Do kids care less about people in need these days? A recent study shows a dramatic drop in empathy among college students today compared to 30 years ago.
Seventy-five percent of students today rated themselves lower in empathy than those from 30 years ago.
Worse, a rise in narcissism accompanies the drop in empathy.
The authors of the articles that covered the study (in Time and Scientific American) conjectured why today's kids might be less empathic:

• An increase in social isolation
• Less desire to join groups
• Social media technology precluding the face to face interaction
• A sharp drop in fiction readers

Since we're all born with empathy as a trait, it's clear to me that the environment of the young adults is causing the trait to decline.
If you're a teacher, a parent, or an employer, you've likely seen the decline in empathy in certain individuals first hand.
Does this affect the workplace? You bet:

• More training will be needed to develop relationship building skills, such as communications, customer service, and team-building.
  
• The gap among the generational differences in empathy is likely to cause increased friction and misunderstandings.
  
• Expectations of employees will need to be crystal clear.
  Some things older employees take for granted may not be obvious to younger workers.
  

Here are a few tips I recommend to prepare your workplace for the generational differences in empathy:

• Use hiring tests to assess levels of empathy in candidates, especially when they will have interaction with clients.
  
• Conduct training that will build customer service skills.
  
• Encourage socialization among employees and discourage isolation.
  
• Start a fiction book club.
  
• Reimburse employees who join groups of professional associations and become active on a committee or in an officer role.
  
• Allocate part of the performance review to assess socialization and communication skills so that learning is encouraged and financially rewarded.
  
• Designate workers to be responsible for social activities such as recognizing birthdays, awards, accomplishments, celebrations, holiday events, and competitions.
  
• Encourage volunteering and develop a program that supports employees who donate their time to nonprofit work or philanthropy.
  

Building a supportive environment in the workplace will be key to reversing the trend of declining empathy in young adults.