Empathy is an important skill that is at times overlooked yet nurtures success in an organisation. It is imperative for employees to put themselves in their colleagues’ shoes, and imagine or comprehend how they feel.

Empathy is the awareness of the feelings and emotions of other people or the ability to perceive and relate to the thoughts, emotions, or experience of others.

People with high levels of empathy are skilled at understanding a situation from another person’s viewpoint and respond with sympathy.

Working in an environment with empathic people makes the work a happy, interesting and learning place. This is because they don’t sit on their wisdom or understanding, but rather offer help and training to their co-workers so as to reach their full potential.

Employees with the soft skill of empathy applaud and celebrate their colleagues when they win, get better at a skill or task, and provide any assistance or beneficial feedback that would help others grow. They also work towards gratifying customers’ needs, to improve their loyalty and satisfaction.

Empathy allows employees to efficiently communicate with both colleagues and managers. Experts emphasise that there are three pillars of organisational empathy, which include, listening, openness, and understanding.

Emmauel Mugabi, an IT expert, is of the view that some employees are so busy focusing on self-improvement and handling their tasks to submit them in time, thus forgetting the virtue or skill of stretching kindness to others. For him, sometimes empathy is all about noticing that a colleague is encountering a problem either work-related or personal, and being able to provide assistance.

"For example, if it’s about excessive workload that is weighing them down, help them with some of their tasks to allow them to breathe and push the pressure aside. Burn out is a serious issue worldwide that needs to be curbed yet some employees suffer from it and its consequences, for fear of losing their jobs in case they complain,” he states.

Mugabi points out that empathetic managers encourage innovative thinking as they allow their subordinates to craft new ideas that they think would best work in favor of customers, by doing so, they are empowered to work excessively for the good of the company.

He carries on that such employees take the company as theirs and reach out to customers to know their needs and seek means to provide the best products and services, and in case of problems, they solve them, thus saving the company any future losses.

Mugabi explains that customer satisfaction is essential to the fruitfulness of any organisation, research suggests human interaction is the primary way people judge service quality, and these interactions shape an organisation’s reputation.

Mugabi notes that valuing others’ opinions and views makes you a great team player, as that way, the team can have diverse ways of creating ideas, and handling challenges, which isn’t the case when the whole group is against each other’s ideas and perspectives.

Experts state that if added on your resume, empathy is a skill that shows recruiters that you’re a strong communicator, thus perhaps having a higher chance to acquire a job, that’s if the company values the skill as well.

"How often do you hear your colleagues ask how your weekend was on a Monday morning, or if you’re fine, or are excited to see you after your annual or sick leave? If your response is positive, then you’re lucky to have empathetic co-workers,” says Rebecca Wasen, an entrepreneur.

She carries on that empathetic people inquire to know how others are doing, and provide a listening ear to allow them to elaborate their responses—kindness enables creating bonds and lasting work relationships, thus enjoying a positive work environment.

Wasen explains that empathy should be encouraged in the workplace just like the other skills, a thing that would enhance workers’ performance. But research shows that understanding, caring, and developing others is important in today’s workforce.

She calls upon managers to be good listeners to allow workers to express their thoughts and concerns and also feel heard, as this will develop trust within the team when employees feel respected.