Powerlink Queensland
The SpeakSafe Movement
Transforming Workplace Culture through Psychological Safety
Powerlink Queensland partnered with Humanology Group to launch The SpeakSafe Movement — Australia's first known enterprise-wide psychological safety initiative — as the organisation doubled its workforce to over 1,500 employees while building the SuperGrid to deliver 80% renewable energy by 2035. Integrated into Health, Safety, and Environment systems, the program created a measurable framework of trust, accountability, and care that transformed how people spoke up, shared ideas, and navigated unprecedented change. This foundation strengthened psychosocial risk management, positioned Powerlink to meet evolving legislative requirements, and sustained both wellbeing and performance through rapid transformation.
Challenge
Internal diagnostics revealed critical gaps threatening performance and wellbeing: only 48% of employees felt safe to speak up, 51% believed the culture encouraged learning over blame, and 32% felt their perspectives were included in decisions. The challenge was to create a psychologically safe culture that would protect people and power performance.
Solution
Humanology Group designed a systemic, measurable framework for psychological safety embedded across every organisational layer:
Evidence-based diagnostics: Psychological Safety Profile for Teams (PSP-T) deployed across 130+ teams and 1,500 employees
System integration: Psychological safety embedded within HSE systems to meet ISO 45003 standards
Leadership development: 300+ leaders trained through 1,016 hours of immersive learning
Team interventions: Psychological Safety Playbook and co-created Team Safety Contracts driving daily accountability
Champions network: 150+ peer champions leading local activation and SpeakSafe rituals across every business unit
This reframed psychological safety from a "soft skill" into a measurable, governable safety control.
Result
The SpeakSafe Movement delivered measurable cultural and performance outcomes:
86.7% of teams improved psychological safety (5.69 → 5.94)
Employee engagement: 54% → 73%
Wellbeing: 7.31 → 7.88
Safe to speak up: 48% → 66%
Safe to learn: 51% → 75%
Absenteeism: 50% reduction in high-risk divisions
85.7% of teams maintained or improved wellbeing
Teams with higher psychological safety achieved 2.7× greater wellbeing gains
Recognition: Winner – 2024 Queensland Mental Health Award (Enterprise Wellbeing). The program has since become a model adopted by other energy and infrastructure organisations.
WHY IT WORKED
The SpeakSafe Movement succeeded because it reframed care as control;— positioning psychological safety as a proactive safety system, not a reactive HR program. By combining Humanology’s behavioural science and system-based methodology with Powerlink’s operational excellence, the initiative created a measurable culture of trust, accountability, and learning. It showed that when people feel safe to speak and supported to learn, performance follows naturally.