The Quiet Quitting Crisis: How Leaders Can Address it

The recently coined term “quiet quitting” has been working its way around corporate offices and social media alike. Quiet quitting describes employees who do the bare minimum of their job duties and refrain from putting any extra effort into being engaged in their organization’s culture or work. This term is relatively new, with Google Trends showing web searches for “quiet quitting” increasing significantly in August of 2022 (Figure 1). Despite the recent use of this phrase, quiet quitting describes a phenomenon that has been around for years.

Figure 1

Disengaged workers have puzzled leaders and organizations for decades, so why is this phenomenon appearing to impact organizations at an increased level in recent months? One possibility is that layoffs hit a 20-year low earlier this year, providing employees with an increased sense of security in their jobs. Additionally, the staggering amount of job openings reported this year, conveys to employees that if they did get fired or laid off from their current role, there are a number of other opportunities available for them. Thus, quiet quitters can exist at organizations who either can’t afford to lose an employee or are unequipped to identify, address and prevent quiet quitting in their teams.

Can workers be punished when they are doing their job, but not going above and beyond in their role? Gabrielle Christman, President and CEO at Hunter Recruiting explains her perspective, “Quiet quitting, or a lack of striving and withdrawal of emotional engagement is not new in the workplace. However, we are seeing this new trend increase following the COVID-19 pandemic with recent studies showing that quiet quitters are making up at least 50 percent of the U.S. workforce.” Christman continues, “As business leaders, it is our responsibility to understand and address quiet quitting in the workplace by reaffirming our employees’ purpose, connection, accountability and clarity in their roles.”

Here are Christman’s tips for how to address and prevent quiet quitting in the workplace.

1. Hit Reset

When you notice an employee meeting the minimum performance standards, and appearing repeatedly disengaged from meetings, activities and conversations over an extended period of time, you may be noticing signs of a quiet quitter. Start by addressing the situation and having an open conversation about the employee’s lack of engagement. Others agree, for example, Marty Walsh the U.S. Secretary of Labor advises employers, “If you are an employer, you should catch on early enough that your employees aren’t satisfied, aren’t happy, and then there needs to be a dialogue, a conversation.” Having open dialogue can reset the expectations of the individual’s role and the standard of excellence that sets your team apart.

So, as a leader, how do you approach this conversation? Consider mentioning the behavior in your next one-on-one and asking open ended questions about, the employee’s connection to the work and if there are any barriers preventing the employee from reaching their potential within their role. Make sure to go into this conversation with an open mind and leave room for discussions on how to improve in these areas. By addressing quiet quitting behaviors, you can create and action plan to get the employee back on track and identify the individuals who might fall behind.

2. Reaffirm Value of Work and Mission of Your Organization

With the ebb and flow of daily job duties, it can be easy to let time pass without reaffirming your employee’s individual contributions, how those roll up to represent the team and ultimately align with company-wide goals of the organization. Maybe you’ve identified quiet quitters in your organization, or want to take preventive actions, either way, taking time to bring it back to the basics can be an effective use of time. For example, recent McKinsey research findings indicated that when employees feel that their purpose is aligned with the organization’s purpose, it can cause stronger employee engagement, heightened loyalty and a greater willingness to refer others to the company.

Consider how you can work these topics into conversations. For example, you can incorporate meaningful discussions about work into employee one-on-ones and reviews. Additionally, utilize team meetings as a time to discuss your organization’s mission, vision and values to inspire and motivate employees in their daily work. Get your employees actively involved in thinking about how the work they do impacts the organization and the customers your company serves. These exercises can provide clarity to the employee’s perception of their contributions to the team, and reminds them why the work they do is important to others around them.

3. Equip Managers With Tools

Christman’s last piece of advice for senior leadership is to make sure that managers are equipped with the proper tools, data and trainings to address and prevent quiet quitting with their employees. Never underestimate the extremely important role that managers play in building and maintaining company culture. Direct managers have the unique ability to observe employees’ daily workflow, understand their personal motivators and communicate with them more frequently. In fact, a Gallup study found that managers account for up to 70 percent variance in employee engagement.

Providing managers with the understanding of the signs of quiet quitting and giving them an idea of how to handle a quiet quitter can make them more prepared if a situation arises. Additionally, encouraging managers to have open conversations about overall engagement, employee connection to the work and worker burnout, can prevent quiet quitting on teams and increase employee’s purpose and accountability in their role. By supporting your managers, you can create an ecosystem of engagement, and ultimately build a foundation for an engaged, and productive culture at your organization.

Looking for a recruitment partner to help build out your team? Learn more about Hunter’s workforce solutions!

How to Respond When You Lose a Valuable Employee

Losing an employee can be a blow to any business, especially if they are a valuable and crucial member to your team. According to a survey from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, nearly 4.3 million workers left their jobs in May 2022. This staggering number of job departures affected many businesses, large and small, around the U.S.

This mass work transition has been referred to as “The Great Resignation”. During this time, many companies are losing valuable team members and find themselves looking for a retention solution.

When losing a key member of your team, it might be tempting to hope that things go back to normal as the market changes, but there are steps you can consider taking to minimize the impact of losing a valuable worker. Below are four tips you should consider when a top employee leaves your company.

Conduct an Exit Interview

Just like when you hire new employees, you should consider conducting interviews with employees before they depart the company.

When an employee decides to leave a company, it’s important for that person’s manager to make sure that an exit interview takes place. The exit interview is the organization’s opportunity to learn more about what your employee enjoyed working at the company and what they didn’t like during their experience.

Additionally, through exit interviews, you can get specific feedback on what the company needs to improve or change. It’s also helpful to ask questions like:

• How did you feel about your responsibilities?
• What could we have done better?
• Would you recommend this company to your professional network?
• What was the main factor that made you accept another position?

According to Gallup, employees who have a positive exit interview process are 2.9 times more likely to recommend their previous organization to others compared to those who have a bad or nonexistent exit interview process. Conducting this interview not only opens conversations, but also can lead to recommendations of potential candidates if the employee had a positive experience working at your company.

Assess the Reasons of Their Departure and Next Steps

Reflecting on the reasons of a valuable employee’s departure can be important in making the transition to a new reality where the team member is no longer at your organization. Consider asking yourself and other members or your management team these questions:

• Were they underpaid/overworked?
• Were they unhappy with management?
• Did another company attract them with better benefits?
• Are they looking for a new career path?
• Was there a lack of growth and development in their role?

After asking these questions about why the employee left, you may have to think about hiring a replacement. Consider asking yourself these questions so you can save time in the future when it comes to interviewing and onboarding.

• What is the reason for your employee’s departure?
• Is it a good time to hire?
• Are there any candidates internally that might be a fit for this role?
• Do you have the budget to hire?
• What experience is needed for someone to seamlessly transition into this role?

Be Thoughtful About Corporate Communication

Your first concern should be to make sure that you’re honest, transparent and respectful in all communications about your employee’s departure. The tone you use in these communications will reflect the company’s reputation, so it’s important to get it right.

You’ll also want to ensure that any communication is clear and concise, factual (with no embellishment), open-minded and empathetic toward both the exiting employee and those who remain at the company. Having this open communication with other employees on the team can lead to a smoother and amicable transition between both parties. This can also prevent disgruntled feelings from employees that are still employed with your organization.

The last thing you’ll want is for departing employees’ colleagues to feel like they’ve been misled by their claims of leaving on good terms with management, or by vague statements that hint at dissatisfaction without giving specifics. Taking the time to get this communication right can make all the difference for those that remain on the team.

Recruit and Train

The importance of finding and training a replacement as quickly as possible cannot be overstated. In the short term, this will help you minimize the loss of productivity and keep your team on track. In the long term, it will ensure that there are no gaps in operations when you or other team members are gone on personal time.

The best way to prevent a loss in productivity is to hire someone who can step into the employee’s shoes immediately—someone with enough experience and knowledge to step up without needing as much time for training first. However, an individual that immediately hits the ground running may be hard to find. A good place to start is by finding someone who has similar skillsets; then train them so they can take on projects faster and fold into the team more smoothly.

When hiring this replacement, consider asking these questions first:

• Does this person have relevant experience, or will they require training from scratch?
• Are there available and reliable training managers to catch them up to speed?
• Should a mentor be assigned to them?

By hiring and training a replacement quickly, your team can get back to working productively in no time.

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It is important to remember that losing an employee doesn’t mean your company has failed. It means you have a chance to grow and improve as an organization by finding new ways of doing things, hiring new talent and focusing on creating a positive and productive culture.

Looking for quality talent to fill the shoes of previous employees? Contact Hunter to learn more about our talent solutions.