The Importance of Empathy in a Post-COVID 19 World

COVID-19 didn’t just have an enormous impact on our economy and directly impact the rise and fall of different industries. It changed our entire reality. The way of doing things is simply different. As a result, the way company leaders run their organizations has changed as well.

What’s the most important character trait for today’s leader in this new reality? Is it financial acumen? Ability to adjust? Economic awareness, perhaps? To answer this question properly, first, we need to switch from thinking about the business’ bottom line to thinking about the employees instead. Once we do that, we can see why empathy is the most important thing to focus on in a post-COVID 19 world.

Why It’s Important for Leaders to Show Empathy

A rising trend today is to treat the CEO as Chief Empathy Officer. According to an article from world-known industry analyst Josh Bersin, “leaders in a crisis focus on ‘empathy and compassion first, business second.’ If you believe, as (Bersin does), in the unlimited potential of the human spirit, you understand that only by making people safe will we ever grow out of this crisis.”

Sure, there needs to be competence and you need to tell your employees the truth. But a little care goes a long way toward improving employee satisfaction, reducing fears of uncertainty, and establishing long-term emotional investment in your business. So how do you show that you care, exactly? Let’s go over a few ideas.

Ways Leaders Can Show Empathy

According to an article from Neeyamo entitled “After the PAUSE and the RESET: What to focus post COVID-19?”, there are “strategic priorities that organizations need to keep in mind in their course of springing back to action. These priorities include:

• Continuous and real-time communication with employees
• Digital transformation at speed
• Agile problem solving without agile methodologies
• Massive consumption of learning
• Multi-functional HR
• Improved pay and benefits”

Focusing on one or more of these priorities will go a long way toward helping you adjust to the complexities caused by the pandemic.

Improving Pay and Benefits with Spentra

Yes, improving pay and benefits is one piece of the puzzle when it comes to empathy. Fortunately, it’s also one of our specialties. With Spentra, you can show empathy to your employees by giving them early access to earned pay and allowing them to enjoy the related benefits (e.g. financial flexibility, money management). Showing employees that you care about improving their financial wellness can help improve morale for existing employees and is a perk that might assist with luring top talent as well.

If you’re interested in learning more about Spentra or seeing a demo to show how it can help with empathy in a post-COVID 19 world, contact us today.