Businessolver®, a leader in benefits and HR technology solutions, released A Game Plan for Putting Empathy Into Action, the second part of their 2024 State of Workplace Empathy Study, now in its ninth year.
The follow-up report responds to this year’s CEO, HR, and employee survey findings, which showed workplace mental health in decline, workplace toxicity on the rise, and significant barriers to executing empathy at work. In addition to providing additional insights on gaps in expectations versus experiences, Part 2 also provides leaders with behavioral-based intelligence for executing empathy in the workplace.
A pervasive mental health stigma and widespread mental health issues were among the most alarming of the study’s findings, with 55% of CEOs and 50% of employees citing a mental health issue in the past year. Workplace toxicity, too, was found to be soaring. Forty-two percent of total respondents and a staggering 52% of CEOs said they work in a toxic environment.
The need for empathetic responses to these workplace issues is clear. Yet, the State of Workplace Empathy Study data shows that empathy, even though highly valued by employees at all levels, is poorly executed.
Employees neither encounter, nor model, empathetic behaviors
Significant gaps exist between the behaviors respondents rated as empathetic and the behaviors they reported experiencing in their workplaces. Even wider gaps exist between the behaviors respondents rated as empathetic and what they’ve demonstrated themselves.
For example, 85% of employees said “Demonstrating that an employee’s family is equally as important as their job” was an important behavior for signifying empathy at work. Just 35%, however, have experienced that behavior from colleagues and supervisors. Even more stark, just 30% say they have exhibited those behaviors themselves, despite all groups reporting that they are “much more empathetic” than four years ago.
Demonstrating empathy across three pillars
Businessolver’s research indicates the foundation of a sustainably empathetic culture rests on the ability to support employees across three pillars: professional, whole person and community. The report includes 20 empathetic behaviors that respondents rated in importance on a five-point scale alongside an analysis of which behaviors are most highly correlated with perceptions of organizational empathy.
“Ideally, organizations should aim for a culture that balances high accountability with high empathy,” said Rae Shanahan, workplace empathy advocate and chief strategy officer for Businessolver. “Without accountability, even a highly empathetic environment can resemble a day care, whereas high accountability without empathy can feel like a boot camp. The best outcomes are achieved when there’s an optimal balance between the two.”
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