Practical Examples of Empathy in the Workplace

When you go to work, you bring your whole self with you — not just the part of you that's an employee. From your hopes and fears to your background, values and level of experience, there’s often more than meets the eye.

Just as you might be empathetic to a friend or family member’s situation, you can offer empathy to a colleague in the workplace.

What is Empathy in a Workplace Setting?

It's all about using emotional intelligence to recognize and relate to what your colleagues may be feeling, allowing you to respond with awareness and compassion.

“Empathy is when you feel and understand someone’s feelings, attitudes and experiences,” said Dr. Sophia Koustas, an associate professor of business administration and management in the School of Business at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). “It is the understanding of other’s experiences with everyday life events.”

The keyword “understand” is what sets empathy apart from sympathy. “Sympathy is related to feeling sorry for another person’s grief and troubles,” said Koustas.

Koustas has nearly two decades of leadership experience in different sectors and a PhD in Business Administration with a specialization in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. She's presented on empathy before and has a professional interest in teams, human relations, culture and artificial intelligence, among other topics.

“I try to practice empathy in my professional and personal life because I believe that it can help improve communication, relationships and processes,” she said.

What is an Example of Empathy in the Workplace? 

If you’re wondering what empathy in action looks like at work, here are two scenarios you might encounter and strategies for approaching them with empathy.

Example 1: The New Hire

If you’ve held a job, you probably know what it’s like to be the new person on a team. Whether it was a recent experience or many years ago, think back to what it felt like.

“A new employee is still adjusting to the company culture, systems and processes,” Koustas said. “They make a few mistakes during their first few weeks but are clearly trying to learn and improve.”

While this training period can feel frustrating, Koustas noted several ways you can practice empathy with your new colleague:

• Be patient with them.
• Check in regularly to offer support and reassurance and answer questions.
• Make sure they feel comfortable asking for help.
• Offer kind and constructive feedback.
• Provide guidance.

Example 2: The Grieving Colleague

You might know what it feels like to lose a loved one. If one of your team members is grieving, there are a number of ways you can express empathy and show compassion.

“Rather than simply acknowledging the loss and moving on, the coworkers and manager/supervisor can express genuine concern and offer support,” Koustas said.

To support your colleague, Koustas said you might:

• Allow them to take time off to grieve and provide flexibility in their work schedule.
• Check in with the colleague on an ongoing basis.
• Find alternative solutions and assistance with projects that have deadlines.
• Offer help with smaller tasks to ease the emotional load at work.
• Respect the internal processes the colleague is going through.

Why Empathy is an Important Characteristic to Have as an Employee 

Outside of helping professions in health and wellness, education and social services, for instance, the use of empathy in professional settings hasn't always been emphasized.

“Being empathetic in the workplace sometimes may be perceived as being too ‘soft,’” Koustas said. But in recent years, she’s noticed a shift in which it’s become more accepted to be empathetic at work — and more employers are finding it essential to their workplaces.

According to The Future of Jobs Report 2025 by the World Economic Forum, 50% of surveyed employers consider empathy and active listening among their workforce's core skills. And 95% believed the need for empathy and active listening skills to either remain stable or increase between 2025 and 2030.

As a result of this growing importance, some organizations are embracing empathy in bigger ways. “Brands have also incorporated empathy in their branding and product design to create a relationship and bond with their customers in addition to their employees by incorporating empathetic policies,” Koustas said. Those policies may include additional health plans and the ability to use flex-time, among other benefits, she said. 

She noted that leaders, especially, have an opportunity to create an empathetic organizational culture. “Ideally, empathy should be demonstrated top-down in the organizational hierarchy,” she said. “This will certainly show in both the employees at an internal level, but also with respect to the relationship between the employee and customer.”

And when leaders embrace empathy, it can prove transformational and enhance engagement, which ultimately improves team performance and fosters trust in leadership, according to Koustas.

Because empathy in the workplace is here to stay, it's an important skill to practice — and it might take time for it to feel natural in use. “Empathy is neither a downloadable program nor a certification program,” Koustas said. “Empathy is a lifelong journey of improving ourselves.” 

So, How Do You Show Empathy Professionally?

Here are eight ways you can make empathy a part of your approach to work, according to Koustas:

1. Establish rapport with colleagues.
2. See a situation in terms of how others feel without getting so emotionally invested.
3. Be objective.
4. Show reasonable concern and support for colleagues to help them perform and grow.
5. Practice active listening without interrupting and reflective listening by paraphrasing.
6. Use appropriate non-verbal cues.
7. Avoid quick judgment.
8. Validate the other perspective, not necessarily agreeing but showing you understand where they are coming from.

It’s necessary to strike a balance between having empathy and protecting your well-being — and in a way that you’re still achieving organizational results, Koustas noted.

“Empathy can be incorporated in our daily professional and personal lives in many different ways,” she said. “It is an ongoing process.”

Rebecca LeBoeuf Blanchette is a writer at Southern New Hampshire University, where she fulfills her love of learning daily through conversations with professionals across a range of fields. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Communication with a minor in Professional Writing from SNHU’s campus in Manchester, New Hampshire, and followed her love of storytelling into the online Master of Arts in English and Creative Writing at SNHU. Connect with her on LinkedIn.