Unlocking Performance with the Power of Psychological Safety
BeTalent by Zircon helped Network Rail’s RICoE ignite a 62% surge in engagement by building a culture of trust, confidence, and strengths-driven leadership.
“I've never questioned the value I'm getting because it feels like I'm working with an extension of my own team. That's probably the biggest praise I've ever given any supplier.”
— Rev. Mike Wright, Programme Management Director, Network Rail
Railway infrastructure company in England, Scotland and Wales
RICoE support Network Rail’s wider 36,000+ employees and £5bn+ project delivery
Public sector
Focus: Psychological Safety, Self Belief & Strengths assessments, workshop design and facilitation
Getting Engagement Back on Track at Network Rail
Challenge
A lengthy period of substantial transformations and organisational challenges had led to uncertainty and waning confidence within the leadership team. The severity of which was highlighted during an annual staff engagement survey conducted in 2023, which revealed an overall engagement score of 17%, with no highly engaged individuals and only 17% moderately engaged individuals.
With the majority of the team either passively (56%) or actively (28%) disengaged, these low engagement scores showed the impact of the lack of job security and constant change within the organisation. Productivity and capability of the team were also highlighted to be a problem.
Our Approach
Collaborating with Rev. Mike Wright, their Programme Management and People Director, we worked to address the root cause of the problem.
Our evidence-based approach involved multiple stages designed to ensure a meaningful and lasting impact.
Diagnosis and Insight: Conducted interviews to understand team dynamics, diagnosed challenges, and set engagement goals.
Strengths-Based Development: Designed a strengths-based workshop using BeTalent tools to boost engagement and productivity.
Psychological Safety and Self-Belief: Assessment followed up with tools for individual growth and team cohesion.
BeTalent by Zircon designed a 2 phased programme to re-engage the team with their purpose and objective:
Phase 1 - interviews to understand the challenges, risks, and opportunities facing the team, and workshops to help them adopt a strengths-based approach to development and rebuild trust.
Phase 2 - with insight from our BeTalent Psychological Safety and Self-Belief tools, the team had the opportunity to reflect and listen to their peers; building resilience and strengthening their self-belief while learning what it takes to create a psychologically safe climate.
Deployment and Impact
Our intervention led to a 62% rise in engagement, lifting the team from the lowest tier to the top quartile.
The proportion of highly engaged individuals jumped to 36%, while disengagement dropped significantly. Mike described the impact as “phenomenal,” with the team now more open to challenges and progress.
Crucially, engagement scores had remained stagnant for two years before our work, confirming the intervention’s success. The BeTalent tools provided deep insight into Psychological Safety and self-belief, helping the team build confidence and cohesion. This demonstrates the power of BeTalent’s evidence-based approach in driving real change.
Why it Worked
Evidence-based diagnostics: BeTalent's expert-led interviews and assessments uncovered root causes of disengagement, providing a clear foundation for targeted intervention.
Strengths-based tools: Custom-designed workshops using BeTalent Strengths, Psychological Safety, and Self-Belief tools helped rebuild trust, boost confidence, and energise the team.
Tailored programme design: BeTalent’s phased approach ensured that insights were turned into practical actions—building resilience, enhancing team dynamics, and aligning individuals with purpose.
Sustainable impact: BeTalent’s data-driven methodology delivered measurable, lasting results—lifting engagement scores by 62% and transforming team culture.