'People don't remember what you do for them, but people remember how you treat them'
In today’s increasingly competitive job market, showing empathy to workers has become increasingly important. And one way of showing that empathy is by offering compassionate leave, according to an expert.
“The root logic that is behind compassionate leave is empathy,” says Prabjeet Singh Anand, CEO, People Central, in talking with HRD Asia.
“What happens in a general lifetime is we would start treating everybody [as] numbers and goals and targets, and we tend to forget this human element.”
Employees across the world have underscored the need for more empathetic leaders as they grapple with stress, burnout, and declining job satisfaction, according to a previous report from Dayforce.
One of the benefits of offering compassionate leave is that it helps employers nip burnout in the bud, says Anand.
If employers force employees to work at a time of grieving, employees could face burnout as they are “not able to deal with the emotion” of having lost a loved one, he says.
“When you set up a compassionate leave [offering], you are looked at as an emotionally intelligent company, because you are emotionally invested in your employees”.
In Singapore, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) does not require companies to provide bereavement leave to their employees.
Employers that offer compassionate leave also win the loyalty and dedication of workers, says Anand.
“People don't remember what you do for them, but people remember how you treat them.”
As an employee who takes advantage of bereavement leave, “when I come back to work, my productivity is high,” he says, “because I was given enough time to take care of my personal needs, and now I'm obligated, in an emotional way, to give back”.
Anand notes that some companies like Google provide workers with 10 days of compassionate leave. However, that may not be ideal for all companies.
“What's relevant to an SME is how practical it is,” he says.
For companies looking to introduce compassionate leave, Anand offered a framework with four bigger categories:
Overall, he suggests that employers provide three to five days of compassionate leave for workers, combined with the flexibility for workers to be able to work from home.
“The idea of compassionate leave – for a lot of people – is just an act of kindness,” says Anand.
“A lot of people are not understanding that it is not an act of kindness. In fact, for an employer, is an opportunity to invest.
“It's an opportunity to invest in your employees, their satisfaction, their retention, their productivity.”
While it may seem like an unnecessary cost for the organisation, offering compassionate leave has many long-term advantages. For example, employees dealing with the death of a family member without the support of management could see a devastating impact on their health such as depression and cardiovascular disease.
Offering paid annual leave for situations like this promotes a productive workplace as it provides appropriate time for employees to properly focus on personal matters without negatively affecting their work and colleagues., according to a previous HRD report.
