Psychological Safety and Risk Management

2. Effective consultation and communication for psychological safety

Consultation and effective communication are key parts of building and maintaining a psychologically safe workplace. This environment increases the confidence of staff to raise issues, express views and contribute to decision-making.

Principals and other school leaders are encouraged to utilise the opportunities provided by the department to give feedback and generate useful data, such as by completing principal wellbeing surveys and encouraging all staff to complete the annual School Staff Survey.

Principals or their delegates must consult on, and communicate about, psychosocial risks and controls. This can be achieved through:

• regularly discussing psychosocial hazards at staff meetings, modelling and openly encouraging reporting these hazards, near misses and incidents on eduSafe Plus (staff login required), allocating time for staff to make reports and communicating outcomes of reports that have been made
• being available for confidential discussions when needed
• provide anonymous feedback opportunities (for example, through the School Staff Survey)
• using leadership meetings and staff meetings to discuss actions to improve psychological safety in the workplace (that is, reviewing any health, safety and wellbeing actions or plans, monitoring impact of actions undertaken), where appropriate
• sharing information about common psychosocial hazards they may encounter in their work (see WorkSafe Victoria’s practical guide for school leaders)
• providing information about existing department resources, supports and strategies (including Employee Wellbeing Support Services) available to staff, as well as local mental health services, and how to access them.

To create an environment where people feel safe to provide feedback, it is important to:

• build trust and rapport so staff feel confident opening up
• actively listen in conversations, through noticing words, tone and body language
• allow for open ended questions
• avoid assumptions and judgement
• show empathy and understanding
• respect privacy.

The OHS Consultation and Communication policy supports schools to set up effective communication channels that can be tailored to the school environment.