Psychological Safety at Work: What It Is, How to Build It

At a glance, as at 9 October 2026

Psychological safety at work is a shared belief in a team that it’s safe to speak up, ask a question, admit a mistake or disagree, without being embarrassed, rejected or punished. In the UK in 2026 it matters for a practical reason: the law and regulators now expect employers to give people safe ways to raise concerns, and research links psychological safety with people speaking up.

What	Where things stand
What it is	“A shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking” (Amy Edmondson, 1999).
What it isn’t	Being nice, another word for trust, or lower standards.
Why it matters	Research links it with speaking up, learning, performance and people staying. The evidence that any one programme raises it is weaker.
The UK picture	63% of UK employees who knew of misconduct spoke up, and 29% of them faced retaliation (Institute of Business Ethics, 2024). 60% of staff in NHS trusts in England feel safe to speak up about anything that concerns them, the lowest in five years (NHS Staff Survey 2025).
What changes in 2026	Sexual harassment became a whistleblowing category in Great Britain (6 April). The FCA’s rule on bullying and harassment took effect (1 September). From 30 October, employers must take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.
Where to start	Several ways to speak up, including an anonymous one; feedback for people who speak up, as far as you can; protection from retaliation; managers trained to receive concerns.

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Definition

What psychological safety is, and isn’t

Amy Edmondson defined team psychological safety in 1999 as “a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking”. In practice, people expect their team won’t embarrass, reject or punish them for speaking up, asking for help, admitting a mistake or challenging an idea.

It belongs to the team: a belief people in the team share, mostly without saying it (Edmondson, 1999). Edgar Schein and Warren Bennis first wrote about it in 1965. Edmondson’s 1999 study, of 51 teams at an office furniture manufacturer, set out the team definition above.

In The Fearless Organization, Edmondson sets out three things it isn’t:

Being nice. Polite teams can hide disagreement. Psychological safety means candour and productive conflict, and it isn’t always comfortable.
Another word for trust. Trust is whether you give others the benefit of the doubt. Psychological safety is whether you believe the team will give it to you.
Lower standards. It doesn’t mean anything goes. Managers can still hold people to account, and it supports ambitious goals.

It’s different from wellbeing. Psychological health and safety, in the occupational health sense, means managing risks to people’s mental health at work: the subject of HSE’s stress Management Standards and the international standard ISO 45003. The two are related. A 2024 CIPD review found people who feel psychologically safe also report better wellbeing and less burnout. This guide is about psychological safety: whether people feel able to speak. CQC’s 2026 draft frameworks use “psychological safety” in both senses, for staff speaking up and for the safety of people using services, so check which one a document means.

Research

What the evidence shows

Edmondson (1999). In 51 teams, those with higher psychological safety showed more learning behaviour, and learning was linked with team performance.
Google’s Project Aristotle. Google studied 180 of its own teams and found psychological safety mattered most of five team dynamics linked with effectiveness. It’s one company, and Google published correlations, without effect sizes. Google’s current guide credits some of the same results to a “stronger team culture”, where its 2015 post said psychological safety.
A meta-analysis of 136 samples. Frazier and colleagues (2017) pooled 136 samples covering more than 22,000 people. The CIPD’s summary of it reports links with task performance, information sharing and engagement.
The CIPD’s 2024 evidence review. The CIPD reviewed 89 studies and links psychological safety with employee voice, information sharing, team learning, performance, engagement and people staying. Most studies measured everything at one point in time, so the CIPD says cause “can’t be confirmed”, and it found no study that measured whether an intervention raised psychological safety.
Leaders matter. In a study of 23 neonatal intensive care units, leaders who invited and appreciated others’ input had teams with higher psychological safety (Nembhard and Edmondson, 2006).
Programmes have mixed results. A review of 14 healthcare interventions found mixed results and said education on its own has limited effect on how people speak up (O’Donovan and McAuliffe, 2020). A review of 34 studies of workplace speak-up interventions found most results inconclusive (Jones and colleagues, 2021).

The case that psychological safety goes with speaking up, learning and performance is strong. The case that any one programme raises it is weak, so measure whether what you do is working.

Law and regulators

The UK position in 2026

The laws below don’t name psychological safety. Each of them depends on people feeling able to speak, and regulators now say so. The whistleblowing and harassment rules apply in England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland has its own law, and its whistleblowing law has no sexual harassment category.

Source	What it expects
Whistleblowing law	In Great Britain since 6 April 2026, a disclosure about sexual harassment can be a protected disclosure. Workers are protected from detriment for making one. If a colleague causes the detriment, the employer is liable too unless it took all reasonable steps to prevent it, and the colleague can be personally liable (Employment Rights Act 1996, sections 43B and 47B).
Duty to prevent sexual harassment	From 30 October 2026, employers must take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, and must not permit customers or other third parties to harass staff. The EHRC’s guidance, which it is updating for the 2026 changes, suggests several ways to report so nobody has to report to the person harassing them, an anonymous option, records that include informal complaints, and anonymous surveys that show the gap between what happens and what gets reported.
FCA	From 1 September 2026, serious bullying, harassment and violence towards colleagues can breach the FCA’s conduct rules at every firm under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime, as it already could at banks. Outside banking, the rule covers cases where either person works in the firm’s financial services business. The FCA says it wants “workplaces where people feel safe to speak up” (PS25/23). UK banks, except small deposit takers, and Solvency II insurers must also run whistleblowing arrangements with feedback where feasible, training and an annual report to the board, and other firms may follow them as good practice (SYSC 18).
CQC	The well-led quality statement “Freedom to speak up” expects a culture where people feel they can speak up and their voice will be heard, without fear of detriment. CQC’s 2026 draft frameworks use the words “psychological safety”. The National Guardian’s Office closed on 30 June 2026. NHS England took on some of its work, and says CQC will check guardian arrangements in NHS trusts through its well-led inspections.
HSE	HSE says employers have a legal duty to assess the risk of stress at work and act on it. HSE’s Relationships standard expects systems that let employees report unacceptable behaviour, such as bullying.
UK Corporate Governance Code	For listed companies, on a comply-or-explain basis. Provision 6: a way for the workforce to raise concerns in confidence and, if they wish, anonymously, with the board routinely reviewing the arrangements and the reports they produce.
ISO 45003	International guidelines on managing psychosocial risks at work, published in 2021 and now under review by ISO.

Our guides cover the duty to prevent sexual harassment, a UK whistleblowing policy and the FCA’s non-financial misconduct rules in more detail.

Barriers

Why people stay silent

They don’t think anything will happen, or they fear for their job. In the Institute of Business Ethics’ 2024 survey, 18% of UK employees knew of misconduct at work in the past year. Of those who stayed silent, 42% didn’t believe anything would be done and 40% feared for their job.
They worry about reprisals and being identified. In a 2025 YouGov survey of GB adults for the whistleblowing charity Protect, 44% said fear of losing their job would stop them raising a concern, 41% fear of reprisals and 39% worry that their identity wouldn’t be protected.
They don’t think it’s serious enough. The government’s 2020 survey found 29% of people in work had been sexually harassed at work in the past year, and only 15% reported it formally. The most common reason was that it didn’t seem serious enough (32%). 5% didn’t know how to report.
They doubt the organisation will act. In the 2025 NHS Staff Survey of NHS trusts in England, 60% of staff felt safe to speak up about anything that concerned them, and 48% were confident their organisation would address it.

Research by Gartner (2022) found three beliefs drive reporting: safety (I won’t be retaliated against), trust (my concern will be handled openly and fairly) and benefit (reporting will be good for me), with benefit the strongest. 98% of employees who held all three said reporting was the right thing to do, against 54% of all employees. Most of these barriers are about what happens after someone speaks, and an employer can act on that part.

In practice

How to build psychological safety at work

Respond well to the first concern. Thank the person, listen and take it seriously. The CIPD’s review rated a supervisor who listens among the best-evidenced factors linked with psychological safety.
Tell people what happened. Explain what you did and why, as far as you can. In the Institute of Business Ethics’ 2024 survey, 42% of UK employees who stayed silent doubted anything would be done.
Offer routes that bypass the line manager. The EHRC says nobody should have to report to the person harassing them. Gartner (2019) found 68% of people who report go to their direct manager, so that route has to work too.
Allow anonymous and confidential reporting, and explain the difference. In Protect’s 2025 survey of GB adults, 39% said worry that their identity wouldn’t be protected would stop them raising a concern.
Protect people from retaliation, and check on them afterwards. In the Institute of Business Ethics’ 2024 survey, 29% of UK employees who spoke up faced retaliation. The IBE recommends following up with the person after they report.
Train managers to receive a concern. Gartner (2019) found only two-thirds of managers feel prepared to handle a report.
Leaders admit their mistakes and ask for input. Leaders who invite and appreciate input have teams with higher psychological safety (Nembhard and Edmondson, 2006), and the CIPD’s review links leader humility with it too. So invite input, thank people for it, and admit your own mistakes.
Make standards clear, including the grey areas. In the government’s 2020 survey, the most common reason people gave for not reporting sexual harassment was that it didn’t seem serious enough.
Agree team norms and check them. In a 2015 post, Google reported that its teams that agreed a new way of working together improved 6% on their psychological safety ratings.
Measure the gap and share the themes. Compare what staff tell you in surveys with what gets reported, and put the themes in front of the board.

Our free sexual harassment training pack covers how staff and managers raise and receive concerns.

For managers

What to do when someone speaks up

Thank them. The CIPD’s review links a manager who listens with higher psychological safety in the team.
Listen, and take it seriously. Don’t decide on the spot whether it matters.
Write down what they told you and when, in their words where you can. Concerns raised in passing count too.
Treat it as if it could be a protected disclosure. Whistleblowing law may protect them, including for concerns about sexual harassment since April 2026, and colleagues who treat them badly for it can be personally liable.
Pass it to the right person the same day. Don’t investigate it yourself or promise an outcome you can’t guarantee.
Explain what happens next and when they’ll hear back.
Ask whether they’re worried about how they’ll be treated, and tell whoever handles the concern if they are.
Make sure they hear what happened, as far as you can tell them.

Measurement

How to measure psychological safety

Ask staff, anonymously. The CIPD recommends Amy Edmondson’s seven-question scale. Our culture book below includes eight questions on psychological safety and speaking up, in plain words. Whichever you use:

run it anonymously, and say so;
don’t report results for any group with fewer than 10 responses, the threshold the NHS Staff Survey uses;
flip the scores of questions worded the other way round before you average them;
compare the answers with the concerns you received, as the EHRC suggests.

Track your speak-up data. The number of concerns by theme and route, the share raised anonymously, time to acknowledge and to close, whether people heard back, reports of retaliation, and whether people would speak up again. For the share of concerns raised anonymously, we found no published UK figure outside the NHS. For reference, Freedom to Speak Up guardians in England handled 37,770 cases in 2025/26: 12.4% were anonymous, 2.9% involved perceived detriment, and 76% of people who gave feedback would speak up again. Our guide to employee relations metrics shows how to calculate most of these and report them to the board.

Free template

A speak-up culture book for your staff

An editable Word document you adapt and publish to your staff as your own, sent to your inbox. It tells people why you want to hear their concerns, how to raise one, what happens next and how you protect them, and it gives managers a short guide to receiving a concern. The parts to fill in, such as your routes, contacts and timescales, are in [square brackets].

The chapters:

Why we want you to speak up
What we expect of everyone
What you can raise
How to raise a concern
What happens next
How we protect you
If a concern is about you
For managers: when someone raises a concern with you
Having a hard conversation
Behaviours that help everyone speak up
What we measure and share
Your rights under the law
If we're regulated

Plus a staff survey kit: 8 questions on psychological safety and speaking up, in plain words, two questions on what people didn’t report and why, and how to run and score it.

Free Word template

Get the culture book as a Word document

Enter your work email and the team will send you the speak-up culture book as an editable Word document.

Or hear concerns early, and show your board the themes

CalmER gives your people many ways to speak up: a hotline, app, web, WhatsApp, Slack or Teams, named, anonymous or anonymous then named, with a confidential chat before anything becomes a formal case. Every concern follows the same structured path, the right person gets an alert, and CalmER drafts your board pack from your live data. Amazon ran this case and concern management setup across its 40+ country corporate workforce and tripled early-stage reporting inside 12 months.

See CalmER →See CalmER pricing

Last reviewed: 9 October 2026. General information, not legal advice. We review this guide every quarter and whenever the law changes.

FAQs

Common questions

What is psychological safety at work?

It's a shared belief in a team that it's safe to take interpersonal risks: to speak up, ask a question, admit a mistake or disagree, without being embarrassed, rejected or punished for it. Amy Edmondson defined it in 1999 as "a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking".

Who came up with psychological safety?

Edgar Schein and Warren Bennis wrote about it in 1965, in their work on organisational change. Amy Edmondson defined team psychological safety in 1999, in a study of 51 teams at an office furniture manufacturer, and the CIPD's 2024 evidence review recommends the survey scale from that study.

What's the difference between psychological safety and wellbeing?

Psychological safety is about whether people feel able to speak up without being embarrassed, rejected or punished. Psychological health and wellbeing is about managing risks to people's mental health at work, the subject of HSE's stress Management Standards and ISO 45003. They're related: a 2024 CIPD review found people who feel psychologically safe also report better wellbeing and less burnout.

What are examples of psychological safety at work?

Someone admits a mistake in a team meeting and the team fixes it together. A junior colleague questions a senior one's plan, and the senior colleague thanks them for it. A person raises a concern about a manager and hears back about what happened. People ask for help without worrying it makes them look weak.

How do you build psychological safety in a team?

Respond well to the first concern someone raises, tell people what happened after they speak up, give them routes that bypass their line manager, including an anonymous one, protect them from retaliation, train managers to receive concerns, and have leaders admit their own mistakes. Reviews of speak-up programmes found mixed or inconclusive results, so don't rely on a policy or a one-off course.

How do you measure psychological safety?

Run an anonymous staff survey, such as Amy Edmondson's seven-question scale or the speak-up questions in the NHS Staff Survey, and don't report results for groups with fewer than 10 responses. Then compare the answers with your speak-up data: how many concerns you receive, through which routes, how long they take, whether people hear back, and any reports of retaliation.

What are the 4 stages of psychological safety?

The four stages (inclusion, learner, contributor and challenger safety) come from Timothy Clark's 2020 book and the survey his company sells. It's a popular practitioner model, and we found no peer-reviewed research validating it. This guide relies on the peer-reviewed studies it cites.

Is psychological safety a legal requirement in the UK?

Not by name: the main laws that apply, whistleblowing law and the duty to prevent sexual harassment, don't use the term. Both depend on people feeling able to speak. In Great Britain, whistleblowing law protects workers who make a protected disclosure, which since April 2026 can be about sexual harassment, and from 30 October 2026 employers must take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. The FCA says it wants workplaces where people feel safe to speak up, CQC expects people to feel they can speak up, and HSE's stress standards expect systems for reporting unacceptable behaviour.

Why don't employees speak up?

In the Institute of Business Ethics' 2024 survey, 42% of UK employees who knew of misconduct but stayed silent said they didn't believe anything would be done, and 40% feared for their job. In a 2025 YouGov survey of GB adults for Protect, the things most likely to stop people raising a concern were fear of losing their job (44%), fear of reprisals (41%) and worry that their identity wouldn't be protected (39%).

What should a manager do when someone raises a concern?

Thank them, listen and take it seriously, write down what they said, and pass it to the right person the same day without investigating it yourself. Tell them what happens next and when they'll hear back, check whether they're worried about how they'll be treated, and treat it as if it could be a protected disclosure under whistleblowing law.

Sources & further reading

References

For general information only. It reflects our understanding of the FCA's rules as of October 2026, so check fca.org.uk for the current rules.

Psychological safety at work: what it is, why people stay silent, and how to build it