New Study Examines How Workforce Mindset Affects Safety in High-Consequence Industries
Knoxville, TN — October 19, 2026 — Red Castle Human Capital, in collaboration with faculty from the University of Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business, is launching the Psychological Safety Index (PSI) study in spring 2027. The study will assess workforce mindset and organizational resilience across participating organizations, providing government and industry leaders with data-driven insight into the relationship between psychological safety and physical safety performance.
Workforce Well-Being Is a Safety Issue
Employers in high-risk, high-consequence industries—including energy, utilities, aviation, aerospace, manufacturing, and transportation—operate in environments where physical safety is non-negotiable and employee well-being directly affects operational performance. Workforce fatigue, chronic stress, burnout, and psychological distress are not simply wellness concerns; they are business and safety risks that can contribute to errors, incidents, reduced productivity, and turnover.
Psychological safety—the shared belief that individuals can speak up, raise concerns, and admit mistakes without fear of reprisal—is a foundational element of effective safety culture in these settings. Post-incident analyses of major industrial and aerospace failures, including Chernobyl, the Space Shuttle Challenger, and Deepwater Horizon, consistently point to suppressed dissent and communication breakdowns as contributing factors.
Built on Red Castle’s “Overloaded” Metric
The PSI study builds on Overloaded, a proprietary metric created, owned, and licensed by Red Castle Human Capital to quantify negative workforce sentiment. The metric tracks five emotional states employees may experience at work—worried, stressed, frustrated, burned out, and overwhelmed. An employee is classified as Overloaded when they report three or more of these at elevated frequency over a sustained period.
Across multiple client organizations, the Overloaded metric has consistently functioned as a risk flag, correlating with onboarding outcomes, turnover rates, and individual performance. Red Castle’s methodology positions the Overloaded condition as a measurable precursor to a decline in psychological safety. The firm details that research in its white paper, The “Overloaded” Metric as a Leading Indicator of Safety Risk in High-Reliability Environments.
How to Participate
Organizations interested in taking part in the PSI study, or in receiving the full white paper, can learn more and contact the Red Castle team at:
👉 redcastlehc.com/psychological-safety-index
About Red Castle Human Capital
Red Castle Human Capital is a consulting firm associated with the University of Tennessee, specializing in workforce development for the nuclear industry. The firm builds talent continuity systems that help leadership teams attract, engage, prepare, and retain critical people across changing market conditions, with services spanning audits and general consulting, reporting and analytics, and mergers-and-acquisitions support. Red Castle is led by Chief Executive Officer Brady Teter, a 30-year Fortune 500 aerospace and defense executive, and Chief Research Officer Dr. Tim Munyon, Department Chair and Associate Professor at UT’s Haslam College of Business.
Media Contact
Red Castle Human Capital
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