Turning Psychological Safety into Santander’s Competitive Edge
With BeTalent by Zircon’s expertise, Santander transformed psychological safety from theory into everyday practice, empowering leaders, strengthening inclusion, and elevating customer experience across the business.
“The benefit we've seen is that we're actively shaping a workplace culture that will attract and retain the best talent. So it's positioning us to thrive in the long term.”
— Laura McLean, People Solutions Manager, Santander
Global financial institution and banking group
One of the largest banks in the world with operations in 10 core markets
3,000+ people managers, multi-year programme
Focus: Psychological Safety diagnostic tools, leadership development, team workshops, and ambassador training
Psychological Safety as a Strategic Foundation
Challenge
Santander UK recognised that sustainable performance, inclusion, and customer service depend on a culture where people feel safe to speak up. Despite the company’s strengths in leadership and values, Psychological Safety was not consistently experienced across teams.
The bank aimed to go beyond raising awareness to embed Psychological Safety as a lived experience at every level. The challenge was cultural and structural: turning a concept into consistent, everyday practice within a large, regulated organisation.
Our Approach
Santander partnered with BeTalent by Zircon to design and deliver a strategic, multi-phase Psychological Safety programme. The initiative began with leadership engagement and diagnostic tools to baseline safety levels, followed by a combination of:
Ambassador training, empowering senior leaders to drive change from within
Workshops and guided conversations, reaching 3,000+ people managers
Regular diagnostics, enabling real-time tracking of cultural shifts
Integration into leadership frameworks and behavioural expectations, ensuring alignment with business priorities
The strategy focused on both systems and small shifts in behaviour; embedding Psychological Safety not as an initiative, but as a habit.
Deployment and Impact
Santander adopted an internal ambassador model, enabling trained leaders to run sessions for their peers. Monthly diagnostics helped track impact and identify focus areas. The programme emphasised:
Micro-behaviours like active listening, curiosity, and openness to feedback
Psychological safety as a foundation for innovation, agility, and resilience
Cultural traction over time through reflection, reinforcement, and peer modelling
The programme achieved consistent increases in Psychological Safety, with no initial dip — a rare outcome in cultural change work. Key results include:
Increased trust and inclusion across teams
Stronger alignment between leadership behaviours and employee experience
Measurable improvements in Psychological Safety scores
Greater employee confidence in speaking up, offering ideas, and challenging decisions constructively
Why it Worked
Diagnostic precision – BeTalent’s Psychological Safety tools provided a clear, evidence‑based baseline to target interventions where they’d have the most impact.
Built‑in scalability – The ambassador model and modular design allowed the programme to reach 3,000+ managers without losing quality or consistency.
Integrated into the system – Tools and insights were woven into leadership frameworks and behavioural expectations, ensuring cultural traction.
Sustainable by design – Regular measurement, feedback loops, and practical micro‑behaviours turned change from a one‑off initiative into an enduring habit.