As the Empathy Gap Grows, HR Is Calling it Quits
After three years of navigating unrelenting change, conflicting priorities, and overwhelming workloads, HR is reaching their breaking point. Here’s how (and why) executives can look to empathy to help drive meaningful and lasting change in their workplace cultures.
Businessolver’s eighth annual State of Workplace Empathy report showed us an alarming shift in the data: a 24-point gap, the largest divide ever recorded, between HR and CEO’s perceptions of each other. If this data were an emoji, it’d be the blaring red siren light.
But as alarming as this data is, it’s not shocking. Over the past three years, HR professionals have dealt with a lot as they supported, counselled, guided, and persevered through a pandemic, a rocky economy, and a tough talent market. Yet through it all, HR has only had more shoveled onto their desks as they navigate conflicting priorities within the CEO-Employee empathy gap.
This year, more than ever, executives must take the opportunity to address the empathy gap head on. Empathy is a critical component to a successful workplace culture and a successful business. But as empathy perceptions continue to decline among HR, these organizations risk losing their most valuable players.
HR is Caught in the Middle
Perhaps one of the thorniest issues HR has had to navigate are conflicting priorities between the C-suite and employees. Ask any HR person and they can list off multiple directives they’ve had to deploy to a frustrated and confused group of employees. Return to office, mental health benefits, and workplace flexibility top that list according to our empathy data.
Our empathy data shows that HR is fed up playing the middleperson, yet they consistently find themselves forced to be at the center of facilitating change—even if they may not strategically agree with those decisions.
C-suite and executive leaders have an opportunity to look to HR as strategic leaders and business advisors rather than order takers and executors. Your human resource professionals often have the strongest pulse on the business, from employee feedback to navigating long-term performance opportunities. Investing in these valuable leaders can pay dividends for the bottom line and the culture, but HR must be able to play an active role in defining business strategy and determining workplace policies alongside their c-suite colleagues.
Empathy is one of the cheapest benefits employers can offer.
Addressing the empathy gap between HR and CEOs isn’t just about creating a better work-life balance or giving HR a voice in the decision-making process. It’s about making authentic, compassionate change. Empathy is a broad initiative, spanning across an entire organization. And while empathy can often hide in the tough decisions, it’s also easy to bring compassion into the process through communication and partnership.
Join Businessolver on June 7 for a live discussion about the HR-CEO empathy gap with Jon Shanahan, Businessolver’s CEO; Marcy Klipfel, Businessolver’s Chief Engagement Officer; and Iesha Berry, DocuSign’s Head of People Engagement. Register today.
