Compassion is defined as what happens when you notice someone’s pain - your own or another person’s - and want to help make it better. It has three main parts: seeing the suffering, feeling empathy for it, and taking action to offer support.
Ensuring that compassion plays a role in the workplace, organisations need to invest in the skills, the knowledge and the resources to support their employees, not only when a bereavement takes place but also when an individual is faced with a terminal illness in their lives and the impact of caring responsibilities.
Compassion as part of wellbeing
Andrea Clifton, Account Manager for Medequip’s Suffolk depot, recognised the need to implement Compassionate Employer training when one of the depot’s most valued members of staff passed away in 2025. “His death had a significant impact on the whole team,” explained Andrea. “We had all known him for a long time – he had worked in community equipment for over twenty years in Suffolk, which is a long time to spend looking after the people who use our services.”
Andrea reached out to her local hospice, St Elizabeth Hospice in Ipswich, for advice. She was made aware of two schemes designed to help people wanting to learn more about how to support individuals who have suffered bereavement or other life changing events – the Compassionate Workplace scheme and Compassionate Conversations.
The Compassionate Workplace scheme
The Compassionate Workplace scheme educates and informs individuals in how to have an open conversation with colleagues faced with significant changes in their circumstances. “With the support of the hospice, we made the decision to enable all our staff from senior operations upwards, equipping them with the skills to become compassionate leaders,” she explained.
The training involved a visit to the depot from the hospice team, designed to give the staff the confidence to support a colleague following the death of a loved one or other significant life moments. “The focus is all about educating our compassionate leaders to create a working environment where people feel safe to talk and share their feelings,” said Andrea.
Expanding the concept
The training was received very positively, with feedback clearly demonstrating that people felt more equipped and enabled to approach and conduct difficult conversations. “Discussing our experiences at a Medequip regional coproduction meeting, it became evident that others were interested in participating following losses for colleagues at their own depots,” said Andrea.
Andrea responding by facilitating a remote session with St Elizabeth Hospice, bringing together a number of senior operations personnel. As a result, further sessions are planned later this year to extend these important skills to Medequip across the country, focused around achieving a compassionate culture and an open and honest support environment.
“Compassionate Workplace training is focused on helping employers support their workforce when experiencing loss and bereavement and also to give guidance to HR teams around the development of organisational practices and policies. The session is a practical introduction that will help build staff confidence and competency, while supporting better long-term outcomes for businesses.”
- St Elizabeth Hospice