Caring , High-trust leadership, Leadership & Management
Caring 鈥� one of the nine high-trust leadership behaviors 鈥� happens when leaders take time to learn about employees鈥� lives beyond the workplace and invest in their success.
Whether or not he ever actually said it, Theodore Roosevelt鈥檚 apocryphal quote still applies to today鈥檚 workplace: 鈥淣obody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.鈥�
When leaders demonstrate a high level of care, it unlocks employee performance.
鈥淧eople care about their work when they experience being cared for,鈥� says Michael C. Bush, CEO of 逸遊娛樂城庐. 鈥淭hat shows up when you take time to understand and listen to people鈥檚 experiences, inside and outside of work.鈥�
One of the nine high-trust leadership behaviors, caring is a signal to employees that leaders are invested in their lives and well-being, not just their performance on the job.
It鈥檚 not enough to want everyone in the organization to achieve professional success and earn accolades for their work. Do you also care about what it cost them to deliver that success?
Leaders that demonstrate a high level of care for employees ask questions about workload and work-life balance. They are focused on creating inclusive and welcoming environments where everyone can have a sense they belong. They prioritize employee well-being and take the time to learn about each individual employee鈥檚 goals and needs.
In this way, leaders might rewrite Roosevelt鈥檚 aphorism: The more you know about someone, the more you will care about them.
Here鈥檚 how great workplaces strive to ensure employees have managers who lead with empathy and build inclusive environments where everyone can succeed:
1. Offer flexibility for employees navigating complex lives outside of work
逸遊娛樂城 research has found that when employees can choose where they work, they are:
- Three times more likely to want to stay at the company
- 14 times less likely to 鈥渜uit and stay鈥�
That doesn鈥檛 mean that every workplace builds a better culture when employees can work from home. Instead, the data highlights the value employees put on flexibility.
There are many ways to offer flexibility to employees. PCL Construction offers rotating weekend project schedules to allow workers to flex their time and participate in important family activities.
Sheetz, a convenience store chain, revamped schedules to ensure full-time management employees have a consistent schedule with two back-to-back days off and flexibility around when they start or finish a shift.
Great workplaces also ensure that when life events occur, employees have the space they need. At Baird, the company makes exceptions to its policies to meet the individual needs of an employee, whether that is offering three months of paid leave to an associate who lost a spouse, or offering four weeks of paid time off to an associate to care for family members with acute medical needs.
In the U.S., there isn鈥檛 a federal bereavement leave policy, with the average HR policy offering , No. 1 on the 2024 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For庐 List, has made investments in supporting caregivers. After estimating that 80% of its workforce is impacted by caregiving responsibilities, the hotel chain launched a resource hub to connect employees with information and tools. It also partnered with 鈥� looking to see if everyone regardless of role or background has the opportunity to grow and the ability to thrive.
Employee resource groups (ERGs) can be vital tools for building belonging and trust in the workplace. What really unlocks their power is ensuring that affinity groups have clear business goals, rather than getting sidelined as a networking group.
At Cadence, that meant asking women from its operations all over the world to come together and share ideas to improve business operations.
鈥淲e want to empower the women at Cadence to have a serious voice on policies, development, mentorship, and things that are business critical so we can hopefully move those areas in a way we wouldn鈥檛 be able to do without their voice,鈥� Tina Jones, SVP of global human resources at Cadence shared on the 鈥淏etter鈥� podcast.
To understand the barriers that are preventing some employees from having a great experience, start with your data. Even better, disaggregate your data to get the full picture of how different experiences and backgrounds can intersect to create inequality for your workforce.
鈥淣one of us are one thing,鈥� Brian K. Reaves, chief belonging, equity, and impact officer at UKG shared at the For All Summit鈩� in 2024. 鈥淭he multiple layers of who we are sometimes leads to different outcomes for certain people than others.鈥�
An example of this in practice is how Intuit developed its Trans+ Summit to support transgender and nonbinary employees in the workplace.
鈥淏y regularly checking in with our trans and nonbinary colleagues, we can make any necessary changes to ensure that they feel valued and supported in their work,鈥� says Cecilia Persson-Ramos, DEI employee resource group leader at Intuit.
3. Invest in employee well-being
When employees don鈥檛 experience well-being 鈥� either from burnout, loneliness, or other factors 鈥� they won鈥檛 feel that leaders care about them.
A commitment to well-being requires companies to invest in leadership training and development. Research from UKG found that , managers also receive a toolkit with tips on how to effectively listen and respond to the needs of employees on their teams as part of its 鈥淪afe to Talk鈥� program, which supports Cisco employees in navigating mental health issues at work.
Great workplaces also consider how overlooked or hidden health issues can create a poor experience for employees. AbbVie has made a goal to create a migraine-friendly workplace after identifying migraines as the second-most common disability condition in the world. To support employees who suffer from migraines, the global health tech company has launched . When companies truly care about employees, they also think about their families and the communities they live in.
At Nationwide, leaders learned that associates were increasingly concerned about the mental well-being of their children, with data showing that , a set of resources created by behavioral experts at Nationwide Children鈥檚 Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Nationwide associates were instrumental in developing and piloting the program, which was launched to external users in 2023.
At Sephora, digging into the results of its 鈥淩acial Bias in Retail鈥� study revealed the need for broader action. After commissioning the study in 2019, the cosmetics company launched , only 3% of its total carbon emissions comes from its own operations. Its supply chain is responsible for 31% and a whopping 66% is generated when customers use HPE鈥檚 products.
To make real change, HPE鈥檚 employees play a crucial role in educating customers and solving problems creatively. The company has tasked employees with not only thinking about sustainability within HPE, but also driving higher standards and better practices among consumers who use the company鈥檚 products.
Sales and pre-sales teams can earn a 鈥渟ustainability badge鈥� and serve as crucial conduits, ensuring that customers can use sustainability best practices through the entire customers lifecycle.
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