Empathy has never been more important, and its power for your organization and employees is real.
Beautiful examples of empathy, like Italians singing together from their terraces or New Yorkers cheering for medical workers during nightly shift changes, punctuated challenging days during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The problem is, those displays of kindness and caring aren’t the norm. Research tells us that people are far less empathetic than they were 30 years ago. Yet, while empathy has never been more lacking, it has also never been more important, according to one of the world’s foremost empathy experts.
“Being a psychologist studying empathy today is like being a climatologist studying the polar ice,” says Jamil Zaki, a professor of psychology at Stanford University and author of The War for Kindness: Building Empathy in a Fractured World. “Each year we discover more about how valuable it is, just as it recedes all around us.”
At Quantum Health, we know the power of empathy is extraordinary. In fact, we built our entire business model around the concept. We are an empathy-fueled organization that helps people navigate their healthcare journeys by providing benefits guidance and clinical support. And because we believe so strongly in the power of empathy, we’re partnering with Zaki to further explore its dimensions and possibilities, both in the empathy we offer to the members we serve, and the empathy we show ourselves and each other in the important work we do.
We recently sat down with Zaki to talk about empathy’s potential for organizations and their employees.
Organizations win with empathy
Empathy, Zaki says, is not just identifying with what others feel; it’s also caring about them enough to want to improve their experience and well-being. Why does it matter? The research is conclusive: Empathetic people are happier, attract friends more easily and excel at work. Patients of empathetic doctors experience less depression. Employees of empathetic bosses are less stressed.
“One of the capacities that nature has given us is this natural tendency to connect with one another,” Zaki says. “That capacity is at the heart of so much of what we do, from working together to build suspension bridges to building families to building community. Empathy is one of the abilities that allows us to be who we are.”
Stereotypes often suggest empathy is too soft for the business world. That’s untrue, Zaki says. “It has hard-boiled, clear benefits for business,” he says, “including at the bottom line.”
When leaders express empathy for their people, those people work more efficiently and more effectively. Proof is everywhere, Zaki notes, including around Silicon Valley. One Fortune 50 tech company, for example, was famous for a ruthless culture, he says. They then hired a new CEO who focused leaders on dealing with conflict compassionately. Growth skyrocketed.
Further proof: 83% of employees would consider leaving their current job for a similar role at a more empathetic employer, according to the 2020 State of Workplace Empathy report, an annual survey by BusinessSolver. Its 2021 survey found that 84% of CEOs believe empathy drives better business outcomes.
“When people feel cared for, when they feel understood, they have greater morale, lower stress, lower burnout and greater loyalty to their organizations,” Zaki says. “When leaders bring empathy to their organizations, those organizations win.”
How Quantum Health makes empathy pay off
While doctors and nurses typically demonstrate significant amounts of empathy for their patients, the health benefits system — from coverage to billing — doesn’t. Navigating that system is costly, complicated and frustrating. People deserve an expert guide, a compassionate listener: someone on a mission to eliminate expense, complexity and worry along their way.
Quantum Health is that solution. Bolstered by innovative technology and powered by human caring, our service allows self-insured employers to invest in the kind of empathy they know their employees deserve — and the kind Zaki says can help those organizations thrive.
We combine healthcare navigation with care coordination to champion our members through their healthcare journeys. We are the single point of contact for members’ health benefits needs. Our Care Coordinators — who our members nicknamed Warriors™ — expertly address questions and confusion about benefits coverage; guide members to high-quality, in-network providers; and clear up nerve-wracking billing errors, among other actions both highly empathetic and efficient. Our in-house nurses engage one-on-one with members to provide clinical expertise, emotional support and encouragement, whether those members are recovering from surgery or living with a chronic condition.
Uniquely integrated navigation and care coordination means that when Erika struggled to get the medication her son needed, for example, her Warrior worked until that medication was in Erika’s hands. It means that when Joe lost work hours because of COVID-19, his Warrior negotiated the cost of his diabetes medication so that he didn’t need to choose between health and food. It means that when Jane learned she was battling cancer, her Warrior navigated the journey alongside her until they celebrated her final chemo treatment together.
This investment in empathy is paying off with results for employers and their health plan members. Members’ positive health outcomes are clear: They experience more regular preventive screenings, fewer hospital stays and readmissions, and better quality of life while managing chronic conditions. Plus, our clients realize sustained savings compared with their projected healthcare cost trend — an average of over 5% after one year and over 14% after five.
While doctors and nurses typically demonstrate significant amounts of empathy for their patients, the health benefits system — from coverage to billing — doesn’t. Navigating that system is costly, complicated and frustrating. People deserve an expert guide, a compassionate listener: someone on a mission to eliminate expense, complexity and worry along their way.
Quantum Health is that solution. Bolstered by innovative technology and powered by human caring, our service allows self-insured employers to invest in the kind of empathy they know their employees deserve — and the kind Zaki says can help those organizations thrive.
We combine healthcare navigation with care coordination to champion our members through their healthcare journeys. We are the single point of contact for members’ health benefits needs. Our Care Coordinators — who our members nicknamed Warriors™ — expertly address questions and confusion about benefits coverage; guide members to high-quality, in-network providers; and clear up nerve-wracking billing errors, among other actions both highly empathetic and efficient. Our in-house nurses engage one-on-one with members to provide clinical expertise, emotional support and encouragement, whether those members are recovering from surgery or living with a chronic condition.
Uniquely integrated navigation and care coordination means that when Erika struggled to get the medication her son needed, for example, her Warrior worked until that medication was in Erika’s hands. It means that when Joe lost work hours because of COVID-19, his Warrior negotiated the cost of his diabetes medication so that he didn’t need to choose between health and food. It means that when Jane learned she was battling cancer, her Warrior navigated the journey alongside her until they celebrated her final chemo treatment together.
This investment in empathy is paying off with results for employers and their health plan members. Members’ positive health outcomes are clear: They experience more regular preventive screenings, fewer hospital stays and readmissions, and better quality of life while managing chronic conditions. Plus, our clients realize sustained savings compared with their projected healthcare cost trend — an average of over 5% after one year and over 14% after five.
Humanity when people need it most
Zaki, whose family has battled its own healthcare challenges, is not surprised that Quantum Health’s empathic approach is yielding such positive, measurable outcomes.
When his infant daughter was fighting for her life in the hospital, it was the most difficult time of Zaki’s life. He and his wife struggled daily. And despite having what he describes as incredible hospital care and good health insurance coverage, dealing with health benefits red tape was confounding and labor-intensive at a time they simply wanted to focus on their baby girl.
“It would have been great to have had somebody like Quantum Health,” Zaki says. “Somebody who felt like a partner in the same way the doctors and nurses did.”
It is in the hardest times, he says, that empathy can make the greatest difference. “When I think about the vision that Quantum Health has, or just generally about intentionally inserting empathy into health benefits, I think ‘Wow, this is an opportunity to help people — to be human with people when they need it most.’”
Our Quantum Health team embraces that opportunity daily, whether our members are facing a frightening diagnosis or an erroneous bill they cannot afford. Because being the light in those moments is exactly why we exist.
“Injecting humanity into the healthcare and benefits experience can be like an antidote to what can feel like a ruthless situation,” Zaki says. “And that little bit of kindness and empathy can stay with people for a lifetime.”
Kristen Wheeler, Vice President, Member Engagement and Pod Operations, Quantum Health