As a Workday Wellness Partner, Empathy Delivers Bereavement Benefits and Legacy Planning Seamlessly within the Workday Ecosystem
When an employee loses someone close, the last thing they should have to do is navigate a fragmented system alone. Yet for most people, that's exactly what happens. They log in to their HR platform to file a bereavement leave request, then they're left to manage the rest on their own. The form gets submitted, and the leave gets approved. Yet there is usually no follow-up or personal touch, and the employee is left to figure out the rest on their own: the estate, the paperwork, the logistics, and the grief—all of it, without a clear path forward.
That's not an edge case. It's the default experience for millions of employees every year.
Today, we're taking a meaningful step toward changing this.
We're proud to announce that Empathy is now an official Workday Wellness partner. Read the Business Wire announcement here.
Workday powers HR, benefits, payroll, and finance for some of the world's most recognized organizations — with tens of millions of employees interacting on their platform every day. This partnership means that when one of those employees endures a major life disruption, Empathy will be right there to ease practical and emotional burdens. Inside the system they're already in. At the moment they actually need support — not as a resource to find later, but as an immediate next step built into the platform.
For employers who choose to activate the Workday Wellness and Empathy integration, the employee experience will change meaningfully. Empathy Loss Support™ and Empathy LifeVault™ will be part of the Workday Wellness ecosystem, making it simpler for employers to offer bereavement support and legacy planning benefits, and easier for employees to find and engage with them when it matters most. Less friction on the employer side. More presence on the employee side. And given the scale of organizations that run on Workday, the potential impact, as well as the sheer number of employees, is massive.
Why This Moment Matters
Our 2026 Workplace Benefits Report — the first chapter of our fifth annual Grief Tax research — puts the stakes plainly. 95% of employees value bereavement-related benefits. But those who've actually lived through a major life disruption are over 1.5× more likely to name grief support as their biggest unmet need. 84% of employers plan to expand bereavement support in 2026. And yet 60% of employers and more than half of employees say existing benefits aren't aligned with real-life needs.
The problem isn't intention. It's delivery. Benefits that exist in theory but don't reach people in the actual moment of need aren't really benefits — they're promises. This integration will close that gap. It will turn a benefit that's listed in an enrollment packet into support that shows up when the hard moment does.
For employers who want to do more than check a box, this is where we start.
Learn more about Empathy's workplace benefits solutions here. Get access to the full 2026 Workplace Benefits Report here.