Feeling connected at the Workplace Vitality Hub

Student: Julia Brekelmans

Partner: Workplace Vitality Hub

Coach: Eveline Kersten

How students experience psychological safety

There is a high degree of individual responsibility among students, resulting in a lack of teamwork and ambiguity about their role in the workplace. Consequently, they seek little help or feedback and do not actively contribute to the organization, leading to limited collaboration and knowledge exchange. This hesitancy is reinforced by a lack of privacy and suitable spaces for emotionally charged conversations, exacerbating the avoidance of necessary discussions. As a result, students find it difficult to build mutual trust and form a bond with peers, thereby compromising psychological safety.

As a solution, we created a toolbox with an accompanying decision tree. This toolbox contains various team-building activities, which can be selected through the decision tree depending on the situation or context, to be undertaken with students and supervisors. The activities in the toolbox provide the target audience with practical tools to facilitate a more accessible way to be vulnerable.