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David Liddle, President of the People and Culture Association, isn’t mincing his words around. “The moment HR rejected tea and sympathy and moved to the Ulrich model was one of the biggest mistakes it ever made,” he says. “That was the moment in time where HR lost it humanity, and it was the start of the decline of HR.”
Liddle – author of upcoming book ‘ People and Culture’ (which describes a new People and Culture Operating Model that has empathetic leadership at its core), is reflecting on new research that attempts to count the cost of organisations ‘not’ having empathy. The US-centred report – ‘The State of Workplace Empathy’ – argues ‘unempathetic organisations’ (it claims 27% of all businesses are), create a cost to the economy of more than $180 billion per year. According to the research, the ‘cost’ comes in the form of toxicity (unempathetic organisations are three times more toxic than those that are not); associated mental health issues; a 1.5 times increased likelihood of staff to quit, and lost productivity. Overall it claims 51% of staff at unempathetic companies would take a pay cut just to move to a more empathetic one. And yes, Liddle totally gets it.
“At a time of increasing automation and AI, the one thing companies will need is trust and the power of human connection,” he says. “Empathy is at the heart of all this – for removing tensions, creating more thoughtful conversations and even innovation. Not having it is what causes disconnect.”
Do we need ‘Chief Empathy Officers?’
NO: Charlie O’Brien, Head of People at Breathe HR:
“It’s understandable why HR professionals might shy away from showing more empathy or being “Chief Empathy Officers.” There’s a fear that this could revive the harmful 'tea and tampons' stereotype: the idea that HRs hand out tissues rather than strategic solutions in a crisis. It’s something we’ve long fought to bury, and has led to some HRs being undervalued by leaders and lacking the authority and resources needed to create genuine impact within the organisation. However, showing empathy won’t undermine HR’s role as strategic leaders if done in the right way. HR practitioners who use empathy to better understand employees' wants and needs will develop more effective policies and make smarter decisions to drive productivity, innovation and retention. When they leverage empathy to ensure employees feel seen, heard and supported in one-to-one settings, it helps foster loyalty and creates a people-first culture that staff want to be a part of. This is using empathy strategically. HR teams who harness it in this way will create the best possible environment for their people and the business to thrive long term, while reinforcing their role as a strategic, impactful force within the organisation.”
NO: Gina Battye, the founder and CEO of the Psychological Safety Institute:
“Businesses absolutely need more empathy. But this isn’t about HR becoming the ‘empathy police.’ It’s about everyone taking responsibility for how they show up; how they listen, communicate and connect with each other. Empathy isn’t fluffy. It’s human. It’s the foundation of a strong, healthy culture. When people lead with kindness, care and genuine connection, psychological safety naturally follows. And when people feel safe, confident and comfortable to be themselves, performance takes care of itself. At the Psychological Safety Institute, we see that when empathy is present, people feel confident and comfortable expressing their authentic selves and engaging openly with others, even when conversations are challenging. That’s when trust deepens, communication strengthens and collaboration grows. It’s in those genuine, human moments that teams become curious, creative and resilient, and where real transformation begins. The most successful organisations don’t treat empathy as an initiative or a campaign. They weave it into how they work, talk and make decisions. Empathy isn’t HR’s job alone. It’s everyone’s. Every interaction, every conversation, every decision; that’s where empathy lives and that’s how psychological safety truly comes to life.”
When put like this, the need for more ’empathy’ being demonstrated at work is a compelling argument. But as Liddle himself also admits, ‘empathy’ is also one of those achingly ‘soft’ HR attributes, and it’s the warm and cuddly persona of yesteryear that HR professionals have long been at pains to leave behind and replace with something far more strategic and hard-nosed. Quite rightly perhaps, notions that HR needs to demonstrate more ‘empathy’ could be seen as a turning back of the clock – something that HR needs to fight the urge to resist.
