The first public standard for psychological safety at work
Can people speak up, raise concerns, disagree with someone senior, or admit a mistake at your company without paying for it?
Vanguard Voices is convening the group writing the standard.
Built on ISO 45003. Independently checked. Revoked when broken.
GET THE VANGUARD VOICE
A weekly letter from inside the working group writing the first version of the standard.
Methodology decisions, draft excerpts, the contradictions in ISO 45003 we are untangling, and what we are getting wrong.
Subscribers get first access to working group invitations and founding cohort applications.
AN OPEN LETTER
TO ANYONE WHO HAS WATCHED THIS PATTERN PLAY OUT
You have watched this happen.
A concern gets raised quietly. Side conversations multiply. Someone resigns. An investigation follows. The company writes a statement, holds a leadership retreat, restructures a team. Six months later, the same pattern shows up somewhere else in the company.
It is not your imagination. There is no public standard for how companies treat the people inside them. Only frameworks and employee surveys that have not moved the dial in twenty-seven years of academic research.
Vanguard Voices is the group writing one.
It starts at the top. It will not stay there.
Jessica Bensch, Founder
WHAT IT COSTS PEOPLE WHEN NOBODY IS WATCHING
Every company has things people will not say out loud. The tension between two teams that everyone works around. The strategy concern that never makes the meeting. The senior leader whose behaviour has been an open secret for years.
Why This Matters
Vanguard Voices is convening a working group of practitioners and researchers to draft the first version of the standard against ISO 45003. The work is happening through 2026 in public, including the disagreements, the methodology decisions, and what we are getting wrong.
Scene 1 — The 3am email
The senior leader writes to thank a contractor for stepping up. The full-time employee who actually did the work reads it the next morning and starts looking for another role.
Scene 2 — The resignation no one was surprised by
The team had seen it coming for six months. No one had raised it. The exit interview produced no findings. The next person hired into that role will find out the same way.
Scene 3 — The leadership retreat that came undone by Wednesday.
Everyone agreed in the room and emailed afterward. The disagreement showed up in side conversations by Monday. The decision was quietly reversed by Wednesday.
Without a standard, every one of these scenes stays private and the company stays the same.
WHAT MAKES THIS A STANDARD: PUBLIC, COMPARABLE, REVOCABLE
Leaders set the ceiling for psychological safety inside their company. The standard makes that ceiling public, comparable, and revocable across every company that certifies.
Public
The first version is being written by a group of HR practitioners, organisational development consultants, agile coaches, and researchers, built on ISO 45003. The method, the scoring, and the working group disagreements are visible while the standard is being written.
Comparable
Independent outside assessors check every company against the same criteria, on the same schedule. Today, every company already has its own private definition of safe at work. Usually it matches whatever the most senior person in the room is comfortable with. A standard replaces that with one set of criteria, applied identically across companies, industries, and countries.
Revokable
A leadership retreat that ends in agreement is like a couple's weekend away. Come home, the dishes are still in the sink. Certification is the dishes being washed every year, in public, by an outside assessor. Without the option to take certification away, a certificate is just decoration.
2026: Write the First Version
A working group of 15 to 25 HR practitioners, researchers, and operators drafts the standard. The hardest question so far: what should trigger losing certification when a senior person breaks the standard. Members from anywhere. Working group members named on the site as they confirm.
Phase 1
2026 - 2027: Three companies measured first
One founding company and two pilot companies are measured against the first version of the standard before public launch. The founding company shapes the standard alongside the working group. The two pilots test it against different contexts. Their results, methods, and disagreements become the proof base.
Phase 2
FROM WORKING GROUP TO PUBLIC STANDARD
Three phases, on the record. No company has been certified yet.
That is the work.
Here's what that looks like:
Voices Behind the Work
Endorsers and Early Supporters
Vanguard Voices is an important organization doing important work. If you don't yet know about Vanguard Voices, look into their work today for the good of your organization!
Ali Atkison
HRD* The Leadership Development Company
Vanguard Voices is not afraid to challenge and bring to light what we often want to keep under the carpet - and we need more of these types of conversations in the current world. Their mission is clear and urgent: to uplift psychological safety at work on a global scale
Patrycja Riera
Inclusion Advisor & Strategist
Creating a movement is not easy and takes someone like Jessica to put it all on the line. What she has already accomplished is impressive.
Justin Tomlinson
Author, Advisor, Thought Leader
Vanguard Voices is not afraid to challenge and bring to light what we often want to keep under the carpet—and we need more of these types of conversations in the current world. Their mission is clear and urgent.. I am excited to participate in the next chapter.
Jane Doe
HR Director at Tech Innovations Inc.
“Vanguard Voices is an important organization doing important work…. look into their work today for the good of your organization!”
John Smith
Patrycja Riera
CEO of Creative Solutions LLC
Vanguard Voices is not afraid to challenge and bring to light what we often want to keep under the carpet—and we need more of these types of conversations in the current world. Their mission is clear and urgent.. I am excited to participate in the next chapter.
Patrycja Riera
Inclusion Strategist & Advisor
Patrycja Riera
THE VANGUARD VOICE, WEEKLY.
A letter from inside the writing of the standard.
What we are seeing:
Patterns from practitioners, lived-it people, and inside the working group. Specific. Unsanitised.
What is being decided:
The methodology calls, the disagreements, the things going into the first version and the things being held out.
Straight to Your Inbox:
One letter a week. Five minutes. For practitioners, founders, researchers, and anyone tired of watching the same loop run.
Start Here
Our Iterative Plan to Drive Real Change
Transforming workplace culture isn't a one-time task. It’s an ongoing journey that requires deliberate, intentional focus and action from all levels.
Here’s how we plan to make it happen:
Build Awareness and Momentum
The Speak Up Summit launched the movement, bringing together global thought leaders and workplace stories to spark real conversations about psychological safety. We are now expanding this momentum, building a network of changemakers committed to fostering safer work environments.
Phase 1
PHASE 2
Foster Widespread Adoption
We’re partnering with over 1,000 companies to implement best practices for psychological safety, creating a model of organizations that lead by example. By embedding these practices into their core culture, businesses can drive innovation and trust while prioritizing employee well-being.
PHASE 3
Change the System for Good
Systemic change happens when organizations commit to making psychological safety part of their foundation. We’re pushing for policies, leadership, and day-to-day actions that guarantee safe, inclusive workplaces where everyone can thrive without fear of retaliation.
This is your moment.
Being a changemaker in an organization isn’t about maintaining the status quo or accepting empty promises. It’s about leading the charge toward a better, safer, and more inclusive workplace—where every voice matters, and every employee feels safe to speak up. At Vanguard Voices, we don’t ask, “How do we preserve what’s comfortable?” We ask,
Jessica Bensch, Founder