Empathy in the Workplace

Empathy in the Workplace

In this concept project, the SME I collaborated with noted that hostile work environment reports were up by 20% since the previous year. Along with these findings, the SME also noted that there was an increase of unfavorable customer service reviews by 30% with a large percentage of the reviews referencing in some way, a lack of empathy from the customer service team. With this information, the SME and I set the following goals for the learning module:

  • There will be a reduction of hostile work environment reports by 10% in the next 60 days

  • There will be a reduction of unfavorable customer survey responses by 20% in the next 60 days.

Explore how the ADDIE Model influenced the design process below.

The Process

Here is a step by step walkthrough of the design process for this project using the ADDIE model.

  • The SME and I reviewed the hostile work environment claims to identify the common thread behind the reports. We saw that the common thread between the reports was the lack of empathy between colleague to colleague interactions. With the customer service surveys, we found that the majority of the unfavorable reviews cited a lack of empathy in responses from the customer service representatives..

    With this in mind, the SME and I decided that it would be best to design the learning experience around educating learners on the principals and benefits of empathy in the workplace.

  • The SME wants to keep the learning experience focused and concise. With that in mind, we decided to keep the module short to respect the time of the learners.

    Identifying what empathy is and why it necessary in the workplace

    Seeing examples of how to incorporate empathy in to interactions with colleagues and clients

    2 scenarios to practice incorporating empathy

  • Gagne's 9 Events were referenced to provide structure for this learning experience.

    Inform learners of the objective: The learning objective was presented at the beginning of the module to provide a clear goal and direction for the experience.

    Stimulate recall of prior knowledge: Learners were reminded of what empathy is and reminded on how it can benefit workplace interactions.

    Eliciting performance: Learners were given the opportunity to apply the principals of empathy in a colleague to colleague interaction along with a customer interaction.

    Providing feedback: Learners were given feedback based on their responses that provided them with insight on how their response would affect the direction of the interaction.

  • This learning module was posted to the company LMS for workers to learn and practice.

  • The evaluation of how successful would be measured at the end of 60 days when the SME has follow up meetings with both the HR and Customer Service teams.