With a tight market and a potential global recession, many organizations have announced hiring and firing suspensions, which could create a sense of uncertainty among their teams. This circumstance reinforces the need for leaders to ensure empathy in the workplace.
According to the most recent edition of the survey Empathy in Business of EY, there are corporate and professional benefits related to empathy, which is increasingly perceived as a fundamental trait of leadership in the global marketplace.
Below, I present four keys to understanding how this trend influences the employee experience and how it contributes to strengthening businesses.
1. Close the gap between the company and its workers
Beyond using it as a recruitment strategy, organizations in all industries must incorporate empathy into their decisions and projects, especially in the midst of a challenging economic environment like the one we live in.
Executives will hardly be able to understand the emotions of all their collaborators, but put yourself in their shoes it could boost morale in the workplace, boost productivity and increase team performance. For companies to successfully transform, they must put people at the center of everything they do.
2. Provide flexibility
Many workers are concerned about job security and uneasy about their future. Even in the midst of an uncertain economy and market, they would be willing to leave their employment if their well-being is not prioritized.
The pandemic taught us that empathy can be a powerful tool in creating a culture of responsibility, and to make this purpose a reality, it is essential to offer flexibility. For example, if the return to the office does not consider the current experiences and needs of workers, many of them will see the empathic efforts as inauthentic and companies could have negative consequences such as staff turnover.