By Julius DeSilva

We talk a lot about psychological safety when it comes to frontline workers, teams in crisis, or high-risk industries. But one group that rarely comes up in these conversations is the auditor. Auditors often carry the weight of saying what others won’t. They walk into rooms where people are on edge. They ask questions that stir discomfort. They surface truths that may not be welcomed.

This is more so in organizations where it is only the QHSE team conducting audits. They can come to be viewed as police officers trying to find fault in what others are doing. I’ve seen this firsthand, where there is a palpable tension in the room. That tension doesn’t come from the auditees but from the auditors themselves. It sometimes manifests as auditors being afraid to raise the critical issues and to ask the hard-pressing questions.

Auditors don’t just review systems—they’re part of them

We like to imagine that auditors stand apart from the systems they evaluate, like neutral observers with clipboards. But the truth is rather different. Auditors are human, too. They operate in environments shaped by hierarchy, fear, trust, and silence. And often, those forces push back hard.

When an auditor is asked to “tone down the language” of a finding or is warned not to “ruffle feathers,” what’s really being said is: Don’t disrupt the illusion of control. It’s not always explicit. Sometimes it’s just a look. Sometimes it’s what isn’t said. What if a nonconformity in the records would lead to the loss of business or bring further scrutiny by customers? I’ve seen external auditors downgrade nonconformities as a result of pressure from company leadership, and I’ve also seen internal auditors downgrade nonconformities to avoid bringing attention to a co-worker with whom they are friends.

What happens when auditors don’t feel safe

When auditors don’t feel supported or protected, the consequences ripple far beyond the audit function.

• Issues get buried; they don’t get reported.
• Findings are watered down; nonconformities are raised as observations that never get addressed.
• Patterns repeat.

I’ve been in organizations where the same nonconformities reappear year after year. Not because no one knows the root causes of issues, but because no one feels safe enough to talk about them honestly.

An organization I worked with had 115 cases of operator error in a period of nine months, and this was never raised in the internal audit. The QC and QA departments were at loggerheads, with the QA department tagged as superfluous and at risk of being let go.

Psychological safety isn’t just for the audited

The concept, made well-known by Dr. Amy Edmondson of Harvard, is about creating an environment where people can speak up without fear of embarrassment or retribution. We often apply this idea to teams, but it applies just as powerfully to auditors. An auditor needs to know they can:

• Raise an inconvenient truth
• Ask a hard question
• Report an issue that makes leadership uncomfortable

All without being sidelined, silenced, or subtly punished.

What a safe audit culture looks like

In the best audit environments I’ve worked in, there’s a shared understanding that the audit is not about blame. It’s about insight. It’s about systems. It’s about providing leadership with timely inputs to make changes before they impact them in a major way.  Leaders don’t see findings as attacks.

Audit teams aren’t isolated. Findings aren’t defended; they’re acknowledged and discussed. Personnel, including leadership, are open to the audit findings, which are seen as opportunities to improve and get better. Audits are welcome and not feared. Auditors are encouraged to raise a nonconformity as a nonconformity and not to downgrade it.

If the auditor isn’t safe, no one is

It’s often said that the health of a system can be measured by how it handles bad news. If your auditors are afraid to report honestly, if they feel compelled to soften findings to protect their job or their relationships, then that’s a warning sign. Not just for the audit, but for the organization as a whole.

Because if it’s not safe for the auditor to speak up, who else is staying silent? There are numerous examples in history of customers and companies that suffered as a result of the quality department being hushed. Because of auditors who were afraid of hurting someone’s feelings, who feared their job security, and who were afraid to speak up.

In closing

I’ve learned over the years that the real work of auditing isn’t in checklists or clauses. It’s in courage. It’s in the moments where we choose to speak clearly even when the room gets quiet. It’s in the trust we build with people who know we’re there to help, not to punish.

We cannot expect auditors to uphold the integrity of the system if the system doesn’t uphold them in return.

Let’s start by including auditors in the psychological safety conversation. Let’s build an environment that leverages the audit process as an improvement process.

About the author

Julius DeSilva is the CEO of Quality Management International Inc. A former merchant marine officer, he has assisted organizations of varied sizes across a wide spectrum of industries implement process-based management systems conforming to ISO and other standards. He is well versed in the following standards: maritime safety/security, aerospace, environmental, supply chain security, and quality. He teaches, consults, and audits in these disciplines, including process improvement and leadership-related topics. DeSilva received his MBA from the Darden School of Business, University of Virginia. He is an Exemplar Global certified lead auditor to various ISO Standard including ISO 9001 and is an Associate Fellow of the Nautical Institute.

This article first appeared on Julius DeSilva’s LinkedIn page and is published here with permission.