the goods:

  • Google’s Project Aristotle found psychological safety was the #1 factor behind effective teams.
  • Teams with stronger team culture were rated as effective twice as often by executives.
  • Those teams also brought in more revenue.
  • And people in stronger team cultures were less likely to leave (retention matters, especially in SMEs where every person counts).
  • Research by Harvard’s Amy Edmondson also links psychological safety to learning behaviour in teams; speaking up early, asking for help, discussing mistakes, and improving how work gets done achieves better outcomes without burning people out.

A quick note on scope (so we’re clear)

This article is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to legislative requirements or the prevention/management of the full range of psychosocial hazards (if you need more of that, THIS previous blog article provides an overview, or check out the relevant SafeWork NSW Code of Practice HERE).

Rather, this article focuses on one important attribute of psychologically safe workplaces: creating an environment where workers feel OK to speak up early.

Why? Because in SMEs, silence is often the first domino to fall before problems/failure manifest.

When people don’t speak up, you get:

  • errors repeated because no one wants to be the messenger
  • near misses that become incidents
  • resentment that turns into gossip and turnover
  • performance issues that fester until you’re forced into a messy formal process, and
  • “surprise” complaints that weren’t actually a surprise to everyone else.

The real barrier: people don’t speak up because it feels unsafe

Most employees don’t stay silent because they’re lazy or don’t care. They stay silent because they’ve learned one or more of these lessons:

  • “Nothing changes anyway.”
  • “It’ll come back on me.”
  • “The boss gets defensive.”
  • “The last person who spoke up got labelled a troublemaker.”
  • “It’s easier to keep my head down.”

So if you want people to speak up, appropriate and consistent leader behaviour is critical.

6 practical moves that get people speaking up early

1) Make it normal to raise issues (don’t wait for a crisis)

If the only time you ask for concerns is after something goes wrong, you’ve trained people to stay quiet.

Try this weekly question (in a toolbox talk, team meeting, or Monday check-in):

  • “What’s one thing that could bite us this week if we ignore it?”

Or:

  • “Where are we most likely to drop the ball right now?”
  • “What’s clunky, risky, or frustrating at the moment?”

Then do the most important part: write it down and follow up.

2) Separate “raising” from “solving”

People often don’t speak up because they think they need the perfect solution.

Make it explicit:

  • “You don’t need the answer. You just need to raise it early.”

That one sentence removes a lot of fear.

3) Respond to bad news like a professional

Your first reaction trains the team.

If you respond with:

  • anger
  • sarcasm
  • dismissive comments
  • blame
  • “How could you let this happen?”

…you’ll get silence next time.

Use a simple script:

  • “Thanks for raising it. Talk me through what you’re thinking/seeing/feeling.”
  • “What’s the impact if we do nothing?”
  • “What do you need from me right now?”

You can still ensure accountability later. But the first response should be curiosity, not punishment.

4) Create a low-drama reporting channel

Not everyone will speak up in a group, so give people options:

  • a quick 1:1 check-in
  • a private message to the manager
  • a simple “risk/issue log” (shared doc) for operational issues

The point is not the tool. The point is that people have a safe path to speaking up.

5) Fix small things fast (so people believe you)

If you want people to raise issues, you need to win the “does anything change?” battle.

Pick one small issue each week and visibly fix it.

Then communicate: “We changed this because you raised it.”

That’s how trust is built in SMEs; through small, consistent follow-through.

6) Set clear behavioural standards (psych safety needs boundaries)

Psychological safety doesn’t mean “say whatever you want.”

It means:

  • respectful communication
  • no eye-rolling, sarcasm, or pile-ons
  • no gossip campaigns
  • no retaliation

If someone speaks up and then gets punished socially, your safety is gone.

So be explicit:

  • “We raise issues directly. We don’t recruit allies.”
  • “We challenge ideas, not people.”

The 3 danger signs your team is NOT psychologically safe

You don’t always need a survey to spot it. Look for:

  1. You only hear about issues when it’s too late
  2. People agree in the meeting, then complain afterwards
  3. Your best people stop contributing (they go quiet, do their job, and eventually leave)

If any of those are happening, don’t blame the team. Treat it as a leadership issue.

A simple 2-week “speak up early” plan for SMEs

Week 1

  • Ask the team: “What’s one thing that could bite us this week?”
  • Choose one issue to fix quickly
  • Tell the team what you’re doing and by when (even better: involve them in determining and implementing a solution)

Week 2

  • Communicate actions taken in relation to the issues raised in week 1
  • Repeat the question
  • Ask: “What’s improved? What’s still clunky?”
  • Reinforce the standard: “Raise early. No blame. We solve together.”

Over to you

What stops people speaking up in your business?

  • fear of getting in trouble?
  • nothing changes?
  • the boss gets defensive?
  • the team culture is a bit… spicy?

And if you want help building a practical “speak up early” culture, without turning your workplace into a therapy session, reach out. It’s one of the simplest ways to reduce people risk, improve performance, and stop small issues becoming big, expensive ones.

References

Note that while this article references some relevant legislative requirements, it should be regarded as general information and is not complete, formal or legal advice.

This article was originally published on Greg’s LinkedIn newsletter, The Smallbiz People Playbook. It features practical, down-to-earth advice on what really works when it comes to leading people in smaller businesses.New articles are published once or twice per month. Click HERE to access other articles and subscribe.