Do your people feel confident and safe to speak up in your organisation? Are their voices being heard and actions taken? Employers would like to think they are, but the reality is often not the case. Failure to be heard can come with tragic outcomes.
We are writing this before the annual Speak Up Month in October, an initiative that’s been run by The National Guardian’s Office since 2015 and aimed at the healthcare sector. They want to ensure workers can speak up about any issues that might impact on their ability to do their jobs. Cordell Health is all for speaking up because everyone’s voice deserves to be heard.
The fear and futility of speaking up
In a model organisation, everyone should have the freedom to speak up. It should be a ‘business as usual’ part of the culture. However, all too often there are examples where people stay quiet out of fear that speaking up may lead to mistreatment. Likewise, some workers feel speaking up is futile because nothing will be done as a result. That even when they do, nothing will change.
While writing this article, we can’t ignore the desperately sad stories of doctors and medical staff who tried to speak up about their concerns about the death of babies at the Countess of Chester Hospital in 2015 and 2016. The recent reporting of the trial that convicted nurse Lucy Letby documented numerous attempts to raise concerns, even to the extent that those who did were warned about the ‘consequences’ of speaking up and were actively discouraged. Our thoughts are with the parents and families so tragically affected and our sympathies extend to those members of staff that tried to intervene.
Freedom to Speak – a decrease in confidence
The tragedy here is that The National Guardian’s Office was set up after a report found that NHS culture did not always encourage or support workers to speak up, and that patients and workers suffered as a result. Despite the good intentions of the initiative, it seems that little has changed, if not got worse.
Before the examples of staff being discouraged to speak up in the Lucy Letby case came to light, a report in Nursing Times showed that NHS staff are increasingly feeling that speaking up about issues in their workplaces will result in no change.
The 2022 NHS staff survey found declines on all measures relating to raising concerns, both relating to clinical safety and speaking up more generally. With more than 600,000 workers taking part in the survey, the results represent a decrease in confidence in speaking up among 9,000 members of NHS staff. This a worrying trend.
‘Breaking barriers’ in 2023
Given the above, this year’s Speak Up Month campaign needs as much support and awareness as it can get. The theme is all about ‘breaking barriers’, the focus is on removing the obstacles for people which makes them feel like they can’t speak up about issues.
The campaign will be raising awareness of what these barriers are and how to address them. In their words, “your voice matters regardless of who you are and what your background is.” We wholeheartedly agree, but there is clearly much work to be done deep within the culture of the NHS if this is to be achieved.
More details of this year’s campaign and the resources to support it can be found here: https://nationalguardian.org.uk/resources/speak-up-month-2023/
The benefits of a speak up culture
Of course, a speak up culture is something that every organisation needs if it wants to create a psychologically safe environment. And to be fair to the NHS, it is far from being the only employer that struggles to foster a workplace where people feel comfortable raising awareness of concerns as well as speaking up about their own opinions.
A speak up culture is worth the time and focus that campaigns like Speak Up Month bring. Despite the apparent decline in their effectiveness, we can’t give up on the objective behind the campaign.
Some of the many benefits of speaking up include:
- It strengthens trust between employees and management. Being trusted to share opinions and shown that in turn these are valued also brings better levels of employee engagement.
- Attraction and retention. It’s good for the employer brand as many employees now place a high value on the health and wellbeing benefits that come with a speak up culture.
- It places value on employee input and contributions. Everyone likes to feel they have a voice and can feel helpless if they don’t.
- When employees feel listened to, it empowers them to report misconduct and raise concerns.
How to build a speak up culture in your organisation
The desire to create a speak up culture and the reality of making it happen are very different positions. That it’s easier said than done is a considerable understatement. However, there are some approaches that if used where appropriate, can go some way to at least trying to move in the right direction.
Here are some tips on how to embed a speak up culture into the workplace:
- Listen and respond to employees with curiosity instead of defensiveness. Encourage feedback.
- Demonstrate that every voice matters, show that speaking up is also an opportunity to improve the situation or challenge faced.
- Publicly acknowledge mistakes that have been made to promote honesty with staff. This is perhaps one of the greatest challenges and requires admission of failure in some instances. It’s not impossible, it does depend on whether mistakes are seen as a means to learn.
- Acknowledge that there are barriers that people face when trying to speak up and develop actions to reduce them.
- Shift the focus from WHO has spoken up to WHAT has been said to help move away from any blame culture that exists.
- As a line manager be a positive and approachable role model, making sure your people know they can speak to you in the first instance.
In conclusion
So, do your people really have the freedom to speak up? There’s no doubt that any organisation that encourages speaking up will be better for it. Everyone’s voice matters, regardless of the position held. Speaking up brings the potential to improve how things are done but also to avert potential disaster. Only the organisations that really do listen will understand what needs to change. But, no annual campaign, no slogan or message will be effective if organisations say one thing but don’t want to acknowledge the problems they then discover. If organisations say they want their people to have a voice – they need to act on what they hear.
