How do you build psychological safety when hiring new employees?
We’re thrilled to have welcomed Nichola Harris as our new Program and Engagement Coordinator who joined us a few months ago.
With over 30 years of clinical and leadership experience, including more than a decade at a senior level with Speech Pathology Australia, Nichola brings exceptional expertise and a strong commitment to creating safe, supportive environments for her colleagues and clients alike.
Psychological safety was a central theme during Nichola’s hiring process, and we were intentional about prioritising it, at every step.
Creating psychological safety in the workplace is more than a “nice-to-have” quality; it’s a foundational necessity for team cohesion, high-quality client care, and retention.
For Australian organisations, it’s also a compliance requirement, reinforcing the need to reduce psychosocial hazards and protect employee wellbeing and mental health.
Why Psychological Safety Matters in Hiring
When people feel safe to express themselves, make mistakes, and learn from them without fear, it enables a team to function as a cohesive, high-performing unit. Psychological safety directly impacts team dynamics, engagement, and resilience. While training and leadership practices are essential, bringing in individuals who value and contribute to psychological safety from the outset is equally crucial.
As we interviewed our applicants, we made psychological safety a key focus of the interview and reference check process. We aimed to gain insights into how applicants approach team trust, support open communication, and encourage a learning mindset—qualities essential for psychological safety.
Interviewing for Psychological Safety: Key Strategies
During her interview, Nichola shared her appreciation for our commitment to psychological safety. We asked questions that went beyond leadership/professional or technical skills, probing her approach to fostering trust and openness in a team. Here are some of the questions we included:
1. Fostering Team Safety
- “How do you foster psychological safety in a small team environment?”
- This question encourages candidates to discuss concrete steps they would take to support team openness, such as inclusive communication or addressing conflicts constructively.
2. Understanding Barriers and Enablers
- “What do you think helps, and what hinders building psychological safety in a team?”
- We sought to understand Nichola’s awareness of potential challenges and strategies for addressing them. Her responses reflected a keen understanding of the nuances involved, indicating her readiness to address these dynamics head-on.
3. Handling Feedback
- “Can you describe a time you received challenging feedback and how you handled it?”
- By discussing her experience with feedback, Nichola demonstrated her capacity for self-reflection and openness, both crucial for psychological safety. Her response showed that she values feedback as a tool for growth.
These questions enabled us to evaluate not just Nichola’s technical skills, but her readiness to support a psychologically safe workplace.
Reference Checks that Reinforce Psychological Safety
To ensure alignment with our goals, we also integrated psychological safety into reference checks, asking questions such as:
- “How does/did this person contribute to a psychologically safe work environment?”
- “Can you share any behaviours or attitudes that may not align with psychological safety?”
These questions gave us valuable insights into how our applicants approach interpersonal relationships and teamwork. This step was essential in confirming that her professional behaviour aligned with our culture of openness and support.
Shift the Focus: Beyond Technical Skills
It’s common in hiring to overemphasise clinical or technical skills. However, even the most skilled individuals can negatively impact team morale if they lack the interpersonal and self-awareness skills needed for a collaborative environment.
Interviewing for psychological safety means prioritising emotional intelligence, adaptability, and a willingness to learn alongside technical expertise. For instance, a “brilliant jerk” might bring exceptional skill but undermine team trust, leading to burnout and even client dissatisfaction.
What to Look for in Answers
Assessing for psychological safety requires a specific lens. Look for signs that candidates possess:
Openness to Feedback: Are they receptive without defensiveness?
Empathy and Support: Do they show a genuine interest in others’ well-being?
Reflection and Self-Awareness: Are they comfortable discussing their own areas for growth?
Team Orientation: Do they value the team’s success over personal accomplishments?
These qualities indicate a readiness to contribute positively to a psychologically safe culture.
Reinforcing Psychological Safety After Hiring
Welcoming a new team member marks the beginning of their integration into the team’s culture. During onboarding, communicate your expectations around psychological safety clearly. Consider setting up regular feedback loops to normalise open dialogue, reinforce psychological safety, and encourage growth. You might also introduce a “psychological safety manifesto” that outlines behaviours supporting a respectful and inclusive workplace.
For Nichola, these discussions have already started, establishing a foundation of trust and setting clear expectations. Her role will support not just program engagement but also continue the fostering of a safe, growth-oriented environment for everyone.
The Bigger Picture: Psychological Safety as a Culture Builder
Interviewing for psychological safety is a strategy for building a culture where individuals feel valued, motivated, and safe. When we hire for these qualities, we’re investing in a workplace that prioritises wellbeing, fosters learning, and ultimately supports better outcomes for clients.
Welcoming Nichola and focusing on psychological safety from her first day reflects our commitment to nurturing a team where everyone can thrive. We are thrilled that Nichola will not only have a central role in supporting program and client engagement but also will contribute to our newsletters and be on our team of supervisors in the new year.
Additional Resources
In my two-day Leadership course, we spend time discussing psychological safety as it is the number one factor that contributes to high performance in teams. Join me to discuss the impact of psychological safety and share practical tool and resources to build and support psychological safety in your workplace. During this program I also discuss a leadership competency framework, self-leadership and resilience and how to build and emotionally intelligent workforce.
I can also work with you to produce a customised program around supporting psychological safety for you and your team. Click on the buttons below for more details.