The 2020 State of Workplace Empathy Study reveals the importance of empathy at work in a dynamic landscape. The past five years have seen a marked rise in movements seeking to expose injustices in work and political spheres, but in the workplace, employees haven’t seen the call for change adequately reflected.

In 2020, only 48% of employees say employers as a whole are empathetic, compared with 68% of CEOs. And while 68% of employees in 2020 say that their employer is empathetic, that is a 10-point decline over the last two years. It appears that not only are calls for more empathy not being answered at work, but also CEOs may not see a lack of empathy as the significant problem that they have in previous years.

This perceived lack of empathy at work raises important questions:

• How can employers show their commitment to empathy as a practice, with so many new concerns that have surfaced because of current economic upheaval?
• To what extent should leaders consider social and personal values when making benefits decisions that impact employees?
• What changes are needed, and what are leaders already doing that’s working?

In seeking to answer these questions, we turn to one of the most prominent themes in the 2020 study: employees’ desire for values-based benefits.

Today, employees expect more. They want an employer to offer robust, affordable benefits that reflect a commitment to a set of shared values and, in turn, they will be more motivated when that’s the case.

In this white paper, we explore the importance of values-based benefits, backed by data and survey results, showcasing that employees not only value empathy, they experience its expression in large part through their benefits package.