Scaling empathy: A human-centric approach to being digital
This chapter is for tech-savvy organizations looking to drive greater efficiency, engagement, and value for all stakeholders.
While technology continues to revolutionize businesses, we're recognizing that true digital transformation must be human-centric. This chapter of The Human-Centric Enterprise, developed by Mercer and Thinkers50, delves into the intersection of technology and humanity in the modern workplace. Here, Jason Averbook navigates the blending lines between B2C and B2B and demonstrates how a culture of empathy can revolutionize the world of work.
Eight practical tips for being digital
This chapter provides ideas for on how to cultivate digital competence, adapt to the constant flux of the business environment and embrace the journey toward a more empathetic, human-centered digital future. Jason offers eight practical tips:
Taking a human-centered approach to digital transformation means organizations must think hard about how to integrate empathy at scale into their digital strategies.
Thinkers50 is delighted to be partnering with Mercer on an e-book, The Human-Centric Enterprise. I'm Stuart Crainer, co-founder of Thinkers50. Today, I'm talking to one of the contributors to the e-book, Jason Averbook. Jason was co-founder of Knowledge Infusion, and then Leapgen.
Now, he's the senior partner and global leader of digital HR strategy with Mercer Leapgen. For this e-book, Jason's contribution is titled, Scaling Empathy, a human-centric approach to being digital. Jason, welcome. Let's start by asking--
Hey, Stuart. Really quickly. I can just say, hey, it's great to be here. Thank you so much for having me. You just want to jump right into the meat. I just want to say hi.
Hi, Jason.
That's a huge part of being human-centered, right? Is we do the personal stuff.
So what is being human-centric enterprise mean to you, then?
Being a human-centered enterprise means not just getting people connected like what we're doing right here, but building connection. So Stuart, making sure that you empathize with people. Making sure that you deliver a personalized message, whether that be humanized or digitized. So for me, Stuart, I'm sitting here on this interview with you wondering what all those pictures are behind you.
Why do I ask that? A, that I'm interested. But B, because I can build a connection with you by understanding you a bit more. Or what that big X is behind you. And for me, the more in work, which mirrors life, that we can think about how do we put the human at the center and make the human feel like there's a deep connection in what we're doing, the better off we'll be.
And this is when I tell you I borrowed the office and there's somebody else's pictures and X. Hey, guess what? The fact that you borrowed the office just shows your creative genius.
No, it is my office, actually. But there's a great line by you saying, "In HR, we've been counting people, not making people count." And which I think is a great line. And it does sum up what's happened in HR over the last 50 years, I think. Perhaps longer.
Stuart, one of the things that's really interesting about this space and for someone that's been in it for a long time, is that organizations and HR organizations still treat people like commodities. And often times, we think about how many headcount do we have? How many staplers do we have? How many laptops do we have? And if you think about that for a second, most organizations know more about their laptop, when they bought it. How much hard disk space it has on it. How much memory it has on it. What websites you visit, than they actually know about their people.
Now, if we think about that and we take it one step further, think about the value of a laptop today. 1,000 pounds? 1,000 euro? 2,000 euro? $1,000? Think about the value of a person, and then to ask yourself that question. Should I know more about my laptop than I do about my people? That's a tragedy.
And in a world where we're running out of people to do jobs, unemployment rates at the lowest they've ever been, for anyone that works in HR, we all need to look in the mirror and say, "Guys, counting people is great. How many head count do I have? Cool. But what does that head count make up? What is the impact that head count can deliver? And how do I make sure I'm optimizing that head count? Has to be the question. So it's not just counting people, it's how do I truly make those people count?
Do you think that's changing?
Every second. Now, Stuart, I say it's changing. And at the same time, you have to realize that we've been doing a lot of-- I mean, I say this every single day, Stuart. That the world changed more between 2020 and 2023 than it changed between 1970 and 2020. OK? So is it changing? Yes. Is it changing fast? Yes. Are we way behind? Yes. So all of those things. So watching snow melt, sorry, I live in a place where there's lots of snow. If it's 40 degrees Fahrenheit, it takes a while.
This change in certain aspects of it, like return to work, return to office, hybrid work. It's 80 degrees Fahrenheit and the snow is melting quickly. Some of these processes that we've been doing in HR forever, it's 35 degrees Fahrenheit and the snow is melting slow.
In the e-book, you write about scaling empathy, which is a great phrase because you'd always assume that empathy is beyond scale. Though I did interview the former FBI hostage negotiator, and he talked about weaponizing empathy. So anything's possible. So can you tell us what you mean by scaling empathy?
So I think that's really important before we start talking about scaling or weaponizing, is to understand what empathy is. And when we think about what empathy is, empathy is basically designing a set of responses, systems, processes, journeys, strategies to put a person at the center. OK? The person at the center is not just a number.
I'll say that again. The person at the center is not just a number. The person at the center has a scruffy beard. The person at the center is dealing with a sandwich generation of having an ill mother, and kids that are graduating from high school at the same time, in my particular situation.
So to be able to understand that, and make sure that the way that I design work meets that person where they are, instead of making them go to a place that's not natural for them, is truly imperative in today's world. So when I say scaling empathy, there aren't enough people, there aren't enough good HR leaders. Nothing against HR leaders, there's just not the headcount.
There's not enough good managers. Once again, not that there's not good managers, it's a headcount thing. And the fact that many of my people are not sitting in front of me anymore. So I can look outside my office door and say, "Hey Jo. Hey Bill, how are you doing today? Hey, I see you got new shoes." I can't do that like I used to do.
So putting that person at the center and realizing that scaling empathy means, I'm combining high touch digital and high touch human in order to make sure that person knows that they're valued by me. They're valued by the company that they work for, and that feels consistent no matter where I am, no matter what my job is, no matter what my persona is. That's scaling empathy.
So you say that scaling empathy requires focus in three areas, culture, technology, and design. Can you explain how that works? Are they all created equal? How does that work?
And by the way, I wouldn't put them in that order. I would say culture, design, and technology. And are they created equal? They're not created equal, but they're very symbiotic. So Stuart, I have a culture that's very important to me. The culture of Leapgen, the company that I started that just became part of Mercer. Our core values, the reason we called it Leapgen, our core values were LEAP. Love, energy, audacity, and proof. That's where the LEAP came from. How do you love what you do, which generates energy to do the audacious and to prove value?
So let's just say that that's the culture that I'm building. Once I've got that culture, the next thing I have to do is I have to take that culture and think about, how do I personalize that to the work that I do? And once I do that, then what's the right technology that I need to do possibly to bring that to life? So how do I check in with you on a daily basis, Stuart, and say, "Did you do something today that's audacious?"
I just can't do that on a personal basis, I need technology to help me with that. OK? So it starts with, what's the culture you're trying to build? Then it's starting to think through, how do I activate that culture? And then third, is there a technology that can help me today, not hinder me? Which by the way very important. Help me, not hinder me in bringing that culture to life.
There's a sense that organizations have failed in the sense that they don't value their people enough, and yet they also don't utilize technology in the right way.
So Stuart, one of the things that a comment on that just really quickly, and I feel very, very strongly about this. And a lot of the work I've done in my two books, and teachings at universities is we put way too much weight on technology, Stuart. Technology doesn't create culture. Technology doesn't create culture. Technology can enable culture. Technology can ignite culture. Technology can kill culture.
But one of the things that we think as buyers, is that if we see a piece of technology, we can just plop it in and say, "Guess what? That's going to change my culture." It would be like I went to the store today and found a vitamin. And that vitamin is going to be the thing that's going to change my marriage, or that vitamins can be the thing that's going to change my relationship with my dog.
The vitamin alone is not going to do that. It might help my mindset, maybe, to be in a better position to do that. But the vitamin alone is not going to do it. And one of the things that we have in our digital era right now, is we get caught up in this shiny object syndrome. I call it SOS, which is basically, "Hey, let's go find a piece of tech that'll put a Band-Aid on our bad culture. Let's go put a piece of tech on top of our bad processes." All it does is show off your bad culture and your bad processes more.
So we're perennially seduced by the smartness of technology rather than its purpose.
We're perennially seduced by the possibility of the technology. I don't want to say smartness, because I inherently don't think technology is smart. We're seduced by the possibilities of what technology could be if we design them right.
So when we think of digital strategy, I mean, there's lots of talk of digital transformation, digital strategies, and so on. What does a great digital strategy look like, or an effective one?
A great digital strategy, Stuart, is a strategy that ties back to, I'll use that term weaponizing, which I think is an interesting term that we used earlier. Actually, I don't like that term. I'll use the term, how do we actually enable the workforce to achieve business goals, organizational goals, and measured outcomes in a way that leveraged digital thinking? OK?
And digital thinking is not just about a piece of technology. Digital thinking means, I'm agile. I'm willing to fail fast. I'm really focused on unlearning and change. I'm really focused on designing for my audience, not for me. I'm really focused on understanding that people don't work in processes, they work through journeys. And people in today's world, it's 2023 outside of work. It needs to feel like 2023 inside of work.
And if I don't think that way in creating my digital strategy, which by the way, there's a big difference between a digital strategy and a technology project plan. A digital strategy is tied to the outcomes that I want digitization efforts to achieve. A technology project plan are the steps I'm going to take to bring technology into my digital equation. And unfortunately, organizations confuse those way too long, which puts the weight on the technology.
Yeah. There's an awful lot of talk about digital transformation. Your heart must sink when people start talking about digital transformation.
Stuart, I mean, really, the prefix trans means radical change. OK? So if you're going to do a digital transformation, that means you are going to radically change how work happens. And in a world today where the world has changed so much between 2020 and 2023, every organization in the world needs to think about how do they radically change work? This is not for debate, OK? This isn't for debate. It's a given. And it's not future of work stuff, it's now of work stuff.
Now, if I take that same prefix of trans, radical change, there's a technology transition and a digital transformation. Technology transition means I'm making a radical change from one technology to another, but still doing things the same way. Digital transformation means I'm changing work, leveraging in technology that ignites that change. And those are two really, really important concepts.
So what gets my blood boiling, back to your question, is when people call a technology implementation digital transformation, OK? And don't change anything. And then all of a sudden, go live with a new piece of technology and say, "This is exactly the same thing we were doing before." All you did is a transition, not a transformation.
How do executives react when you talk about scaling empathy? Is it an idea that's easily communicated and easily understood by them?
It really is. It really is because what they realize is that there's a great empathy gap today between what employers-- excuse me, what employees ask for and what employers can deliver. Good or bad, employees today are needier than ever. And why is that? Because we've made it safe to be human at work.
And by the way, I think that's a great thing. But what it requires, is it requires different management capability. Does someone want to be identified as a they/them? Totally. And is that good? Yes. Does it require a different management skill? Yes.
Someone wants to be able to talk about a mental health issue they're having, which my late father had some mental health issues. He would never be able to talk about that at work. So a manager hearing that without understanding what to do about it, I mean, that's a huge problem. So I have to infuse empathy into my journeys that I build for people, and how I meet them where they work.
So executives know this, Stuart. The opportunity is HR hasn't proven that it can do this, A. And B, is it HR's job? If HR's job is simply hands work, data entry, not heart's work, empathy infusion, guess what? HR is never going to be able to shift up the value chain to the heart's work. And that's a really important concept when we think about this whole world of transformation.
So if you want to reach a stage where people are promoted in organizations for empathy.
We want to reach a stage where people are promoted in organizations based on the ability to consume and act on understanding their people, and making their people feel like that the organization cares.
Are you optimistic that these messages are getting across? And I mean, obviously, the pandemic created a momentum for change but there's lots of talk now encouraging people to go back to work in their offices and work the way they did previously. Are you convinced that the momentum for change is irreversible?
Yes.
So where does it lead?
It leads to work being-- it leads to the concept that I'm human outside of work, I'm human inside of work. We, oftentimes, still manage the workforce, Stuart, I'm human outside of work but guess what? When I go to work, I just work with machines. I'm just a number. And this goes back to the way we started the conversation, with counting people versus making people count. OK?
We live in an era, in a digital era, in a knowledge economy era where 70% to 75% of the expense of an organization is its people. 70% to 75%. That used to not be the case when I used to have to buy huge machines to manufacture, OK? That being said, if I'm spending 70% to 75% of my dollars, my pounds, my euros on people, and I treat them worse than I treat my laptop, that's a shame.
And we live in a world today where the new generation, Gen Z entering the workforce, my kids, maybe your kids, they're not going to deal with that. I watch it every single day. Companies we work with all over the world are losing Gen Z because people enter and they say, "This doesn't feel like a human-based workplace. It feels like a machine." And the more that that's out there, the more we're going to see this churn. And going back to what I said about unemployment, I'm not going to be able to find people if my brand, if my employee experience, and what I'm known for doesn't have empathy at the core.
Scaling empathy, the challenge for our times. Jason, have a book. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Stuart. Great to be here.
This chapter is for tech-savvy organizations looking to drive greater efficiency, engagement, and value for all stakeholders.
Global HR Digital Transformation & AI Leader, Mercer