It’s something of a social media buzz-phrase, but quiet quitting is a phenomenon that may well be taking place in your business.
What is it?
Despite the name, quiet quitting isn’t actually quitting or resigning from your job. Quiet quitting involves refusal to work beyond contracted hours, take on additional work or essentially apply any discretionary effort over and above the core job duties during working hours.
Generally speaking, this is caused by disengagement, low motivation and lack of job satisfaction and this can be caused by a number of things, feeling undervalued, poor work life balance and even burnout.
How do I know if my team members are quiet quitting?
Here are a few things to look out for:
- Team members not putting themselves forward for projects or taks where they would have previously
- Disinterested attitude and less responsive
- Logging off earlier than they previously would have, or arriving later in the morning
- Less willingness to help out colleagues
How can I prevent it?
The good news is that there are lots of things you can do to head off quiet quitting before it starts:
- Get to know your team members – the better you know your people, the easier it is to keep them engaged in work. You’ll know what sort of work motivates them, and on the other hand what work they find boring and demotivating.
- Communicate – make sure lines of communication are open within teams and have regular catch ups to check in and address any changes in behaviour. You could also use employee surveys to more formally assess any issues with engagement
- Think about your work culture – do employees really need to be responding to emails into the evening or early in the morning? Is this expected or just a habit that team members have fallen into.
- Promote wellbeing and rest – ensure your team members are getting adequate rest breaks, taking their annual leave and switching off from work
We know that the battle to keep employee motivated and engaged is an ongoing one and we have a number of strategies that we can support you with. Get in touch via hello@hroverload.co.uk and we can tailor these to your business.