Empathy Expansion Kit: The Role of HR in Fostering Empathy

**SPEAKER_2** (0:04)
The Bliss business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection, and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media, and programmatic ad experts.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:16)
Hello and welcome back to the show. In this short Empathy Expansion Kit episode, we are covering the role of HR in fostering empathy. I'm Stephen Sakach here with Tullio Siragusa. Hey, Tullio.

**Tullio Siragusa** (0:31)
Hello. Let's do this.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:34)
yes, sir. HR often starts at the hiring process. I want to cover that briefly. For us, empathy is a really valued skill in the hiring process. Of course, we want to make sure you're technically skilled in whatever the area is we need to help in. But I've seen candidates who are highly skilled, where I just didn't think it was a good cultural fit with us. That made a difference. honestly, that's been rare though. I do feel like most people, when you get down to it, can fit into our culture that we have here. But we do stress a lot of empathy. When you're looking at how to build this empathetic organization, a lot of experts say the number one thing is to hire people with emotional intelligence.
We've tried to do that a bit, but obviously, you're already got people who you've hired probably at your company and you're going to have to make a shift in some things if you want to do that. One of the things too on the hiring process that also wanted to mention is that lately we've got to having the teammates who you're working with do the hiring, and I think that makes the most sense. You're going to need some HR guidelines for them on what can be asked and not asked. But this is really one of those keys to the self-management principles out there is when you've got these self-management teams, it's like, well, the team's going to do the hiring because ultimately, they want to see who fits with them, and I think that's a really good process to probably bring the team empathy into it. But like I said, what about if you've already hired everyone and you're working on building empathy in your organization? I think the future will really be centered around employee wholeness, shifting away from the traditional roles and responsibilities to take a more holistic approach to employee well-being and personal development. What's that look like, Tullio?

**Tullio Siragusa** (2:45)
Well, there's probably two key things, maybe three key things that need to be focused. One is holistic well-being initiatives, and the other one is personal growth and fulfillment. Let's talk about the holistic well-being initiatives. What can a company do? What can an HR team put in motion?
Mental, physical, emotional, and financial health is the goal here. these key elements. HR can play a role in providing support for employees related to their health by giving access to programs and resources for things like stress management, physical fitness, financial literacy, mental health counseling, and even mindfulness. There are a lot of companies that have invested in providing days where you can come in and have a month, meditate, have access to all of these things. And this could also include like fostering and encouraging to do regular mental health days.
There's a sort of defined line of what is a sick day. Well, I don't feel good and you take a sick day. Maybe you have a headache or you're in bed. But what if you're just overwhelmed like I just need a break, I just need to turn it off for a day. So maybe you need a mental health day. And then also giving access to wellness resources, like even on-site therapy or virtual mental health support. And a lot of stress happens around financial issues. So supporting employees with financial planning workshops helps too. And of course, fitness membership. Exercise is a known great way to manage stress. And really, it's about bringing to the foresight the work-life balance challenge, right? Having emphasis on helping employees maintain healthy work-life balance. And this is about recognizing that their productivity and creativity are closely tied to having the time to recharge and pursue non-work passions, right? So one feeds the other. If they're not getting enough time to do the things they love that gives them energy, then they're just kind of going, it feels like a grind. They'll eventually burn out. So HR policies could include things like flexible work schedule, hybrid or fully remote work schedule, and even designated no-meeting days. That's actually pretty creative things like no-meeting days. A lot of people complain how many meetings they have to do. It's stressful. Like you look at your calendar, you have four meetings and I don't feel like talking to anybody today. sometimes you just need a no-meeting day. So mental health day doesn't have to be a completely day off. It could be, I'm having no meetings today, I just want to do my work and not talk to anybody. sometimes that happens. So bringing these things to the fold, creating more holistic well-being initiatives is key. The other thing about personal growth and fulfillment, we mentioned this, is creating more purpose behind the work. This is about aligning what employees love doing with their personal passions and sense of purpose. So it creates opportunities for them to find meaning and fulfillment in what they do. So it could involve offering mentorship programs, coaching, career path planning, and these kinds of support help the employee feel like they have a long-term personal goal that can work towards. They have support towards it. They might even get professional support and development towards it. And this is going to help them build skills, including self-awareness, to achieve those goals. Even if those goals take that employee out of your company someday, that's okay, because in the process of doing that, I have seen tremendous contribution from those employees who are just happy. They're working towards something, and they'll give you 110% because they feel a sense of gratitude for you helping them achieve their ultimate goal. So it's something that pays back big dividends.