Study: Empathy May Address The Turnover Epidemic

From raising salaries to offering cool perks to career advancement, employers try nearly everything to retain employees. According to Businessolver’s 2017 Workplace Empathy Monitor, empathy might be the answer. In the survey, 77% of employees would work longer hours for an “empathetic employer” and 60% would take slightly less pay.

Of the 2,000 respondents, 92% of employees and 95% of HR professionals agreed that showing empathy is critical to retention. The type of empathy employees want from their bosses, however, does not lie in corporate social responsibility programs as previously framed. Instead, it is the benefits packages that matter.

Empathetic Benefits Package

So what does an “empathetic benefits package” look like? For starters, employees want more mental health support. In fact, 95% of employees want mental health to be included, yet very few programs actually address this taboo subject. They also want personal communications for information delivery instead of broad communication channels. According to the authors, one-on-one or in-person conversations increase employees’ respect, which leads to higher retention.

Overall, the components of an empathetic benefit package are:
– Flexible work hours (96%)
– Paid maternity leave (96%)
– Medical/health insurance (95%)
– Flexible work location (93%)
– Paid paternity leave (95%)
– Employer contributions to retirement plans (93%)
– Family benefits (94%)
– Educational programs (93%)
– Vision plan (93%)
– Dental insurance (92%)
– Career path guidance (92%)
– Life insurance (93%)
– Financial well-being programs (90%)
– Student loan debt repayment (90%)

Most of these benefits are relatively common, suggesting that they are the baseline requirement – the bare minimum to recruit and retain talent. Interestingly, flexible work hours and work location come out on top of the list, while other soft benefits like free food or spa services didn’t cut it. “Empathy is flexibility – not freebies.” Yet, only 38% of employers cater to this overwhelming demand, allowing their employees to choose their work schedules and have some flexibility in work location.

For newcomers to the empathy revolution, Businessolver provided four practices as the cornerstones of successful empathy efforts. Employers would be wise to make sure they are incorporating these practices as part of the employee retention strategy.