Businessolver, a leader in benefits and HR technology solutions, has released findings from its latest State of Workplace Empathy study, which surveys more than 26,000 CEOs, HR professionals, and employees. This year’s findings highlight five- and ten-year trends alongside the tangible ROI of empathy in today’s workplace, including an estimated $180 billion at risk annually due to attrition at organizations perceived as unempathetic.
“Empathy isn’t just good for people—it’s good for business,” says Jon Shanahan, president and CEO at Businessolver. “Collectively, companies that fail to operationalize empathy are leaving $180 billion on the table and missing out on a high-ROI lever for long-term growth.”
Over a quarter of employees (27%) view their organization as unempathetic and employees at these companies are 1.5 times more likely to change jobs in the next six months.
But there’s more at risk than turnover: Employees who view their workplace as unempathetic report three times higher toxicity and 1.3 times more mental health issues, contributing to lower productivity and absenteeism costs. Likewise, employees at unempathetic organizations are twice as likely to feel disconnected from leadership and four times less connected to their CEO.
Other key findings include the following.
- Only 55% of CEOs say empathy is undervalued by U.S. organizations, a 28-point year-over-year decline; 59% of CEOs view empathy as a perk or a “nice to have.”
- More than half (60%) of remote and hybrid employees say they would quit if required to work full-time in person and 51% of total respondents would take a pay cut to work remotely.
- Most (91%) employees say flexible work hours and location (88%) are top benefits that demonstrate empathy; yet 29% of employees and 21% of HR say they take advantage of flexible hours compared to 41% of CEOs.
Findings, however, also point to empathy moving in the right direction with 63% of employees saying US organizations are evolving with the needs of working households—a 180-degree change from Businessolver’s inaugural report in 2016.
“While there’s clearly work to be done, I’m encouraged by the 73% of employees who say their organizations are empathetic, reinforcing that many leaders are leaning into empathetic practices that help employees feel seen and heard,” Shanahan says.
