Psychological Safety Inventory (PSI)

In short

A 30-question survey of how safe each employee feels at work, in five areas. Use it when you want a detailed picture and have room for a longer survey.

For whoever runs the assessment: an HR or operations lead, an internal project team, or an outside consultant.

What it measures

Each employee’s sense of psychological safety at work, in five areas. The authors started from 70 candidate questions and kept the 30 that worked best.

How to use it

1. Use it where you have survey time. Thirty questions is long as a block inside a wider staff survey.
2. Keep answers anonymous and report by group.
3. Use the five areas to see what kind of safety is missing, then act on that area.

What it does not measure

• Anything about AI.
• The team as a unit. It measures individuals. Averages by team are possible but are not what it was built for.

How it was tested

The questionnaire was tested on 497 employees in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. Answers within each area agreed closely, and the scores lined up with related measures.

The technical detail: the structure came from an exploratory analysis.

Licence and access

The article is open access under CC BY 4.0. Whether that licence extends to free reuse of the questions is to be confirmed with the authors. Cost is not established.

Alternatives

Other assessments with a similar job, and when to prefer each.

• Where do people feel unsafe to speak up: in the organization, the team or one-to-one? Perception of Psychological Safety scale (PPS) Prefer it when you want 14 questions and a split by organization, team and one-to-one relations. Each employee · 14 questions Free to use and adapt Testing: Moderate Culture and speaking-up surveys
• Do people in this team speak up, or stay silent? Composite measure of psychological safety (observation and survey) Prefer it when you want to observe what teams do. A trained observer and the team’s members · One observed team meeting, plus a 19-question survey Free to use and adapt Testing: Emerging Culture and speaking-up surveys

Practices that use it

• Protect psychological safety during an AI rollout AI projects can make staff afraid to speak up and unwilling to share what they know. Say early what AI means for jobs, and consult the people affected. Do first · Effort: medium (weeks, a few people) Evidence: Moderate Contested People and skills · Adopt

The details

Testing

Moderate Tested in one study on 497 employees in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. Answers were consistent and related to other measures as expected. No other team has repeated the test.

Looks at

Person

How the answers are collected

A survey answered by each employee.

Length

30 questions in 5 groups

Cost

Not established

Licence

CC BY 4.0 (article)The article is openly licensed. Confirm with the authors that this covers reuse of the questions before you translate or adapt them.

Languages

English

By

Plouffe and colleagues, 2023

Sources

1. Plouffe, Ein, Liu, St. Cyr, Baker and colleagues (2023). Feeling safe at work: Development and validation of the Psychological Safety Inventory. International Journal of Selection and Assessment. doi:10.1111/ijsa.12434

Related studies on this site

• AI adoption, psychological safety and depression among employees Kim, Kim and Lee (2025). The dark side of artificial intelligence adoption: linking artificial intelligence adoption to employee depression via psychological safety and ethical leadership. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 12(1).
• Fear of losing a job to AI and the hiding of knowledge Kim and Kim (2024). How artificial intelligence-induced job insecurity shapes knowledge dynamics: the mitigating role of artificial intelligence self-efficacy. Journal of Innovation & Knowledge, 9(4), 100590.