If you haven’t already heard the term “Quiet quitting”, you’re probably one of the last!
The buzzword, meant to categorize those employees who are intentionally disengaging at the office, has gone viral. Starting on Tik Tok, flying through every other social media platform, and now being discussed in major news outlets across North America, “Quiet quitting” has caught the attention of the labour market.
But all the headlines and heated debates about whether or not quiet quitting is good or bad, warranted or unwarranted are missing the point.
Whatever your opinion on the Gen Z trend may be, if you’re an employer, the point is that:
a) quiet quitting exists, and
b) it exists for a reason.
That’s why our first tip to managing quiet quitters is:
Acknowledge the problem
Mass movements like “quiet quitting” and “coasting culture” don’t magically materialize out the blue. They happen because the underlying sentiments have been building up for a long time.
Contextually, it makes sense. The labour market has just come out of a global pandemic, only to enter an economy facing rapidly rising inflation and a possible recession. It’s not surprising that Canadian workers are burnt out and stressed.
If you’re a manager, the best thing you can do to combat “quiet quitting” is acknowledge what your workforce is going through. Worker disengagement won’t go away, and it certainly won’t get better, by ignoring it.
Whether you’re a manager of three employees or three hundred, transparency is the best policy. Tell your workers that you can see and understand why engagement is falling and that you’re committed to finding a solution.
Ask your workforce what kind of support they need
Adecco recently surveyed 16 countries on the topics of work location, workload & stress evolution, ability to disconnect from work and employer support for wellbeing in order to better understand the perspectives of workers worldwide.
We asked:
Does your current employer offer enough support for your wellbeing?
And here’s what they said:
45% of workers—almost half—believe their employer is not offering enough support for employee wellbeing.
If almost half of your workforce doesn’t feel like their wellbeing is supported, it should really come as no surprise when worker wellbeing declines and results in less motivated, less satisfied workers.
Faced with this data, what are employers to do?
If your employees feel unsupported, try asking them what they need to feel supported! It really can be that simple.
To re-engage disengaged workers, you need to make them feel heard. If you lead a small team, meet with your employees individually to listen to their feedback.
For large organizations, 1-on-1 conversations are not always possible, but anonymous surveys and physical leave-a-comment feedback boxes are! By whatever means works best for your company, find out what support your workers are looking for, and then do your best to provide that.
Listening—really listening—is the first step to transforming your workforce.
Acknowledge “extra” asks
A big part of the quiet quitting trend comes down to the discontentment people feel for consistently working extra hours and completing tasks outside of a person’s job description with seemingly no reward.
As an employer, you can’t expect your team to sustain above-and-beyond, busy-season performance indefinitely. Firing on all cylinders all year round is simply untenable.
Unfortunately, the nature of the business world is such that it’s almost impossible to guarantee a steady, unchanging workload.
In our recent survey of workers, Adecco found that 45% of workers take work home 3 days per week on average and 60% of workers check emails outside of business hours 4 days per week on average.
Inevitably, overtime will happen. There will be times when you need to ask for employees to step up, but the important thing is how, and how often, you do it.
If you have to ask an employee to work overtime or assume responsibilities outside of their typical duties, be clear about the “what” and “why”. For example, if you need someone to clock in over the weekend, make the reasoning, whatever it is, clear. Explain why those hours really matter to the organization and that although it’s necessary, emphasize that it won’t become the norm.
If you want to prevent an employee feeling taken advantage of, it’s important to keep the “extra” asks both infrequent and transparent. By acknowledging that you’re asking for something ”extra”, you’re demonstrating respect for their schedule instead of making extra work feel a given and unappreciated.
Reward employee engagement
Finally, one of the best ways to improve employee engagement is to reward it. Positive reinforcement works!
Let’s say you’ve asked an employee to work evenings a couple times this month. Next month, why not offer that employee the afternoon off a couple times as a “thank you”? Do your best to “balance the scales” and show your appreciation for their extra work. Then, in the future, that employee probably won’t be so disinclined to help you out on the evening shifts again.
Of course, giving time off isn’t always possible. But there’s always some way you can reward staff. Even small rewards, like bringing coffee and donuts into the office, or thanking someone by name in front of the team, can make a big impact to improving worker satisfaction.
How to manage quiet quitters
The truth is that managing quiet quitters isn’t any different from plain-old, regular managing. Listening to your employees, being transparent about your requests and rewarding great performance are all things that fall under good management and aren’t uniquely beneficial for disengaged employees.
“Quiet quitting” may be a new buzzword, but it’s nothing new to the working world. Encouraging employee engagement has been and always will be a key part of retention.
At Adecco, we specialize in helping organizations improve their hiring and retention strategies. If you want to consult with a recruitment expert about retention best practices, click the button below!