How to Build an Empathetic Work Culture

Credit it to growing awareness, psychological studies, the pandemic and companies realizing the need to be more flexible in general. However, you define it, bringing empathy into the workplace may be a new-era reality—and it has always been a necessity. If we want to create better products, more revenue, better teams, and happier employees, we have to prioritize an empathetic work culture.

Empathy is defined as understanding, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of others, without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated. Sympathy is sharing a feeling with someone else, while empathy is truly appreciating what the feeling must be like. In other words, empathy is putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and taking action from that place.

Putting empathy at the forefront of your company’s values will help open the door to honest conversations, and research has shown that building a culture of empathy creates more confidence among employees, boosts productivity and employee retention, and most importantly, improves mental and emotional well-being all around.

Companies are taking note: 20 percent of US employers offered empathy training for managers. In a recent survey of 150 CEOs, more than 80 percent recognized empathy as a key to success. In addition, every year since 2017, 90 percent of employees, HR professionals, and CEOs have said that empathy is important.

Girl Power Talk has always had a culture built on empathy and kindness. We believe if our team members connect with each other on a personal level, it will lead to higher productivity and more importantly satisfaction leading to a happier team. We have leveraged empathetic leadership to create a family culture, so our young leaders enjoy coming to work.

Originally Published on Colombo Gazette