Why Psychological Safety Should Be a Top Priority for Candidates

Candidate psychological safety during the job search process is critical.

Would you want to work at a company where cockroaches scurried over food in the canteen? Would you sit at a desk where live electrical wires poked out from charred fittings? What about dodging broken glass in the car park? Such a workplace would be a death trap.

Such conditions are unsafe, not to mention illegal.

Yet, there is sadly far more freedom for interpretation regarding our psychological safety. 

Feeling mentally constrained can have far more harmful effects than eating the odd cockroach. When it comes to choosing a new employer, it is worth looking out for how they approach safeguarding the psychological safety of their people.

In a candidate-led recruitment market, it is therefore an increasingly common consideration.

What is psychological safety?

…. Knowing that you won’t be punished for making a mistake leads to braver decisions. Working conditions are challenging but non-threatening.

…. Take an unfamiliar path and enjoy the freedom to get a little lost along the way. When you aren’t afraid of blame, unrelenting curiosity can flourish.

…. Psychological safety shuts down the “fight or flight” amygdala response when things get complicated. A more positive and gradual approach to problem-solving ensues.

…. Freedom of decision making. Psychological staefy breeds productive conflict.

…. Norms for handling failure. When there are expectations for learning from failure, it is a positive developmental experience.

Feeling secure in an interview

The subject of psychological safety is tricky to bring up during an interview. Few candidates are keen to highlight their propensity for risk-taking and learning from failures, but these types of stories will offer an insight into the culture of your future employer. If they react with curiosity to such stories, wondering what you learned from your experiences, then you can be sure that there is a psychologically safe culture that tolerates ambiguity and accepts mistakes as bumps on the road to be overcome.

Asking a future boss how they react in the face of failure and ambiguity is an audacious question. Only a boss with an appreciation for it will answer with ease. If this is truly important for you, go ahead and see how they react.

If the employer’s culture is rooted in welcoming uncertainty and working through problems together, failure will be shared, help will be freely given, and trust will be built. 

Can you be sure that your future employer will offer such psychological safety?

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This blog is shared with Job Seeker Duetists. 

Written by former recruitment ghostwriter Paul Drury (not AI).