Today’s companies are battling a talent crunch, navigating declining productivity, and desperately trying to avoid attrition. The stakes for employee engagement have never been higher, but with teams distributed across the globe, typical strategies can fall short.
By fostering psychological safety – creating a work environment where employees feel safe to speak up, take risks, and admit mistakes – organizations can tackle engagement issues at the root. Psychological safety creates an atmosphere where employees from all cultures feel a sense of belonging and empowerment.
In this article, we look into strategies for building psychological safety in global teams, drawing actionable insights from our conversations with:
- Anna Volkova, Head of People & Culture, HiBob
- Anna Meyer, Global Head of People, Acceldata
- Priyanka Jain, HR Manager, Multiplier
- Hebba Youssef, Chief People Officer, Workweek
- Dr. Oliver Suendermann, Vice President of Clinical, Intellect
What is psychological safety at work?
In 1999, Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmundson coined the phrase “psychological safety at work” to describe a work environment that motivates employees to express ideas freely, articulate concerns, and take risks without fear of embarrassment or retribution. It is, to put simply, the absence of “interpersonal fear” at work.
Psychological safety looks like a junior employee suggesting a bold idea without hesitation, a team openly discussing failures to learn from them, colleagues asking honest questions during meetings, and managers encouraging feedback even when it challenges their own views.
When people feel safe to grow their knowledge and collaborate freely, they connect more deeply with their work. As Anna Meyer put it in our recent webinar, “engagement is really about the meaning people find in their work- do they feel like they’re contributing in a way that’s valuable?”
The importance of creating psychological safety in global teams
With global teams, companies can access major benefits – reduced skills gaps, cost efficiency, and round-the-clock availability, to name just a few. Yet, physical distance can complicate communication, causing more misunderstandings, unspoken concerns, and even burnout. As Anna Volkova says, “There’s a common belief that remote teams are prone to disengagement, but the real challenge is visibility.”
Global remote work demands heightened cross-cultural awareness and clear communication. To ensure that everyone feels safe at work, all team members must learn to communicate in a way that bridges gaps between different cultures and working styles.
How to create psychological safety in the global workplace
Leaders and HR share the task of building psychological safety. Here we’ll explore how both can foster open communication and promote learning, fairness, and inclusion.
The role of leadership
Leaders play a pivotal role in creating a psychologically safe culture, making employees feel comfortable to share ideas and challenges. As Anna Meyer notes, “leaders cast such a big shadow. If they’re not equipped to be culture carriers– communicating vision, recognizing people, making async work work – then everything else can crumble.”
This starts with real empathy – tuning into both personal and work-related challenges in regular two-way check-ins. As Anna Meyer points out, “We all want other people to pay attention to our story. When a manager gives regular feedback and reflects what they saw, that’s incredibly powerful.”
It also means leaders being open and honest about their own struggles. As Dr. Oliver Suendermannn rightly questions, “If managers can’t be vulnerable, how can employees?”
Effective leaders create space for open, collaborative, creative problem solving. As Hebba Youssef explained in our recent Beyond Borders event, “curiosity is an anti-burnout function and you can craft it in your company simply by brainstorming solutions together.”
The role of HR
Of course, without the right foundations, no leader can really make their team feel psychologically safe. To this end, HR must weave transparency, communication, compassion, and respect into every aspect of the employee experience.
This means crafting clear policies that outline how the organization approaches key drivers of trust – compensation, career development, and cultural inclusion.
Compensation
If employees have concerns about compensation – whether due to pay discrepancies, lack of transparency, or difficulty making ends meet – it becomes impossible for them to feel safe, seen, or supported at work. As Anna Volkova describes,”fair pay isn’t just about numbers – it’s about showing employees that their contributions are valued and recognized.”
Crafting fair compensation policies means establishing a clear, equitable pay philosophy grounded in internal consistency and market competitiveness. It involves transparent salary banding – grouping similar roles into defined pay ranges that are tailored to local living costs.
A global payroll platform can be a useful tool for streamlining this process, ensuring that pay structures are compliant with regional laws and consistent across the organization.
Career development
A lack of upward mobility can leave employees feeling stifled and stuck. HR must work hand in hand with leaders to create clear pathways for upskilling and reskilling, ensuring talent can grow from within. According to Korn Ferry’s Workforce Survey, 67% of employees would stay with an organization that actively invests in their career advancement.
In the age of AI, this means getting employees familiar with new and evolving technologies too. Building digital fluency – whether through structured training, experimental projects, or mentorship – ensures employees feel confident to adapt and take risks as roles evolve. As Priyanka Jain points out, “in the right environment, employees will become more vocal and want to acquire as many different skills as they can.”
Cultural inclusion
In increasingly distributed teams, the onus is on HR to foster inclusion through sensitivity training and celebrating diversity, building psychological safety through a sense of belonging and connection.
Continuous cultural training breaks down biases, challenges assumptions, and equips employees with the awareness to collaborate across different backgrounds and perspectives. As Anna Volkova explains, “this helps people understand how they relate to each other while core values bring everyone together.”
Making psychological safety core to company culture
As more of the Gen Z generation enters the employment market, expectations for work are shifting. “The workforce of tomorrow will value flexibility, trust, and organizations that care about their wellness,” Priyanka Jain says.
To meet these needs, employers must build psychologically safe cultures where people know others, see, hear, and support them – no matter where they work. Delivering on open communication, fair compensation, cultural inclusion, and growth opportunities isn’t just good for morale – it’s the foundation for retaining talent and thriving into the future.
FAQs
What are some examples of psychological safety at work?
Psychological safety at work shows up in everyday moments. It’s when leaders actively invite input from every team member, ensuring all voices are heard and valued. It’s when open discussions are encouraged, and ideas- no matter how unconventional- are met with curiosity rather than judgment. It’s when mistakes are treated as opportunities to learn and improve, not reasons to assign blame.
How do you measure psychological safety in a team?
In a global team, psychological safety can be gauged by how actively members participate in discussions, share new ideas, and take risks.
What are the signs of poor psychological safety in a team?
Poor psychological safety shows in weak communication between team members and leaders. Teams have little room to discuss new ideas. Rigid hierarchies block honest conversations and lower morale. A culture of fear around embarrassment and risk-averse attitudes also signals poor psychological safety.
