How to Stop the Rise of Quiet Quitting
Gallup recently released their State of the Global Workplace: 2023 Report and we dug into their key findings. We found their executive summary to have an overarching theme: employee engagement. Their report revealed that the majority of the world’s employees are quiet quitting and over half of employees have expressed intent to leave their jobs.
These data points tell a sad story; and it’s time for leaders to do something about it. Employee engagement levels are in major need of attention and we believe that coaching leadership can turn things around. In this article, we’ll share our take on how to address quiet quitting and employee retention—believing that today’s leaders can change the story told in next year’s Gallup report.
Quiet Quitting vs. Loud Quitting
Gallup’s report revealed that globally 59% of employees are quiet quitting while 18% are loud quitting. So what’s the difference? Well it’s basically what it sounds like. Quiet quitting is when an employee is showing up (but barely). They are putting in minimum effort, highly disengaged and likely already burnt out. Loud quitting is when an employee is also highly disengaged and minimally productive but making it known to everyone. This can be especially dangerous to workplace culture and distracting to engaged employees.
How to Address Quiet Quitting and Employee Retention
If 51% of the global workforce has expressed intent to leave their jobs, then it’s safe to assume half of your employees are considering the same. This is not only an engagement issue but also a leadership issue. We have three recommendations for leaders to implement that will help address quiet quitting within their organizations.
Consider your management style. In a 2021 study by Pew, it was reported that 57% of Americans quit their jobs because they felt disrespected. Feelings of disrespect can be rooted in varying causes, but the one area that a leader does have extreme ownership over is how they treat others. Are you acting as the boss or are you partnering with your teammates as someone who wants to see them develop into their best selves? If you adopt the management style of coaching leadership, you’ll become a resource, supporter and overall encouragement to the people you get the privilege of leading. And that’s key to remember—leadership is a privilege. How you show up each day matters. You have widespread impact and how you speak to and treat your employees will directly impact their engagement levels.
Build a Coaching Culture. In Gallup’s report, the three main areas that those who were admittedly quiet quitting said they wanted to see improved were: engagement/culture, pay/benefits and well-being. Pay and benefits are something you can influence even if you can’t solely control it, so be sure to do your part to communicate value to your teammates by discussing compensation increases with the Human Resources department at a decision-making level. But the areas of engagement, culture and well-being are directly tied to your team or organization’s culture—which every leader has the capacity to make or break. At Building Champions, we encourage the leaders we work with to instill a coaching culture, defined as: a deep belief that growing people and growing the organization are interconnected and interdependent. If you truly believe that, then you will become the type of leader who people want to follow. They may still leave your organization, but most often it’ll be because you helped them develop past their role, move forward in their career trajectory and become the person they’ve always wanted to be. When a leader actively invests time, attention and belief in the people they lead, employee engagement levels increase and company cultures become a place of safety, growth and productivity.
Survey your people. If trust is broken or slowly chipping away, then a direct conversation with an employee might not actually go very deep. Of course, a one-on-one conversation is ideal, but if your employee doesn’t believe you’ll actually do anything with what they share, then an anonymous survey might be a good way to hear from those you lead as to what is causing them to disengage. The survey should be conducted by an outside source so that people will truly feel safe enough to give their honest feedback. And then the findings should be discussed at the Leadership Team level so that transformative action is taken. Follow-up with the survey participants and let them know a general summary of results and how your organization is going to address their needs. If your people see you taking active steps toward solving their problems, they too might take active steps toward re-engagement.
Developing a coaching culture is a retention strategy. We’ve partnered with many Chief Human Resources Officers to implement leadership development strategies and coaching throughout their enterprises—and we’ve seen positive results. Of our clients surveyed, 97% said their overall personal well-being has improved since coaching with us and 93% said they believe that coaching has been a good investment of time.
We believe in what we do—because we know it works. And we’d love to partner with your organization to increase your employee engagement levels, help you stop quiet quitting and see your organization develop into a high-producing environment where employees have increased levels of well-being just by participating in your company culture. Reach out—we’re ready to help.
