Among the various new trends sweeping the global employment market, quiet quitting is a particularly complex phenomenon. What’s worse, it can often be much harder to detect than traditional resignations. Centralized recruitment models typically include several pre-defined key performance indicators that measure employee performance during a given period.
Motivated and engaged workers usually do their best to satisfy these performance expectations, but disengaged workers exhibit far less effort and attention to detail. Quiet quitting falls in the latter category.
Quiet quitting refers to a type of worker disengagement where employees gradually execute the bare minimum required of them. Because quiet quitting is far harder to detect than active disengagement, workforce managers may not even become aware of the problem until it is too late to address it.
Fortunately, the approaches listed below could offer managers several options to preempt and overcome quiet quitting. Read on to discover more.
Table of Contents
Increases in Tasks and Responsibilities Should be Short-Term
Tasks and responsibilities necessarily increase in the workplace following a vacancy. For example, as a manager exits the workforce, some tasks and responsibilities may need to be handled by the team supervisor.
However, this increase in tasks and responsibilities must not become a permanent addition to the employee’s existing workload, especially as modern innovative talent acquisition strategies make it relatively easy to find a replacement for virtually any business role.
As soon as a suitable replacement is in place, the additional responsibilities must revert back to the manager. In other words, employers need to make it clear that the situation is a temporary or short-term inconvenience; otherwise, employers risk creating an impression of taking employee time and effort for granted. This is especially risky when a long-term increase in workload is not accompanied by a proportionate increase in compensation.
Employees Should Have a Say in Their Career Growth
Promotions, whether vertical or lateral, are commonplace in most businesses. However, employers tend to overlook a key factor: whether the employee actually wants the change in role or not. As a major stakeholder in the decision, employees should have a say in whether they are willing to step up the corporate ladder or accept a different role.
It is important for businesses to recognize that each individual has different career goals and personal ambitions. Promotions or role changes that are not in line with said goals and ambitions can alienate workers and create a situation where they gradually become disengaged.
Compensation Models Should Match Employee Expectations
Inadequate compensation is one of the leading reasons for employee disengagement, including quiet quitting. Where employees are being paid a salary that is incongruent with their responsibilities, they are far less likely to remain motivated to work. Of course, this does not mean that employers need to start overpaying employees, as that creates immediate issues with payroll sustainability.
However, employers must offer a market competitive compensation and benefits package to prevent employee disengagement and quiet quitting.
Workplace Boundaries Need Enforcement on Behalf of Employees
In many workplace cultures, especially in remote working models, the boundaries between work and personal time are frequently blurred. Where this is a rare occurrence, workers may not necessarily experience disengagement. But where the boundaries are not respected as a matter of course, quiet quitting can become a very real risk. And when employees start pushing back against this toxic work environment, there can be an additional risk of friction and deterioration within teams.
Therefore, as a precautionary measure, employers need to enforce these boundaries on behalf of their employees. This will not only ensure a healthy work life balance and help employees remain engaged, but it can also preempt any conflict that can arise as an eventuality of not respecting workplace boundaries.
Employee Mental and Physical Wellbeing Must Remain a Priority
Mental and physical wellbeing is one of the most important factors in a workplace among employees and especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. While physical wellbeing is usually a priority at most workplaces, mental wellbeing still does not get the attention it deserves from employers. The stigma surrounding mental health is also a factor, as employees may not want to let it impact their career growth within the organization.
This creates a situation where employers neglect employee mental wellbeing while employees actively hide mental health issues. Ultimately, this can result in undesirable situations such as worker burnout, anxiety, and stress-related outbursts at work.
The disengagement associated with quiet quitting can also start taking root within the workforce as a result; and while quiet quitting may not create reputational damage, it can cause third parties like a sales staffing agency to keep pace with the frequency of existing employees.
Takeaway
Identifying the subtle signs of disengagement known as quiet quitting can be a complex and difficult process. Instead, employers may find it far easier to simply address certain factors that can contribute to quiet quitting. The approaches listed above are by no means an exhaustive list. But they can still act as starting points that employers can use to build their own strategies to combat quiet quitting and lowered employee engagement in general.
