When I was in the Army, every commander I worked for said they had an “open door policy.” But only a handful of commanders actually demonstrated that they truly wanted to hear about issues that were happening in their organization. One of the most important things an organization, be it a military unit or a business, can do is encourage a culture where everyone feels comfortable speaking up.

Over the years, we’ve written a lot about the importance of feedback and creating a feedback culture, which includes making dedicated time for feedback (for us, that’s Feedback Fridays). In this article, we’re going to cover a new but related topic known as “speak up culture”. Below, I’ll cover the basics of speak up culture and give you actionable steps you can take to make it an essential piece of your company culture.

What is speak up culture?

“Speak up culture” refers to an organizational environment where employees feel comfortable and empowered to voice their ideas, concerns, and feedback without fear of retaliation or negative consequences. In a speak up culture, communication is open, transparent, and encouraged at all levels of the organization.

Here are some key characteristics of a speak-up culture:

  1. Encouragement from leadership: Leaders actively promote and model open communication by listening to employees and responding constructively to their input.
  2. Psychological safety: Employees feel safe to express their thoughts, ideas, and concerns without fear of being judged, ridiculed, or punished.
  3. Transparency: Information flows freely within the organization, and decisions are communicated clearly to all members.
  4. Accountability: There are established processes for handling feedback and concerns, ensuring that issues are addressed promptly and effectively.
  5. Inclusion: Diverse perspectives are valued, and everyone’s voice is heard, regardless of their position or background.
  6. Empowerment: Employees are encouraged to take ownership of their roles and contribute to the organization’s success through open communication.
  7. Continuous improvement: The organization fosters a culture of learning and growth, where feedback is seen as an opportunity to improve processes, products, and services.

You know you’ve created a speak up culture when it’s clear that people feel comfortable speaking up about both disruptions and opportunities. A smaller example is submitting ideas for areas that the company can improve. A larger, more significant example could be raising a potential concern about an ethics violation to your company’s compliance team.


Feedback Friday Template

Speak up culture has a critical place in DEI work and ethics. An inclusive company seeks to make sure everyone at work has a strong sense of belonging, value, and respect from the company and their peers. Encouraging everyone to share their thoughts and speaking up when things aren’t working is an easy way to show your team that you care about inclusion. Speak up culture is also crucial to having an ethical organization.

In other words, organizations that practice healthy speak up culture place make the effort to listen themselves.

Why is speak up culture important?

The reality is, no matter how strong a company’s culture or intentions are, problems happen. I wrote about this myself in TechCrunch in 2021. On the higher end of the scale, up to 85% of women have reported that they have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. According to the Ethics & Compliance Initiative’s 2021 Global Business Ethics Survey, 49% of U.S. employees reported observing misconduct. Of the reported misconduct, 35% observed employee favoritism, 23% observed improper hiring practices, and 22% observed abusive behavior. Most of these stats have seen an increase in the past five years.

Given issues are inevitable, the best thing a company can do is create a culture where employees feel comfortable speaking up. This is especially important when weighing the fact that nearly 60% of all observed misconduct in the workplace is never reported. Making reporting easier, as well as educating and encouraging employees on reporting misconduct, is a major step in the right direction.

How to create a speak up culture at your organization

There are plenty of simple and effective steps you can take to start building a culture where everyone’s ideas are welcomed and heard. The key is to model the type of behavior you want to encourage.

1. Actively make space for feedback.

It takes a lot of courage for an employee to pull aside a senior leader and say, “Hey, got a minute?” So instead of hoping an employee will have the courage to initiate that conversation, create a dedicated space for bilateral conversations between employees and their managers. At Ethena, we use the concept of Feedback Fridays as a way to make intentional space for these kinds of conversations to happen.

Managers play a big role in making feedback a two-way street. If you’re looking for better manager training for your team, I try checking out Ethena’s free — yes, free — Manager Training course, hosted by our VP of People, Melanie Naranjo.

2. Show that your organization takes this seriously.

Some workers report not speaking up in their workplace out of fear of not being heard or believed; they doubt that sticking their neck out will change anything. In fact, while most employees understand what they’re supposed to do when witnessing misconduct, only 54% of employees feel that reporting is the right thing to do given the perceived impact reporting could have on their team’s morale or performance. As a leader, it’s your role to show employees that speaking up is not only right, but helpful.

When things don’t go well, be transparent with your team about what’s going wrong, what mistakes you made, what you learned from the process, and where you hope to go from here. Of course, there are some caveats to this that require confidentiality, but if you can, be open about what’s not going well, and why.

Beyond mistakes and lessons learned, it’s on you to model a solution-oriented mindset. Propose your own outside-the-box ideas to show that radical notions won’t be penalized. Be sure to respond to new ideas with enthusiasm, too.

3. Set clear expectations.

Be clear on what type of behaviors are not tolerated at your workplace. A prime example of this is harassment and discrimination of any kind. And be clear about the consequences when these rules are broken. It’s critical – and overall more convenient – to includes these expectations during key training sessions, like onboarding, Code of Conduct training, or your annual Harassment Prevention training, for example.

Policies you should have, if you don’t have already:

Great training can underline the importance of these policies in everyday work life. Ethena provides Harassment Prevention, Code of Conduct, DEIB, Anti-Money Laundering training — plus so many more — to meet the needs of your team.

4. Train on how and where to speak up.

What tools and avenues for reporting does your organization have, and how accessible are these options for your employees? Misconduct never happens in a vacuum, and people often feel ambiguity about what to report as well as when and how to report it. By providing this information in a training setting (like during your Code of Conduct training), you can give your team the tools and confidence to speak up when misconduct occurs.

Your training should include:

  • The tools you have for reporting (e.g. web portals, specific emails, forms, etc.)
  • Specific contact information for people to report to, like an HR rep, Ombudsman, etc.
  • What behavior or observations should be reported and when
  • What happens after reporting misconduct

If your training has inclusive content with relevant examples, your teams will feel that much more confident in reporting to the right channels at the right time. Courses like Ethena’s Harassment Prevention and Anti-Bribery & Corruption training delineate what counts as reportable conduct (and allows for regular refresher lessons, to keep resources top-of-mind).

5. Look for data and patterns.

Another key to building a speak up culture is to listen up. This involves tracking data and reports and keeping tabs on how feedback is going. It’s important to show that you’re actually paying attention to what your team is sharing with you. As mentioned before, follow up on reports!

Train your managers and supervisors to be experts in feedback and listening. I’ll shamelessly plug our new, free manager training again – it’s that good. Regardless, remember that leadership sets the standard for culture. And finally, hold everyone accountable — especially your leadership teams.

The final word

Just like with creating a feedback culture, building a speak up culture in your workplace takes a few simple steps. This will help you in the long run. When everyone’s ideas are welcomed, companies thrive. Looking for a training solution that provides useful tips and resources for recognizing and reporting misconduct in the workplace? Check out our full training catalog to learn more, or try a sample of our training today!


Sample Training: Code of Conduct