We all thrive when being given the opportunity to work with our most trusted peers. In a good company everyone is acutely aware of all the collective intelligence and capability that is available in the form of trusted colleagues, friends, and family.
This intersectional community-powered service enables a holistic, multi-dimensional approach to employee wellbeing.
Creating good company
Creating and maintaining a safe environment is fundamental for the flourishing of all staff, yet in many organisations cultural safety and psychological safety is still the exception rather than the norm.
Regular on-site and online Open Space discussion, monitored for cultural and psychological safety, catalyses mutual trust and courageous actions:
- Valuable tacit knowledge starts to flow
- Mutual trust across the organisation increases
- The speed of information flow increases
- The trustworthiness of information increases
- Error rates go down
- The confidence and speed of transdisciplinary decision making increases
- The need for traditional management meetings decreases noticeably
- The ability to react appropriately to unforeseen events improves
- Overhead costs go down
- Collective intelligence goes up
Cultural and psychological safety is experienced in relationships with others. Often there are significant differences in the experienced level of safety depending on the different kinds of relationships encountered at work: peer-to-peer, subordinate-superior, and healthcare professional-patient. Employers should be concerned about any employees who consistently feel unsafe in some of their relationships at work.
Organisations are only able to deliver valuable services to the extent that they can rely on a network of trusted relationships both within the organisation and the wider community that supports and is supported by them. No large organisation can claim to have a genuine commitment to diversity and inclusion if it does not subscribe to independent oversight by marginalised segments of the population.
The benefits for employees:
- A simple tool to identify employers that are genuinely committed to a diverse and culturally and psychologically safe workplace.
- Access to trustworthy information about the current local workplace culture.
- The ability to nurture trusted relationships across the organisation.
- The ability to compare notes and seek advice from trustworthy peers outside the organisation, and to provide anonymised feedback to the employer.
The benefits for employers:
- A genuinely credible commitment to employee wellbeing, beyond the desire to comply with externally imposed diversity targets.
- A level of transparency of workplace culture that assists in attracting and retaining committed employees.
- A culture of continuous improvement and trusted collaboration, where knowledge flows to all the places where it can be put to good use.
- Access to valuable advice on organisational culture from marginalised perspectives.
“NZNO is a bicultural organisation that embraces Te Tiriti o Waitangi, best demonstrated through the partnership of NZNO and Te Rūnanga, the bicultural arm that seeks to achieve the aspirations of Māori health professionals. The commitment to improving the workplace culture across the healthcare sector in Aotearoa New Zealand, is paramount.“
“To demonstrate a genuine commitment to cultural safety and psychological safety, and to better understand the daily lived experience of employees in your organisation, we recommend a subscription to S23M’s community-powered Employee Wellbeing service to all employers.“
Kerri Nuku | Kaiwhakahaere
Mairi Lucas | Acting Chief Executive
New Zealand Nurses Organisation | Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa
“Transdisciplinary collaboration hinges on psychological safety, cultural safety, and inclusiveness. These and other human factors determine the inherent social value of a company, the wellbeing of employees, and the quality of care delivered to patients.”
“To date the quality of social interactions and culture have been difficult to evaluate, but the emergence of their importance demands an ability to measure and evaluate these factors. The independently administered Employee Wellbeing surveys operated by S23M represent an excellent tool to assist your organisation to meet this challenge head-on.”
A/Prof Terry J Hannan MBBS;FRACP;FAIDH;FACMI
Visiting Faculty Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University
International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics
How does it work for staff?
Staff are invited to submit feedback via an anonymous survey at any point in time.
The core of the Employee Wellbeing / Employer Rating Service is an anonymous assessment of cultural safety and psychological safety. As an employee you can submit feedback on your current and past employers via this psychological safety assessment:
How does it work for employers?
Shared employee wellbeing data and Open Space workshops create a new level of shared understanding of workplace culture and mutual appreciation amongst staff.
Employers that are committed to providing an inclusive and psychologically safe workplace can register their interest in regular Employee Wellbeing surveys and Open Space workshops by submitting an inquiry via the the form below:
Employers are encouraged to enrol in the service, and to run the anonymous psychological and cultural safety survey administered by volunteers from the Design Justice Network and the Autistic Collaboration Trust on an annual or quarterly basis. The survey consists of 16 questions and is sponsored by S23M.
To offer maximum protection to employees, results are made available to employers subject to the limitations described in the service user guide, i.e. the individual anonymous responses are never shared with employers or with any other party.
Download the service user guide
Making the world a safer place for everyone
You can also view a 15-slide presentation that walks through key elements of the service.
A healthy workplace culture based on mutual trust and an appreciation of all forms of diversity has profound effects on all aspects of the organisation. Employees who feel safe and appreciated at work are not only more productive and healthy, they are also able to extend greater levels of trust to their colleagues, and are much more likely to share their tacit knowledge, allowing collective intelligence to flourish, resulting in greater levels of confidence and agility in collective decision making.
