The Importance of Empathy in an Organisation’s Culture
Often organisations forget to see the value in empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. It is essential to a businesses success and improvement to put yourself in the customers, other team members or your manager’s shoes. This can be transformational for an organisation that hasn’t previously seen the value in operating with empathy and can help inspire results from your team and customers alike.
By providing an empathetic culture within an organisation, you can raise and acknowledge areas employees are struggling with or need improvement in a caring nature where the best for the individual and the business is at stake.
Empathy removes bias and preconceived opinions in business. An empathetic approach is invaluable in all areas of an organisation, especially; sales, HR, operations and marketing.
Customer Satisfaction:
Through empathy comes customer satisfaction. As we know, word of mouth referrals and brand awareness through positive affirmations for a business are invaluable. Customer satisfaction is achieved by understanding the customers, putting yourself in their shoes, ensuring they feel heard.
Customer feedback provides insights into how well an organisation is operating and serving the needs of the customers.
Richard Branson, the founder and CEO of the Virgin empire stated, “since we started Virgin Atlantic thirty years ago, every single one of our airline competitors has gone bankrupt because they didn’t have customer service.”
“Everything, in the end, comes down to customer service and the people who are serving you and whether they’re proud of the company and the only way you can actually have people working in a company that is proud of it is if you give them the tools and every little detail.”
The Importance of Analysing the Customer Journey
Staff Morale and Productivity:
Given that one-in-three workers would leave their companies for a more compassionate environment, there’s a major incentive for companies to emphasise empathy skills sooner rather than later.
If employees don’t feel comfortable airing their frustrations within the business, you are more likely to see a lack of motivation and poor results in their work ethic. The motivation of an employee who felt heard and understood would be much higher compared to an unappreciated staff member.
92% of HR professionals note that an empathetic workplace is a major factor for employee retention.
As said in To Kill a Mockingbird, you never really get to know a person until you walk around in their shoes. In an organisation, this means approaching your coworkers’ concerns with an open mind.
The Importance of Empathy in an Organisation’s Culture
Talk to your employees and display empathy:
If an email is more suitable than a face-to-face conversation or a zoom call, use this template as a starting point to gauge with your employees how they are feeling.
Hi [Name],
I just wanted to let you know that I understand your [relevant emotion: frustration] and want to do everything in my power to help. The more I know and understand the [problem], the quicker we can get it sorted. Feel free to contact me in a different way if that would be more comforting. Thanks!
Empathic people don’t forget about the humanity of others.
They take the time to recognise if someone is feeling up or down, then take the opportunity to support them from where they are.
This attitude follows through to deals, conflicts, negotiations and communications where the business owner can be confident solutions will have arisen through honesty, integrity and thoughtfulness.
These are some of the reasons why empathy is important in an organisation’s culture. The best way to implement more empathy into an organisation is to lead by example. Remember to see the good in the world and in other people and you’ll be surprised how much the productivity and morale in the office will increase.
