How many of us would describe the organisation where we work as compassionate? Is this a characteristic you recognise? And why indeed does this matter? Throughout Covid-19 many of us have been looking for supportive interventions from our employers to manage this dramatic change in our lives, suggesting it really does matter.

Compassion in organisations has been researched for over 20 years and it is no surprise that we see the word used more readily through Covid-19. My curiosity in compassion arose when I was researching coaching and the impact on work of stress at home. How an employee who was suffering at home was treated in work varied dramatically.

And now we all face the unifying and long-lasting stressful life event of Covid-19. We have witnessed instances of great compassion, from the highly visible - organisations redeploying resources to build respirators, restauranteurs cooking for NHS workers, Marcus Rashford campaigning to retain funding for free school meals over summer, to a myriad of examples we could all cite on our doorsteps and households.

So has the pandemic provided us with the permission to be compassionate, individually and collectively, and openly, and are we experiencing that compassion at work? To determine this, we can refer to academics and compassion researchers, Dutton and Worline. They describe compassion in organisations in 4 stages.

1. Noticing that suffering is present in an organisation

2. Making meaning of suffering in a way that contributes to a desire to alleviate it

3. Feeling empathetic concern

4. Taking action to alleviate

From my own observation, it is the last step that is often missing. Take a look at company websites and you’ll see the intention to treat employees fairly and thoughtfully, but when suffering is present (and this is key according to Dutton and Worline, as compassion is a response to suffering) can we honestly say this is what all employees experience?

Again, it varies wildly. I think back to an interview I conducted with an employee who faced chronic illness. She shared the positive story of how her employers were fully supportive of her contribution; they didn’t judge her for the variability in her attendance due to her condition and accepted her work would be delivered in a way which was unique to her capability and capacity - ‘you do you’ was how they expressed this. However, a different interviewee, a victim of domestic abuse recounted feeling bullied by her line manager. Further, a single mother was working in a business where the leadership voiced how they would support all family circumstances through the pandemic. She consistently hit performance targets, and had great customer and team feedback, yet was moved off a major project during lockdown, in part due to her inability to attend every call whilst her family was at home.

Such cases can be complex, and the issue of performance raises its head. However, these more challenging examples occur, despite organisations publicly expressing their values of support and inclusion. This mismatch between the best of organisational intentions and the experience of employees is all too common.

Compassion gets lost in translation.

So how do organisations embed compassion, beyond the intention of communications and beyond individual acts? The answer according to Dutton and Worline is in creating “structures and processes that facilitate expression and action on compassion.”

These organisational structures and processes for expression and action should be flexible enough to allow employees to seek and receive support in a way that they can manage. Consider the unique response that employees have when experiencing bereavement; one size does not fit all. Flexibility and a having range of interventions enables employees to disclose their challenges, with whom and where they need, publicly and privately, and to take appropriate action (which is sometimes no action at all).

Being open, whether privately or publicly, about stress at home is easier said than done. Research shines a light on cultures of silence in the workplace around discomfort, with studies noting how, in many cases, the bathroom is one of the few places, on an individual level, employees can express emotion. The driver for this varies, from personal boundaries around talking about problems, to a fear of the stigma of unreliability as a stressful home life impacts, or appears to impact, performance. Of course, with many of us working from home, you could surmise that step 1 – noticing the suffering in an organisation - is a greater challenge virtually, and if unnoticed, steps 2 – 4 don’t follow.

Even with structure and processes for expression and action in place, do leaders, line managers and employees have the freedom to act? Does the culture support and allow managers to live the corporate values of fairness and inclusion, in order to achieve Dutton and Worline’s 4 stages? Are they willing and able to slow down and pay attention, and listen, and listen some more, and then take action?

Making compassion a part of the daily conversation throughout the employee lifecycle is key; from recruitment and induction, through development, objective setting, daily interactions, recognition and reward to exiting.

With this compassionate stance comes energy and purpose to act to relieve suffering. Equally comes an acceptance that sometimes the achievement-focused can-do attitude will be interchanged with ‘today I can’t do’.

Many writers highlight the business benefit of focusing on compassion, and there is compelling evidence to suggest there are longer-term upsides for the bottom line. However, academics Bachkirova and Borrington urge caution on focusing on ‘well-being’ as a ‘beautiful idea’, as another corporate initiative, without recognising that the conditions of employment and the cultural norms of ‘being well and achieving’ may limit the impact of such interventions. And if the last few months have taught us anything, facing suffering with compassion; with empathy, action, creativity and innovation, has to be worth it, bottom line or not, just because it is.

Options for inclusion via compassion:

Review the suite of options available to support employees during challenging times, from EAP provision, to mentoring, to coaching.
Upskill managers in having compassionate conversations, managing complexity and ambiguity, and normalising topics of discomfort.
Lead by example through an exploration of self-compassion.
Review core structures and processes for expression and action on compassion - such as recruitment, objective setting, team-working, recognition & reward – can employees express their concerns, and can colleagues act to support with compassion?
Consider what additional and innovative touchpoints are required during lockdown to increase spontaneous and deeper conversations, in multiple directions, e.g. with line manager, peers, mentors, skip-level, cross-function, social networks, and so forth.

To learn more about Compassion, Coaching, and Leadership Development, visit http://www.vividfuture.co.uk/ and to get a greater understanding of how to promote Inclusion visit https://www.avenirconsultingservices.com/

References:

Bachkirova, T. and Borrington, S. (2020) “Beautiful ideas that can make us ill: Implications for coaching”, Philosophy of Coaching, An International Journal, 5 (1), pp.9-30. Philosophy of Coaching: An International Journal Vol. 5, No. 1, May 2020, 9-30

Dutton, J. & Worline, M. (2017). Awakening Compassion at Work: The Quiet Power That Elevates People and Organizations. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.