Poor support after a loss can affect performance, customer experience, and retention. Three steps can help employers respond better.
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An employee’s dad died on Monday. She’s back at her desk on Friday. The funeral was yesterday. There are still people at her house. There are unread texts and voicemails from friends, the bank, hospice, a credit card company, and a neighbor asking to get a tool back that he let her dad borrow a few months ago.
But she’s back in her seat because that’s all your bereavement policy allows: three days for the loss of a parent. So there she sits, staring at the wall. Wondering what it all means. This job that she’s poured her life into. Her dad’s last words. And how she’s going to get through the mountains of work that need to be done in the coming months, mostly during work hours.
Most leaders see moments like this as something too personal to affect the workplace. Empathy and compassion don’t show up on a profit and loss statement, so there can’t be a return, right?
They’re wrong. And it’s costing them.
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But there are plenty of leaders who are starting to get it. They are starting to understand that death shows up in the top line. It shows up in the bottom line. It shows up in the CSAT. And the NPS. When your employee is a bit short with a customer. Or when emails take longer. Your customers feel it, but they’ll never know why.
Failing to show up with empathy in the hardest times of an employee’s life have massive implications on company culture, but it also opens up your company to absenteeism, lower quality of work, and turnover. And those are expensive.
A few stats for you to take back to your team: