Improving Employee Social Awareness Through Workplace Empathy

Employee social awareness and workplace empathy are critical factors for a thriving organization. Fostering these qualities can transform workplaces into a more collaborative and supportive environment for everyone. When team members truly understand and empathize with one another, it enhances communication, helps prevent conflicts, boosts morale, and encourages innovative collaboration. In today’s diverse work environment, neglecting these aspects can lead to misunderstandings and missed opportunities. By prioritizing social awareness and empathy, leaders can create a culture where everyone feels valued and engaged.

What is Employee Social Awareness and Empathy and Why is it Important?

Employee social awareness is the ability to recognize and understand the feelings of others, including those from different backgrounds and cultures. It's a key component of emotional intelligence and is vital for successful employers and managers.

“In a very real sense we have two minds, one that thinks and one that feels.” - Daniel Goleman, psychologist and author, ranked by the Wall Street Journal as one of the 10 most influential business thinkers

At the core of social awareness is empathy—the capacity to comprehend the emotions, needs, and concerns of others. It’s a skill that leaders should cultivate in the workplace through training.

For leaders, nurturing empathy is paramount to becoming more effective. For employees, it boosts collaboration and teamwork. Ultimately, cultivating empathy creates a vibrant culture of social awareness that benefits everyone in the organization.

How Does Diversity Come into Play?

While a diverse workforce feeds innovation and creative problem-solving, it can also create differences and misunderstandings among team members. Consider the following...

• The United States Census Bureau reports all racial and ethnic minorities are growing faster than whites.
• The United States workforce consists of multiple generations: Baby Boomers, Generations X, Y (millennials), and Z.
• Millennials have introduced new language and concepts related to sexual identity and preference, which can indeed be seen as controversial or confusing to some individuals.
• The combination of social media and politics constantly points out differences of opinion, beliefs, and values and encourages an “Us vs. Them” mentality.

With this diversity comes the need to sharpen social awareness skills. Modern workplaces consist of individuals from diverse backgrounds, political beliefs, and experiences, so employees need support in developing a better understanding of others.

Work is Not Just about KPIs and Deadlines

It's also about cultivating empathy for coworkers, with whom employees often spend more time than with their own families. It’s about respect for others by connecting with them on an emotional level. It's about mutual understanding.

Empathy is the softer side of business. It’s about the people, the human beings living their lives. Some days they’re happy. Other days they’re depressed, stressed, sleep deprived, or feeling ill. Their marriage might be failing, or they may be planning a wedding. The point is the challenges they face in their personal lives impact their performance at work.

The old saying used to be “Don’t bring your personal life into work with you.” Sure, it sounds easy. Like there’s a mystical force field when we cross the threshold into our workplace and we magically forget that our father is dying and we need to find a hospice facility, or we must arrange a carpool because school gets out early on Friday at the same time as our team’s year-end presentation.

The 2024 State of Workplace Empathy from Businessolver found that 83% of employees, HR professionals, and CEOs agree that empathy is undervalued by U.S. organizations.

The study also found that every segment surveyed values empathy and sees it as crucial for driving performance outcomes. Employees, HR professionals, and CEOs largely agree on the top four benefits of being an empathetic organization: improved job satisfaction, employee motivation, productivity, and a positive workplace culture. The most significant difference among these groups is in the fifth benefit, where CEOs are more likely to recognize the link between empathy and the external advantages it can provide for the organization.

We have valid business reasons to focus on this challenge. Employees want it. Business leaders agree it helps their bottom line. So, what can employers do?

Ways to Improve Social Awareness Skills and Empathy in the Workplace

For employees to excel in their roles, they perform at their best. Employers care about their employees’ physical and emotional well-being, but they can’t control their personal lives. However, leaders can promote social awareness skills and empathy. One effective way to do this is by demonstrating empathy themselves, and another is to encourage employees to develop empathy with one another.

#1: Demonstrate Empathy as an Employer

Provide Ongoing Training: As an employer, it’s essential to understand each employee and their professional goals. By providing training that enhances hard and soft skills, including emotional skills—which can be developed, leaders can boost productivity and efficiency in the organization. The employee benefits by gaining self-confidence, relieving stress, and getting a chance to be promoted, contribute more, and increase their salary. Effective professional skills development training is an ongoing process that requires continuous engagement, regular feedback, and adaptability to meet the evolving needs of both employees and the organization.

Offer Health and Wellness Training: Many employers recognize that prioritizing the health and wellness of their employees can lower healthcare costs and boost productivity. By offering topics like ergonomics, stress management, and deskercises, leaders can help employees feel better and foster a perception of empathy within the organization. The same principle applies to financial wellness courses. Teaching employees how to budget, manage debt, and build savings can significantly alleviate stressful situations and enhance their well-being.

Create Empathetic HR Policies: Another effective way to cultivate empathy in the workplace is to implement policies that acknowledge and support the personal challenges employees may encounter. This includes provisions for the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), as well as maternity and paternity leave. By implementing policies that reflect our own emotions and experiences, leaders can better support employees facing personal challenges and foster a culture of understanding. Generous bereavement, personal, and sick leave policies that extend beyond standard vacation days can also make a significant difference. Additionally, providing training on anti-harassment and discrimination policies reinforces a culture of understanding and respect.

#2: Encourage Employees to Develop Empathy Among One Another

Training and More Training: Training can definitely play a significant role in building workplace empathy and helping employees understand the situations their team members may be dealing with.

• To improve multi-generational, interpersonal relationships, offer courses such as those HSI Blue Ocean Brain offers: “A Workplace for All Ages,” “Capitalizing on Generational Strengths” and “Another Year Older, Disrupting Age Bias at Work.” Enjoy one of our content-based lessons FREE!

• Curricula on cross-cultural intelligence and unconscious bias address the concepts and importance of racial diversity in the workplace. Training also covers everything from recognizing unconscious biases to the legal consequences and all related topics in between.

• Nonverbal communication training helps employees interpret body language and recognize the emotions of others. For example, crossed arms and a lowered head may indicate that a coworker is upset or disengaged. Additionally, facial expressions can convey significant feelings, allowing employees to respond more effectively to their colleagues' needs. Close attention techniques are essential for fostering empathy in conversations.

Address Universal Needs: Some training can help all employees enhance their social skills and empathetic behaviors.

• Active listening courses teach participants how to give their full attention to speakers, fostering genuine understanding and connection. The trainings emphasize not only the importance of hearing the words being spoken but also observing nonverbal cues, such as body language and facial expressions. By mastering these skills, individuals can enhance communication and build stronger relationships.

• A training series on cross-cultural considerations can create a supportive environment where individuals from diverse backgrounds can thrive. These courses help clarify cultural differences in communication style and point of view, teaching coworkers to be open to different perspectives.

• Helping employees find purpose will connect their daily tasks to a higher vision. Sharing these goals with coworkers fosters open communication, builds rapport, and creates deeper connections among team members. Training on this topic could include lessons such as HSI Blue Ocean Brain’s content-based course “Boosting Your Professional Development” with supporting articles “Driving Career Development with Growth” and “Goal-Setting in Wonderland.”

Support Personal Problems and Challenges: Everyone has unique needs, idiosyncrasies, and preferences. Many training programs focus on bigger topics like HR compliance and leadership skills. It can be difficult and expensive to offer training related to the needs of a single person or a small group of people. Instead, five-to-eleven-minute long microlearning videos can cover these unique needs and quickly support an employee during challenging times. Examples include:

• Supporting a Coworker After the Loss of a Loved One: HSI’s online courses offer guidance on coping with grief and how to show compassion to their grieving team member.

• Preparing for Maternity Leave: HSI’s video-based courses provide insights and tips to streamline the maternity leave process for expecting mothers.

• Understanding Addiction Disorders: HSI’s online courses educate employees and managers about the warning signs of addiction, offering support for those dealing with these issues in their personal lives or among coworkers.

HSI Can Help

HSI offers a comprehensive online learning experience that caters to diverse learning styles and preferences. We offer a multi-modal approach for every learner. HSI’s video-based microlearning provides engaging visual content that captures attention and facilitates comprehension. Alternatively, HSI Blue Ocean Brain's microlearning offers bite-sized, interactive lessons reinforcing key concepts and promoting long-term retention. Together, these approaches create a synergy that maximizes culture change and empowers employees to achieve their professional development goals in the flow of work.

Schedule a consultation today and start improving social awareness skills and empathy in your workplace.

Additional Resources

• Embracing Workplace Diversity
• How to Develop Empathy in Leadership
• Competency Based Learning: Values Differences
• HSI Social Awareness and Workplace Empathy Training Videos