Page 47 - Demo

: And can you share additional examples of how you are showing empathy to others, whether that’s in an organizational way for different groups of employees or whether that’s to individual team members?
: What comes to mind are the many people dealing with their entire families now being thrust back into the home. There are kids in one room going to school, and there’s a husband in another makeshift work environment. Then there’s a wife who works for me, who is dealing with all of that. I have to recognize it and tell her, “I can’t imagine the amount of stress you’re under to have to deal with everything that you do for me on top of everything at home.” That’s almost become just a natural message now. When people need a break, I let them know, “I need you to de-stress yourself. Take a day off or stop at two o’clock or stop at three o’clock.”
Something that’s a little more tangible is that I have had employees that have gotten COVID and have had to deal with that. I always make a point to reach out to them and say, “I know you’re not feeling well, so how ARE you feeling? Let’s talk about it.” Once you let them know you’re thinking about them and you show that you care through your words, that helps keep them going and lifted up.
I’ve also had employees whose relatives have died because of COVID. It’s just so important to reach out and let them know that you’re thinking about them. You can’t imagine what grief that must cause, and there is the whole aspect of not being able to have a typical funeral. They can’t mourn the same way and, logistically, they’re going to need more time to deal with it.
I never thought I’d have to deal with those things, but they’re here and you’ve got to deal with them and get yourself prepared to respond the right way.
: Has empathy become more important in this time of the pandemic, increased social awareness, the election, etc.?
: Well, I think there’s a growing expectation that people who have both their tangible and emotional needs met are probably going to be in a better place if you’re dealing with them directly. We’re even looking at the potential to measure this on an empathy index when we interact with our customers. There’s not a lot of work that’s been done in that space, but we’re trying to figure out through our current ways of serving people if there is a way that we can build something that tells an employee they’re at “X” percentage or a “.89” in terms of how they show empathy to people. Our expectations are growing as an organization, and I always want to just bring it back to the fact that we’ve always been counted on
to do that. When somebody’s house floats away, we have to be at the top of our game around that. Now, with heightened awareness, I’m almost starting to develop a top talk track of, “We have to be perfect.” So, that’s one aspect.
The other aspect is that as we automate some of our work, our touch points with the customers decrease. That will probably lead to more conflict, because if a claim is going through the system in an automated way without a problem,
46