How Technology Decision Makers Can Ensure a Happier, Healthier, and More Compassionate Workforce.

In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, we are now at an intersection of technology and compassion that cannot be ignored.

While technology has undoubtedly brought about many positive changes in our lives, it has also contributed to a decline in well-being and mental health. The recent Gallup data exposed that 60% of the global workforce is emotionally detached from work and that 19% feel miserable. From 1974 to 2008, the UK's annual average output was 2.4%, but from 2008 to 2020, it dropped to 0.5%. This is a staggering statistic, especially when we consider the amount of investment that has been made in technology during this time. We are now at a critical juncture in history, as we face a global employee mental health crisis and have incredible new technology, such as AI, that could make a significant difference.

Technology decision-makers have a crucial role to play in ensuring that employees are happier, healthier, and have better mental health. For too long, the investment in technology has not improved our well-being, mental health and ability to act with compassion. This has not been a result of poor decision-making, but more out of circumstance and evolution. We cannot ignore the new crisis and we cannot ignore the power of AI and Automation when it comes to ensuring compassionate business.

Compassion, empathy, and kindness are not just business tools or training courses for HR or people teams. Compassion goes much deeper into the organisation. Compassion should exist in every aspect of business operations, from customer journeys and hiring and onboarding processes to supply chains, transformation, and the entire operating model. Compassion is the new way of business thinking, and it is the business approach that the next generation of companies and leaders will operate from. However, we can’t wait for the next generation, we need to take action now.

Technology leaders have to start thinking differently. ROIs should be expanded to include the positive impacts on employee well-being, mental health and compassion. ROIs from tech spend should also include effects on ESG and, importantly, measure the improvements in human performance. By human performance, we mean how much human time is being given back to people by eradicating non-value-adding tasks from job specifications and duties. Let's remove the ‘S’ in ESG and replace it with ‘C’ for Compassion. Let's now have a new dashboard that is the ‘pulse and heartbeat’ of the organisation: “ECG”.

Imagine if we could measure the positive financial, operational, and satisfaction impact of a hyper-digital worker co-existing with a nurse, customer service, finance, supervisors, and so on, simply by giving back time to people to be who they are: human. This is the power of compassionate business, and technology decision-makers have a pivotal role to play in making this a reality.

With such a heavy burden of responsibility on the shoulders of technology, there needs to be a different leadership style to ensure a more compassionate workforce. One way is from ‘The 10 Traits of Compassionate Leadership’. By leading with compassion, we can create a world where technology and compassion intersect in the most positive way possible.

Are you interested in learning more about Compassion In Business and how you can make a difference to your workplace? If yes, then you should become a Champion of Compassion and join the global movement of like-minded compassionate people. Go to https://www.compassioninbusiness.co.uk/champions to find out more.