Imagine your employees witness a colleague consistently disregard safety protocols at work, relying instead on ‘instincts’ that have seemingly worked for them in the past. In such a situation, would your employees feel confident enough to approach their colleague and communicate the risks involved and explain the importance of following safety rules? Would they be willing to report the situation to supervisors to help maintain a safe work environment?
It is important to recognise that workplace safety does not only rely on in-role behaviours, such as complying with safety rules, but also involves extra-role behaviours such as raising safety concerns and making suggestions for improving safety. This is referred to as ‘safety voice’. While compliance ensures that everyone is following established safety protocols, voicing encourages employees to actively contribute to creating a safer work environment.
Prohibitive versus Promotive Voice
Safety voice involves people at all organisational levels proactively sharing their concerns about hazards they’ve noticed. It encompasses both prohibitive voice, which aims to prevent negative consequences, and promotive voice, which centres on expressing opportunities to enhance and improve safety through innovative approaches.
The table below outlines the differences between prohibitive and promotive voice.
Prohibitive Voice |
Promotive Voice |
| Focus on preventing negative consequences (e.g. pointing out rule breaches) | Focus on opportunities and improvement initiatives (e.g. suggesting using a new process or piece of equipment) |
| Problem-focused in nature – emphasises harmful, failing, or wrongful work practices | Future-oriented and positive in tone |
| Make others aware of specific things that are not working or being done incorrectly | Offer novel ideas to achieve goals and perform work tasks |
Both forms of voice are constructive and contribute significantly to workplace safety by promoting a safer work environment and preventing accidents. Therefore, it is essential to encourage both forms of voice to ensure employees’ safety and well-being at work.
Voice Is Inherently Challenging
However, voicing safety concerns is not without challenges. Employees often consider the costs and benefits before deciding to engage in safety voice, weighing the potential personal benefits and risks associated with speaking up, as well as the chances that doing so will result in positive or negative outcomes for them. For example, negative consequences of speaking up could include being misunderstood or facing undesirable social consequences when voicing ideas that challenge the status quo. Moreover, well-intentioned voice aimed at benefiting the organisation can also be misinterpreted as bossiness, unwanted interference, or an attempt to undermine someone else’s credibility.
What can leaders do to encourage employees to speak up?
Below are several aspects that leaders should focus on enhancing to increase the likelihood of employees raising safety concerns or suggesting improvements.
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Psychological Safety
Given that safety voice involves personal initiative that carries the potential for conflicts or negative repercussions, it is imperative for leaders to not only recognise but actively prioritise the cultivation of psychological safety within the workplace. Psychological safety serves as the foundation for a supportive and empowering environment where employees can freely voice their concerns and suggestions without the fear of adverse outcomes.
A supportive work environment fosters open communication, collaboration, and a sense of psychological safety, where employees genuinely feel secure and confident in expressing their thoughts and ideas. When psychological safety is established, employees’ perceived costs of speaking up are minimised, leading to more positive attitudes towards safety voice and encouraging employees to actively engage in safety dialogue and contribute to a safer work environment.
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Safety-Specific Transformational Leadership
Rather than simply monitoring and rewarding safety behaviours, transformational safety leaders empower, support, and inspire their employees to take ownership over safety outcomes and drive safety innovation and improvements. They provide individualized consideration and support demonstrated by transformational leaders, which fosters trust amongst their followers and encourages them to speak up.
When leaders prioritise safety and demonstrate attentiveness by actively valuing and incorporating concerns and suggestions for improving safety, employees perceive their leaders to have a genuine commitment and positive attitude towards safety. This perception makes them feel that their voices are heard and that their leaders are truly dedicated to creating a safe work environment.
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Perceived Job Control
When employees feel that they have control over their work and how it is done, they believe they can influence their work situation and actively seek opportunities to address work-related issues. Employees with greater job control are more likely to feel capable of meeting daily expectations and put extra effort into resolving other challenges. Additionally, there is a positive association between job control and safety voice, where employees with a greater sense of control feel more empowered to express their opinions and concerns.
However, it is important to recognise that employees feel less in control of their jobs when the resources and opportunities they need to perform are not readily available. Therefore, to foster employees’ willingness to speak up, leaders and organisations should ensure that everyone has the necessary resources, including information, personal skills, and suitable opportunities to engage in safety voice.
In summary, safety voice is crucial to prevent the occurrence of accidents, injuries, and major incidents. However, voice is an extra-role behaviour that requires employees to invest additional time and energy. It can also be perceived as risky due to the potential for negative reactions. Thus, it is more likely that employees speak out only when they perceive their work environment as safe, supportive, and affording sufficient job control.
By Jie Yi Tang
Did you know that People Solutions offers proprietary diagnostic assessments that can assist you in cultivating a safety culture within your organisation? Get in touch with People Solutions to learn more about how we can help you